Saturday, June 25, 2016

Hey There Georgie Girl!

Was anybody really listening today when George Will announced that he was leaving the Republican party? Does anybody really care? Was sour grapes the color of his tie? Or perhaps the tie was to tight and it matched his completion while he had his childish little hissy fit.

For the last three decades people like Will and the Bush clan thought the Republican party was their exclusive play thing. They were convinced the rank and file voters were so in awe of his erudition and their self proclaimed wisdom, that they would never even entertain moving in any direction other than what was to be found on the pages of National Review or Weekly Standard. No matter how many times these neocon oligarchs betrayed the voters they just had no alternative but to do as they were told.

Then along comes this upstart, this political neophyte Donald Trump and upsets their little apple cart. By the time the likes of George Will, Charles Krauthammer and Bill Kristol were able to see beyond their own hubris and read the the desires and intentions of the rank and file it was just to damn late, for them at least.

Their shifting loyalties from Bush to Rubio to Cruz made them look even more like the power grasping assholes that the voters had already figured out they are. Worse yet for these eliteist snobs was the sudden realization that they don't really own the party and they couldn't just pick up their ball and go home like a spoiled elementary school child.

Except apparently for George Will, who apparently still thinks he has some legion of followers waiting for his next pronouncement to decide what to do. Here's a hint for you George. If that were true you wouldn't be in the position you are, because so far the public's reaction to your decleration can be summed up as "George who?"

Perhaps there is some good to come from his departure. It could also indicate that he and his ilk have recognized the futility of still trying to engineer some underhanded crap in Cleveland. Maybe he's figured out it would better to be absent and forgotten than absent and dispised.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Nothing Has Changed Except The Body Count.

I wrote the following posts five years ago. Sadly neither the pathetic excuses for inaction nor the dangerous moral relativism have changed. Just the body count.

Unless Of Course We Lose...

In order to understand the status of the conflict between Jihadist Islam and the West in general, one must first define the term enemy and how the juxtaposition as enemies comes about. At the present stage of the conflict there can be little doubt that it was these elements of Islam that declared the West to be their enemy, and had been engaged it committing act of war long before all but a very few bothered to take their actions seriously. Historically the argument could be made that the conflict goes back for nearly a millennium, having it roots in Moorish conquest and subsequent expulsion from Spain and Portugal and the conflicts with the Ottoman Turks in the Balkans.

The attitude of many practitioners of Islam is that once Islam conquers an area or nation its inhabitants have no further right to reassert themselves and reclaim their lands. Their only choices being to convert, pay the tax for not converting or die. That this is a complete anathema to Judeo-Christian Western civilization is an argument that should not even need to be made.

It is the Jihadists who have defined the alternatives as either our destruction or theirs. When a group or nation has declared itself to be your enemy, wages war against you, kills your soldiers and civilians and neither shows or expresses any inclination to negotiate except as a means to gain a position of political or military advantage from which to wage further war, WHAT CHOICE TO YOU HAVE BUT TO WAGE WAR AGAINST THEM AND KILL THEM AS EXPEDIENTLY AS POSSIBLE?

It is they who have declared us to be their enemy and waged war against the west. The time for turning the other cheek has long since passed but sadly our politicians lack the courage to wage total war as was done in WWII. As ugly as they are, wars are not won by negotiating from a weak or defensive position. Wars are won by killing the enemy and destroying their ability and will to continue the fight, leading to either their total destruction or their coming to the negotiating table from a weak and defensive position.

That is a lesson the history has taught a thousand times, but the moral relativists just won’t or don’t want to see it applied to this conflict.

No reasoned Westerner would define all Moslems as bad. But I must reiterate it is the Jihadist ‘s interpretation of Islam that has declared war against us and defined our status as non-Moslem as justification. I have heard no declarations of a need or desire to kill Moslems in the name of Christ, yet the opposite is the battle cry of the Jihadists. Neither the US nor any Western nation has declared that the desired end of conducting war against Jihadist Islam or the dismantling of Saddam Hussein’s tyranny in Iraq was their conversion to Christianity. Again the same cannot be said of the Jihadists.

To the Jihadists the absence of status as a Moslem or failure to adhere to their interpretation of Islam is the definition of the loss of innocence. But for the moral relativists the problem is one of “lack of understanding.” If there was such a thing as a Neville Chamberlain award they would win it hands down.

