Rattling the Cage Doors

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

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Totalitarian regimes create people who find a way to get around them.

In the Soviet Union there was the famous Soviet joke, the only one of which I remember is: The agricultural inspector came to the collective farm, and asked how the potato harvest had gone.  The secretary of the cooperative assured him, “We produced so many potatoes, they’ll reach the knees of G-d.”  To which the bureaucrat snapped, “There is no G-d.” And the secretary said, “The same with potatoes.”

There is also the anecdote that during the Roman Empire, when the emperor ordered a certain courtier to commit suicide (an order that if refused ended in execution and expropriation of the heirs) the courtier did so, but left his will, to be read in public, listing all the various lewd amusements and gross injustices that the Emperor had committed, thereby ruining his reputation.

You see, any curtailment of free speech doesn’t actually silence people. It leads people to communicate in other ways.  Which can mean the “rulers” having no clue of what is actually going on in people’s minds because they’re not in on the joke — few of them would understand they’re the joke — and don’t see the communication taking place.

IMHO part of the reason for the increasingly paranoid behavior of the left is that they know there is communication going on but they don’t understand it/know what we’re saying.  They just have the impression that we’re getting restive, and they don’t fully get it. Even though they obviously should.

Look, yeah, the first amendment still protects our speech. And yes, I know the first amendment only protects our speech from the government.  But in the year of our Lord 2019 we also know for sure that if you say the wrong thing you could find yourself fired, your reputation destroyed, your family threatened, your career a thing of the past. It’s not exactly by the government — though remember that poor schmo dragged in for the movie The Innocence of Muslims whom no one had watched and which Obama decided to blame for the 9/11/12 Embassy attack? — but by the Marxist Hydra which encompasses various power structures: the government bureaucracy, the media, entertainment, a lot of rich people and what’s known as the “movers and shakers.”

This btw has happened for a long time, at least in my field, (and in a lot of others). But it was impossible to get word out, and anyone who managed it was disbelieved.

Now, of course we know we’re not alone. We also know the limits to our speech.  And we’re of course told things like “free speech doesn’t cover hate speech” which is what is technically known as bullshit, since no one ever needed a right to free speech to say that butterflies are pretty and ice cream tastes delicious.  Or for that matter to echo the things the controllers of media and social media want you to say.

And of course, the left, knowing the game is up and we can see them, has dropped all the masks and has gone to naked aggression and force.  Daft and naked aggression and force. I guess all out of touch would be elites, in their terminal state seem to get a little … odd.

The problem is that for decades, in many ways they had this thing called “Absolute power.” For decades our Marxists had full control over the media, full control over publishing, full control over entertainment, full control over the bureaucracy behind the government, full control of a lot of our judicial system, full control–  It turns out, after all that we’ve been saying it all wrong.  It’s not Absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is, in fact Absolute control of the means of communication dumbs you down infinitely.

Until you think your sh*t don’t stink and if you refuse to impose consequences on other leftists everyone will be fine with that. They are after all leftists and therefore above the law.

So the left, not knowing any history but Marx and his paler (and let’s face it, being German, he was pale enough) and dumber imitators like Howard Zinn, think the way to secure full control — again. They liked it, see — is to keep tightening their fist.

Instead they should look to Hong Kong (and ooh, boy, they hate Hong Kong. They want to be left to felate the PRC’s bloody … organ in peace) and learn that when you tighten hard enough, the people become like water, be it in confrontation or in words. They flow over and around you.  And they get angry.

The signs are already here. We’re learning.  The left is teaching us.  A man with an overcoat is an enemy.

Or in this case, a man — or woman — in the control of the left is the enemy.

I hope you boys and girls are telling the polls what they want to hear.  (Bats eyelashes) “Why Mr. Poll taker, I can’t wait to vote Trump out of office.  I’m all for Biden/Warren/Harris/Mayor Pete/ Bernie Sanders [gargles with mouth wash, followed by sheep dip]/Tulsi/Bloombug/the rest of the clown car.”  That is a form of (real, not their imagined bullshit) resistance, because you’re messing with their knowledge of how many votes to manufacture. We must beat the margin of fraud. And we know they’re going to fraud like nobody’s business.

Then there is…  well…. you know, we’re not allowed to say the name of Mr. C * aramella.  Because he’s totally not the whistleblower that Schiffty claims not to know. (Rolls eyes.  Yeah, bud, we’re dumb. Pull the other leg. It plays jingle bells. Bake me an Italian caramel cake, you tax-sucker.)

And then there is, amazingly, joyously the fact that:

Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself.

It’s an act of civil disobedience, and it’s everywhere. And I’ve seen people complain they’re tired of the meme. Or try to be rational and go “but the hyoid bone can be broken if you hang yourself if you’re over sixty and–”

People…  I doubt very few of us care how the famed sex-trafficker died. Though I must tell you it stinks to high heaven for a millionaire who is known to have dirt with everyone and who ran possibly the largest and most high-reaching sex ring with underage girls in the world to “kill himself” in prison while both guards are asleep and the camera is disabled.  Because you know, there are only so many coincidences we will swallow.

