The Post-Partisan Emporium

We Are Not Useful Idiots! Honest injun. We’re not useful idiots here at Contra Corner! We do think, however, that the entire Ukrainian crisis is a Washington-confected con job. And we came to that conclusion without relying on a single scrap of information peddled by Russki propagandists appearing on Strategic Culture Foundation or Zero Hedge. Actually, we thought it up all by our lonesome! Well, we’ll grant we did have a fair amount of help from Google, which insofar as we know works for the CIA, not the Russian SVR (foreign intelligence service). In any event, at the very center of the crisis is the Washington claim that the rule of law and the sanctity of sovereign borders are on the line in Ukraine and that, therefore, Russia must not be allowed to encroach a single inch into sacrosanct Ukrainian territory. That is to say, it is not a matter of America’s national security interest in the precise Ukrainian geography, which happens to lie cheek-by-jowl on Russia’s border, but the ve

The Revolt of the Imagination Part One: Notes on Belbury Syndrome John Michael Greer Maybe it’s true that life really does imitate literature. Over the last week or so, certainly, a detail from one of my favorite works of imaginative fiction played out at least twice in the real world, with microphones live and cameras rolling. I’m thinking here first of German Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach, who promoted vaccine mandates with this bit of fascinating logic:  “No one will be vaccinated against their will; the vaccine mandates will simply lead people, ultimately, to accept voluntary vaccination.”  See if you can find a way to parse those words that makes sense of them. I can tell you already that it doesn’t help to read them in the original German. Then there’s Jen Psaki, spokesflack-in-chief for poor bumbling Joe Biden. She was asked by a reporter at a recent presser about the people, and of course there are a great many of them, who are increasingly worried about the future of the

“Who's On First” remember Bud Abbott & Lou Costello The Aging Viking Some of you may , who were comedians in the late 1940’s and 1950’s. They were famous for the skit “Who's On First”.    Bud:  I got my vaccination. I am now protected from the virus. Lou:  Not me.  No one’s gonna jab a needle in my arm. Bud:  You must. Lou:  Why? Bud:  To protect me. Lou:  From the virus? Bud:  Yes. Lou:  But I thought you said you were vaccinated. Bud:  I am. Lou:  You’re protected? Bud:  Correct. Lou:  From the virus? Bud:  Yes. Lou:  So, I don’t need a vaccination. Bud:  But you do. Lou:  Why? Bud:  To protect me. Lou:  I thought you were vaccinated. Bud:  I am. Lou:  And the vaccination protects you? Bud:  It does. Lou:  So, I don’t need to get vaccinated to protect you because you’re already protected from the virus by the vaccination you already got. Bud:  No, you must get the vaccination to protect me from the virus. Lou:  You mean the vaccination doesn’t work? Bud:  It does work. Lo