Putting forth the Crusades as an argument or justification is disingenuous at best. No one could rationally argue that Christianity as practiced today is the same as it was practiced in the 1100’s. The same cannot be said for Islam. Christianity went through a reformation and has evolved in its interpretation and practice. The inquisition is an historical fact but it is not an ongoing practice. Again the same cannot be said of Islam.

The supposition and expounding on only parts of the story of Christianity is what is dangerous. Twisting half-truths as the whole story is far more dangerous than lies cut from whole cloth. The spread of Christianity’s through most of the Mediterranean and Roman world came about because Emperor Constantine came to realize that it had grown to become a force he could no longer reckon with. Stories of his “miraculous” conversion not withstanding it became more a matter of “if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em.”

If Christianity then became a means through which he could exert control of the Empire so be it. He was a Roman Emperor after all. Rome had a long history of tolerance for the religions of conquered nations. It was only when the corruption of the likes of Nero, Caligula and Claudius wrought havoc upon the Roman economy that the Christians became the targets of convienience persecution and the scapegoats for the consequences of Imperial excess. Yet it continued to grow, leading to Constantine’s momentous decision.

Neither the excess’s nor shortcomings, successes or failures of the Bush administration are relevant to the issue. The Jihadists were at war with us before he came to office and will still be at war with us when Obama is gone, unless and until we address it as an issue of total war rather than one of “proportional response” or criminal acts, or as long as there are those in power who view the world through rose colored glasses or through a lens of political correctness or moral relativism.

To do so is to venture into the realm of the absurd. As stated one of the root causes of the aggression is because we are not Moslems. We should no more waste time and effort trying to ‘understand’ them than one should try to reason with a rapist. When faced with kill or be killed, you kill or you get killed. Even if one could reason with them or ‘understand’ their motive do you honestly think that it would change their tactics or murderous intent? To me that answer seems a pretty clear and unambiguous no.

So then getting back to the Jihadists, it’s not a matter of invasion or conquest, it’s a matter of destroying their will to fight. Look at the air campaign in the 1st gulf war. The Iraqi army's will to fight was destroyed before the first tank crossed the border.

My personal ideas or suggestions not withstanding are strategic not tactical. Just as in WWII if we knew the Germans or Japanese were using a particular town or city as a marshalling area or production center we bombed the crap out of it and civilian casualties were not of paramount concern. The object was to destroy the enemy’s ability and will to fight. We didn’t fight the war with one hand tied behind our back. When Truman made the decision to drop the a-bomb on Japan it was not out of some blood lust it was a calculated decision as the quickest way to end the war with the fewest further casualties on both sides.

To those who would choose not to accept the cogency of such an arguments, or would so easily dismiss it as vague or just plain wrong, that is of course their right and I might argue obligation. But with such rejection comes another obligation, one to propose your own course of action. The difference between the Germans of the WWII era and the Jihadist of today is that Germans at least had a rational fear of death and a semblance of what would become of their posterity. The Jihadists do not possess either of these. Hence their repeated call that they “love death” more than we “love life”. It is not possible to reason with the irrational. How else can we conclude otherwise than that if they are so in love with death that they will not stop until we give it to them?

The murdering rapist is in YOUR house, what are you going to do? As I asked at the very beginning: WHAT OTHER CHOICE DO WE HAVE? If you can’t or won’t answer that question with a viable solution that has a reasonable expectation of success, then what place do you really have in the argument, other than as a victim?



The Psychological Disconnect Of The Petrol Dollar.

Whether you are among those that consider the jihadists to be “terrorists,” or are among those who consider US foreign policy to be “terrorism” in its own right, or at the least is the source or cause of terrorism, has become quite irrelevant at this point of the conflict. Once one enters into the quasi-mystic world of moral and cultural relativism, all connections to logic, reason and historical precedent get left behind. This is how and when this particular form of political correctness becomes an obstacle to understand and addressing the clash of cultures between the West and Islam.

