“War is the health of the State,” Ralph Bourne once wrote.

And by the looks of what Congress has just done, it seems just that.

Kevin McCarthy must be laughing his ass off. What was the point of getting rid of him when his replacement was weaker?

Mike Johnson was supposed to be the man who’d lead the Republicans back to the promised land. However, his worldview changed after a meeting with the CIA. Oh, I bet it did, Mike!

“Ukraine is a core interest for Moscow in a way that it is not for the United States.” Remember who said that?

Barack Obama.

Then again, maybe he didn’t know Hunter Biden was an alleged CIA asset.

$95 Billion Today

From Bloomberg:

The US House passed $61 billion in fresh aid for Ukraine on Saturday, ending a six-month political impasse during which Kyiv’s stockpiles dwindled in its war against Russia.

The Ukraine aid will be combined with funding for Israel and Taiwan, for a foreign assistance package totaling $95 billion.

Speaker Mike Johnson worked with Democrats and overcame fierce objections from within his own party to funding Ukraine, ultimately pushing that legislation to passage on a 311 to 112 bipartisan vote.

“We did our work here and history will judge us well,” Johnson said after the vote.

I never trust anyone who says anything about “history” judging them well. How the heck can they know?

All this means is that this war will be dragged out, and more Ukrainians will be sent to the meatgrinder. It’s a human catastrophe.

At least Johnson was transparent about this: his son is entering Annapolis this autumn, and he wants his kid out of this conflict.

From CNN:

To put it bluntly, I would rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys. My son is going to begin in the Naval Academy this fall. This is a live-fire exercise for me as it is so many American families. This is not a game; this is not a joke.

And what did Johnson’s meeting with the CIA entail?

Again, from CNN:

And more recently, Johnson received a key intelligence briefing from CIA Director Bill Burns, who painted a picture of the dire situation on the battlefield in Ukraine and the global consequences of inaction, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation. The briefing left a lasting impression, and Johnson became increasingly convinced the fate of Western democracy was on his shoulders, sources close to him said.

Just what we need: another politician with a God Complex.

Captured Congress

Look at this goddamned disgrace.

Credit: @Sorenthek

Heck, I’m not even an American citizen anymore, and I’m wondering why Congress Creatures are waving Ukrainian flags in an official US building.

It’s beyond the pale.

Tucker Carlson was on Joe Rogan’s podcast recently and had this to say about the Congress Creatures, courtesy of Zero Hedge:

People don't say that because they're worried about being punished. They’re worried about someone putting kiddie porn on their computer. Members of Congress are terrified of the intel agencies. I'm not guessing at that. They've told me that — including people on the intel committee, including people who run the intel committee.

…

It’s playing out in front of everyone, and no one cares and no one does anything about it. Carlson said.

I think the reason is because they’re threatened. And if you look at the committee chairman who allowed this shit to happen year after year, they’re all - and I don’t know, people say, ‘Oh, they’re compromised or being blackmailed,’ whatever. I don’t have evidence of that. But I know them. And they have all the things to hide. I know that for a fact.

It’s not a stretch of the imagination to imagine that, you know, some committee chairman who’s allowing warrantless spying on Americans to continue, or whatever abuse they’re allowing... It’s not impossible to imagine that some guy with a drinking problem or a weird sex life — and that’s very common, very common up there — that’s why they’re doing it. Because they don’t want to be exposed.

…

I said to somebody, a very powerful person, the other day, in a conversation in my kitchen, an elected official - holds a really senior position...

But I was like, ‘All these people are controlled. They’ve all got weird s*x lives, and all these things they’re hiding, and they’re being blackmailed by the intel agencies.’

And he said, and I’m quoting, ‘I know.’ I was like, okay, so at this point, we’re just sort of admitting that’s real? Like, why do we allow that to continue?”

Knowing this, it’s really easy to see why so many Congress Creatures vote against the national interest.

Empire Abroad, Tyranny at Home

In Murray Rothbard’s masterful essay, “War, Peace, and the State,” he writes:

We cannot leave our topic without saying at least a word about the domestic tyranny that is the inevitable accompaniment of war. The great Randolph Bourne realized that "war is the health of the State." It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society. Society becomes a herd, seeking to kill its alleged enemies, rooting out and suppressing all dissent from the official war effort, happily betraying truth for the supposed public interest. Society becomes an armed camp, with the values and the morale – as Albert Jay Nock once phrased it – of an "army on the march."

The root myth that enables the State to wax fat off war is the canard that war is a defense by the State of its subjects. The facts, of course, are precisely the reverse. For if war is the health of the State, it is also its greatest danger. A State can only "die" by defeat in war or by revolution. In war, therefore, the State frantically mobilizes the people to fight for it against another State, under the pretext that it is fighting for them. But all this should occasion no surprise; we see it in other walks of life. For which categories of crime does the State pursue and punish most intensely – those against private citizens or those against itself? The gravest crimes in the State's lexicon are almost invariably not invasions of person and property, but dangers to its own contentment: for example, treason, desertion of a soldier to the enemy, failure to register for the draft, conspiracy to overthrow the government. Murder is pursued haphazardly unless the victim be a policeman, or Gott soll hüten, an assassinated Chief of State; failure to pay a private debt is, if anything, almost encouraged, but income tax evasion is punished with utmost severity; counterfeiting the State's money is pursued far more relentlessly than forging private checks, etc. All this evidence demonstrates that the State is far more interested in preserving its own power than in defending the rights of private citizens.

Wrap Up

Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan all get prizes from the US Treasury this week.

The American people better have paid their taxes on April 15, as that’s how those other countries get paid.

And if not by tax, then by inflation, as the Fed will have to print money to make up for any shortfalls.

The only escape is to look out for yourself and generate the highest returns possible. Voting harder will do nothing for you.