If one were to listen to much of the Arab and Islamic world and it defenders in the West, the source of the West’s “crime” against Islam has been our mere presence in the region, infidel boots desecrating the “sacred ground” of Islam. Since the dawn of time stronger nations have been influencing and manipulating if not conquering weaker ones as an instrument of foreign policy for their own benefit. How then is Western colonialism any different than the Moor’s occupation of Spain or the Ottoman Turk’s conquest of Greece and the Balkans? It’s not that there is anything inherently wrong with the concept of taking pride in a national or cultural identity. The problems arise when the element of religious fervor spills over into becoming a moral justification for an irrational blood lust exercised in the name of the supremacy one concept of “god” over another.

Such is of course the greatest of human weaknesses and failings over the centuries and indeed the hardest to overcome. “My god is better than your god.” “Worship my god, my way or be put to the sword or burned at the stake … etc… etc.” For much of the Arab world and particularly among the extremists elements, it is not just the presence of the “infidel” on their sacred soil, be it for whatever reason, that creates the offence, but that a modern world of advanced technology, mass and instantaneous communication, Western culture, be it in whatever form, automobiles, music, movies, television and now the internet have infiltrated and corrupted the desired static “purity” of their would be medieval 8th century societies.

Irrespective of whatever may be the foreign policy machinations of our governments, I’d think that most Westerners would be more than glad to limit our dealings with that part of the world to simply buying their oil at whatever price and wash our hands of most all the rest of it. Sadly the world of economic interaction does not work that way. The accumulation of all those petro-dollars does the recipients little good if they can’t in turn further exchange them for some other more tangible goods or services.   Therein lays the rub, the source of the conflict. How can the Arab street aspire to maintain some ethereal and static 8th century cultural “purity” and at the same time desire all those technological innovations that are the epitome of, the very manifestation of the Western capitalist and cultural system? Under what paradigm can they benefit from interaction with and indeed absorption of these elements of Western culture and at the same time hope to remain apart and uninfluenced by it? Is there not some failure of logic, some rational disconnect in blogging on some jihadist web site that calls for the death of the great Satan and the imposition of Sharia law on the West and at the same time using the fruits and benefits of Western technology in complaining about the corruption of Islamic culture by influences of this same Western technology?

We are left then to assume that the desired interpretation of Arab and/or Islamic cultural “purity” would be one where children are seen but not heard, where women are neither seen nor heard, and the delusion that the intellectual liberation that comes from the exposure to a myriad of sources of information and influences from outside a previously closed society, is a genie that can and should be forced back into the bottle via the instruments of violent religious fervor, and failing that, at the point of a gun.

The fact remains that in spite of their adherence to tribalism, narrow moralistic interpretations and tolerating elitist, corrupt leadership structures, those Arab states floating in petro-dollars enjoy some of the highest standards of living in the world. At the same time these so-called sovereign states remain xenophobic in the extreme. They import the vast majority of their labor force to both, build, maintain and operate the means of exploiting their oil resources and to build the fabulous modern architectural infrastructures they now enjoy. They then keep their hired help largely confined to enclaves, kept separate from Arab society in general.

All this new found wealth has led to a considerable percentage of the native populations to have transitioned from the camel to the Corvette, from the goat herd to the art collection, and from living in tents into living in luxury high rise condos, and thus becoming, if not the idle rich, at least the idle well to do. Doing so absent any history of their fathers and their father’s fathers working hard, saving and sacrificing to provide for their progeny’s future and to build the society and the benefits they now enjoy. Deprived of the Western model of a generational economic, social and cultural evolution they find themselves, quite understandably in a state of culture shock, weather they want to admit it or not. How else then does one interpret Islamic families immigrating to the West to create a better life for their families and then turning around and slaughtering their wives and daughters for the cultural crimes of becoming “too Westernized,” or refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, or dating a non-Muslim, absent this contention of culture shock or a psychological disconnect in reason or logic? 

In the West the transformation and growth of the middle class into widespread economic affluence took place over generations and decades if not centuries, driven by advances in technology and the governmental systems that grew out of the enlightenment. The accompanying changes and normalizations in social mores and attitudes about class and religious differentiations were slower to develop, take root and gain general social acceptance, often only after a great deal of social turmoil and conflict. A shorter-term example would be the contentious evolution of the American civil right struggle. A longer-term example would be the protracted and violent conflict brought about by the Protestant Reformation. The point being, that changes in social attitudes do eventually catch up with the economic changes that drove them, but it takes time and generations.

In the oil states of the Arab world, when measured against the Western example, this economic transformation has been revolutionary rather than evolutionary and has taken place in a virtual blink of the eye. There has been no generational time frame to allow for any gradual changes in the social attitudes to catch up to the implications of this economic revolution. This retardation of changes in social attitudes catching up to the economic changes has been exacerbated both by the absence of any underlying long-standing traditions of individual liberty and self-reliance as found in the West and the continuance of adhering to tribalism and narrowly constructed moralisms as defense mechanisms against the social implications of an irreversible economic revolution. It is emotional discomfort of this embedded culture shock and psychological disconnect from reason and logic that has become the fertile ground of Islamic nihilism and its demagogic practitioners. And we have been reaping the whirlwind of their corruption for the last 30 years.

Now throw in the added pressure of rapid inflation in food prices and you not only ignite the fires of even more social unrest, you further accentuate the contradiction with one of the most basic and universal of human desires, one that knows no borders or states; the desire to lead a better life than your parents, to provide a better existence for your children and grandchildren than you had yourself. Clearly the Arab and Islamic world has a lot of catching up to do. The questions becomes not ones of if it will be tumultuous and violent but ones of how much of that tumult and violence is the West responsible for, how much of it will spill over into the rest of the world and how deeply will the West get drawn into it while acting in its own self-defense.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

The 50th Victim...

At the rate that the revelations of sheer incompetence and politically correct madness are coming out in the wake of the Orlando slaughter, the latest and hopefully last victim will be Hillary Clinton's Presidential campaign.

First we got the revelation that the father of this monster was an open supporter of the Taliban who had spoken with members of the Clinton State Dept. on at least one occasion. Next we get the news that the shooter had been interviewed by the FBI on three occasions which apparently concluded that his particular derangement didn't constitute any threat to the public. Now it has been revealed that during Hillary's tenure as Sec. of State an investigation of the Mosque he attended had been ordered shut down by said State Dept. because it was considered undue "racial profiling".

And still President Obama and Hillary Clinton prefer playing foolish semantic games over what the definition of "radical Islamic terrorism" is and blame guns rather than take any concrete action to address the slaughter and actually protect the public.

Donald Trump was exactly correct when he said that Democrats can't claim to be protectors of gay rights and women's rights while at the same time continuing to facilitate unfettered immigration of people from place that are by their very nature openly hostile to both.

Sadly, at the rate that Islamic violence is occurring, this will not be the last incident of mass murder in the name of Islam before the election in November. Nor will it be the last time Obama and Hillary will make pathetic excuses for the murderous results of their feckless policy. Hopefully come November, it will be the last we shall have to endure of either of them on the American political stage.

More Unsurprising Revelations

In days following any horrific act such as happened in Orlando there are a string of speculations and revelations about the perpetrator concerning their mental stability, sexual proclivities and or FBI complicity and or incompetence.

It was quickly revealed that this particular piece of dirt was of Afghan decent and that his father was a outspoken supporter of the Afghan Taliban. This raises the question of if this was known why wasn't he expelled in the days and weeks after the 9-11 attacks. That he wasn't and his son subsequently became radicalized as well should surprise no one.

This piece of human garbage had already been accused by his ex-wife that he was physically  abusive. Today it was revealed by investigators that he had visited the scene of his crime numerous times and that he had used gay dating web sites and had attempted to get a former room mate to go out with him. His ex has further stated that she thought he was gay.

This all is compounded by the FBI's own revelation that it had twice investigated him because fellow workers and associates reported him as having made claims about having contacts with radical groups and, praised the 9-11 attacks and made threatening comments. Due to pressure from Obama administration officials no doubt, the FBI concluded that those reporting him were simply "racial profiling" and that this was another case of "nothing to see here, move along". So when is the agent or agents (or Attorney General) responsible for such a horrendous conclusion going to be fired and stripped of their pension?

As concerned citizens we must ask ourselves and our public officials: Are there any dots to be connected here and where do they lead?

It is little discussed but widely know that the sexual abuse of young children, especially young boys is widely practiced in much of the Islamic world of South Central Asia. A practice that probably predates even Alexander the Great. Further there have been reports that DoD officials had instructed direct field commanders in Afghanistan to ignore incidents of child rape because it is a "cultural issue". Are these people insane? Recently a US Special Forces soldier was finally reinstated to duty after he had been Court Martialed for beating the crap out of an Afghan officer who he had caught rapeing a young boy.

Can there be any but little doubt that given the Orlando Slaughterer's father's Taliban sympathies that he also "culturally" raped and abused his own son? That abused boy, then grew up in a nation where the very nature of his upbringing was regarded as criminal and subject to the heaviest of penalties of law. Can there be any doubt that this contributed to the sexual confusion and mental imbalance that led to such a horrific end?

Under such circumstances how can anyone of legal or moral authority continue to tell us that Islam is a religion of peace, or that we should not slam the door shut to the entrance of any more individuals for whom this kind of moral depravity is to be regarded as normal or a "cultural issue" beyond consideration in making rational decisions of national security?

Sunday, June 12, 2016

More Workplace Violence....

Somehow, someway the Obama administration and the Clinton campaign will try and spin the South Florida Slaughter as something, anything other than an act of irrational Islamic violence. In fact the spin has already begun with media talking heads trotting out the killer's father saying that his son was outraged after seeing two men kissing in public a few weeks or days previously. Of course they don't mention that his inspiration for his violent reaction came straight out of his Islamic upbringing. Because of course we all know that Islam is a "religion of peace" and that as a first generation American he was of course completely integrated and assimilated into America's culture of tolerance and respect.

Some how I don't think the spin Drs. are going to succeed no matter how many RPMs they put on it. This horrendous incident is going to get juxtapositioned with the story that the Obama administration is admitting at least a hundred unvetted "Syrians" every single day.

I would surmise that Trump's speech writers are busily doing a major revision right now and are going to hang this albatros so tightly around Hillary's neck that that there will be little if any chance of her wiggling loose, and the further into the campaign we get the more the rot and stench of that dead carcass will become. Hillary will be on permanent defence and even her offensive lobs won't be able to clear the wall and even if they do they will fall far short of effective range.

Hopefully Trump will open his speech on Monday with a call for prayers for the dead and wounded, their families and friends who will still be in shock and mourning. They will be asking how this happened and who is responsible for giving a radicalised Muslim a security licence and firearm permit. Then Mr. Trump is going to lay the blame squarely at Hillary's and Obama's feet for all to see.

Hillary is finished, kaput. So are the Democrats. It's even to late to try and trot out drunken old Joe Biden as an alternative because as VP he is as up to his neck in this as much as Hillary and Obama.

The desperation inside the Clinton campaign and the White House must be palpable. I don't live in DC but I'd almost bet that the stench of fear can be smelled from outside the fence. Hiding on a golf course on Martha's Vineyard won't be far enough away for Obama to escape the anger and fear.

As I've said before I'd look to see Obama to step back and let the DoJ convene a grand jury then grant Hillary a full blanket pardon, the resign with just enough time for a President Biden to pardon Obama and the they all skip off to Dubai or the UAEto, someplace, anyplace with no extradition treaty, to hide in some multi million dollar condo haunted by the ghost of Idi Amin.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Of Course Only White People Can Be Racists.

The latest skirmish surrounding the phoneyed up class action suit against Donald Trump has brought out the hypocrites in full force.

Trump's questioning the impartiality of the Hispanic Judge presiding over the case is certainly reasonable given the circumstances. Besides the below list, since when is anyone's credibility beyond question just because of their particular ethnic heritage?

1. Both the judge's parents were born in Mexico.
2. Controlling ILLEGAL immigration is, like it or not the leading issue in this year's contest.
3. The Judge is a member of and linked to La Raza organization.
4. The law firm representing the plaintiffs is linked to the same organization.
5. One of the members of the firm was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison for driving up phony class action suits.
6. This same firm has funneled some $650,000 into the Clinton slush fund via paid speeches.
7. Judge Curiel is an Obama appointee, like Justice Sotomayor who has openly stated that ethnicity “may and will make a difference in our judging.”

The direct translation of La Raza is "The Race". Just how stupid does one have to be not to see that by definition this is a racist organization? That virtually every stripe of left winger and a good number of alleged Republicans are trying to tell us it's not or that its members when placed in positions of power can or will just magically abandon their bias is not just absurd it is a bald faced lie that a ten year old could see through.

There was a time that when it came to the Justice system, that not even the appearance of bias or impropriety on the part of a sitting judge was cause for recusal, but apparently that is one more legal standard that has been thrown out the window by this administration and its lackeys.

That asshats like Paul Ryan have jumped on the "That's racist" bandwagon just goes to show how bogus his so-called support for Trump is. Ryan is just another stinking RINO neocon political hack.

I doubt that Trump is going to back down at this point. I'm sure he has resources digging into every speech Judge Curiel had made and every decision he has rendered. If there is anything to be found they will find it. 

This is not Trump's or his lawyer's first time dealing with this kind of crap.  And so far thier record of prevailing in these kinds of gold digging law suits is on par if not better than his record for establishing successful businesses. 

Truth be known this is not about finding "justice" for the complaints, it's about slinging mud, creating political distraction and making money for a bunch of questionable Shylocks.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Madness Knocks On The Door And The EU Says "Come On In!"

I have long since lost count of the number of times that I have definitively linked the methods, goals and evils of Islam and the Nazis and I'm not going to repeat any of them here. However today's speech by Turkish dictator (I won't dignify him with the title of President) ought to send chills down the spine of anyone with the least bit of common sense. Erdogan in particular and the Islamists in general look upon Europe as ravenous wolves, with the same lust and greed as Hitler and the Nazi had when they looked upon Poland and the western expanses of the Soviet Union. They have no intention of being turned back at the Gates of Vienna this time.

Not seperated at birth but reborn again.

The primary justification the Nazis gave for their agressions against Poland and Russia was Germany 's need for greater living space, "Lebensraum". One of the factors that drove this murderous greed was the terms of the Russian capitulation to the Central Powers in 1918.

Under The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Russia ceded the Baltic States to Germany, the Kars Oblast in the south Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire and declared Belorussia and Ukraine to be independent nations. The future of Poland was not mentioned in the treaty nor were any Polish representatives allowed in the negotiations. Though not mentioned the clear intent was that Austria-Hungary and Germany would divide between them the formerly Russian districts in a forth partition of Poland.

The treaty of course was largely made void by the German capitulation in November of the same year, the Versailles Treaty and the outcome of the Russian Civil War, with one notable exception. Even after the dissection of the Ottoman Empire the Turks retained the Kars Oblast and adjacent areas that now make up northeastern Turkey.

While the Baltic States became independent albeit but for a brief twenty years, Belorussia and especially Ukraine found themselves on the losing end of the Russian Civil War and suffered the horrible consequences of Stalin's wrath in the Holodomor and the Great Terror.
The details of how Hitler's failure in dealing with and her people can be e found elsewhere. Simply summed up they at first created the Wehrmacht as liberators but Hitler then quickly treated them as just another occupied nation. His desire for revenge and greed for land blinded him to any other potential. So the Ukrainians turned on him as vicious and effective Partisans.

To tie this back into my opening contention and present circumstances: the population of those regions of the Caucasus seized from Russia by the Turks in 1918 were at the time over 20% Armenian Christians. Many of them soon fell into the gaping maw of the ongoing Ottoman genocide of Armenians and other Christians within Ottoman control. By the time it was done some 1.5 million Armenians were marched into the Syrian desert to die of starvation and thirst.

It doesn't take a genius to see from his actions and words that Erdogan seeks to restore the Ottoman Empire and to make himself the Calif of a new Islamic supremacy. Neither does take a genius that his jailing of his own citizen for so-called infraction such as "insulting the President" ad Gestapo like and his call for Muslim family's to breed like rabbits is a parallel to the Nazi Lebensborn program, which was an adjunct to Lebensraum, were young Aryan girls were housed and fed and repeatedly bred with young Aryan boys to produce babies to populate the occupied territories.

Like conquerors have done for centuries Erdogon drives the refugees into the face of the enemy to clog their logistics and impede their defenses. He then uses the flood to blackmail the EU into removing visa restrictions and paying him bribes. Hitler followed the refugee flood with shock troops. Erdogan and the Islamists mix theirs in with the refugees to work as 5th columnists to attack from the inside.

So far much of the EU's reaction has not been to resist the invasion but to welcome this new Hitler with open arms. Whether Europe can, will or even deserves to survive the insanity of their leaders remains to be seen.