We also know — know for an absolute fact — that the media is not only trying to whitewash the whole thing, but also trying to hustle it out of sight as fast as possible, with the cooperation of most of the agents and agencies of the law who are SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING FOR US.

It begins with what Epstein was and what he did. Back int he early two thousands I heard of Bill Clinton and flights in the Lolita Express leaving out of Mena airport in Arkansas. Dark mutterings of young girls and drug traffic. And all the time, all the time I thought “Right-wing fever swamps. I guess we have nutters too. Because if that were happening, involving someone who later became president, there’s no way it wouldn’t have come out. Everyone would know.”

Well, dear fever swamps, I want to apologize to you. You were right, I was wrong. It turns out the Lolita Express was flying and Bill Clinton was part of the party and no one NO ONE, not one man jack in the main stream media thought this news worthy? NOT ONE. The Omerta held it as silent as they held Obama’s grades or what courses he actually took in college, or how he got to be president of Harvard Law Review without ever publishing a single thing.

Now, how do you expect me to laugh when someone says all leftist politicians are lizard-beings from Ganymede? HOW can I say that’s insanity because someone would know and report it? They might know, indeed, but they wouldn’t report it. Not on leftists. (And to be fair mad uncle Bernie does look like a reptiloid. Oh, my bad. He’s just a communist. After a while it starts showing in their features.)

And we’ve seen things that just ten years ago I’d have thought were insane: we’ve seen Hillary pardoned for crimes that would have sent anyone else with her clearance to prison. We’ve seen open conspirators and liars disporting themselves in the limelight and get not even a slap on the wrist. Instead they get lucrative book deals for books that everyone knows will sell three copies. We’ve seen a former president bug a rival’s campaign, and try to discredit the rival with a fake dossier, and yet remain free, rich and revered (though not by the left who now are trying to convince us he was a conservative. No sale, guys, that baby with the bright red diaper is ALL yours. Kiss him on the puss and call him daddy. You own him.) We’ve seen now two attempts to take the president down on fake accusations and fake “evidence” with full complicity of the media. We’ve seen the President’s executive orders countermanded by judges out of podunk who never said “Bah” to a single one of Obama’s use of pen and phone, no matter how outrageous.

We’ve seen you try to impeach the president because Joe Biden is corrupt.

And what’ seen can’t be unseen.

Here, I’ll decode for you, hard of hearing leftists: Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself, means “We can see you there behind the curtain.  You’re not a great wizard. You’re not a medium size wizard. You’re just corrupt little leftists swollen in your own importance.  AND WE SEE YOU.  AND WE SEE THROUGH YOU.”

You thought you had us locked safe and tight, didn’t you? You’re trying so hard to slam the door on us. Bless your little rotten hearts. But Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself is the measure of how you can’t control us. It’s the sound of prisoners rattling the cage bars, faster and faster in a crescendo rhythm.

You’ve seen enough prison movies to know how that ends, right?

You poor sons (and daughters. must not discriminate) of bitches. You thought you could cage Americans? You thought you could control our words? You thought you could confine our thoughts? You thought you were OUR betters?

We ain’t got no betters. Those sons-and-daughters of bitches ain’t been born.

Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself.  And Eric C*aramella won’t kill himself either, when you discover he no longer serves your purposes. Oh, and by the way, I know absolutely nothing that will lead to the conviction and impeachment of Hillary Clinton.

Hear that? Rattle rattle rattle, growing to a deafening crescendo.

There is an anger in the land I don’t think you’re even vaguely aware of.  I’m not — not even close — the most hot tempered on our side.  And I was a very reluctant Trump voter. But watching your sham- wow-impeachment (It’s Russia, it’s Ukraine, it’s taxes, it’s mean tweets against the squad, it’s the fact that orange man bad), your attempt to reverse elections you don’t like, and silence people who don’t agree with you, has me spitting mad, furious, not even sure what to do with all this anger.  And I’m not alone. You have no idea of the anger stalking this land. (And if you say “you sound angry” guess what “Damn skippy. You have no idea how angry.” The only ones not angry aren’t paying attention.)

We’re expressing it with humor. We are as fond of a joke as Jeffrey Epstein, who didn’t kill himself.

Be glad we can still express it with humor. But beware there’s anger there. Deadly serious anger.

Rattle, rattle, rattle.

You can’t stop us.  The more you do to try to stop us the angrier we get. And you won’t like us when we’re angry.

That much I can promise you. You won’t like us when we’re angry.

 

431 thoughts on “Rattling the Cage Doors”

  1. I think there’s a very similar effect occurring in the UK. With the difference that the elites have never quite had the near monopoly of news coverage they had in the US.

    1. They do have worse slander laws, though, as truth isn’t an absolute defense against the charge.

    2. Someone pointed out that we’ve been looking at it backwards:

      The MSM is not the propaganda arm of the DNC.
      Rather, the DNC is the enforcement arm of the MSM.

          1. Two faces, one coin.

            Look at the money-laundering book contracts given the Clintons, the Obamas, Anita Hill, Valerie Plame … and the TV gigs accorded Brennan, Comey and others.

      3. You say tomato; I say tomato. You potato; I say potato.
        Tomato, tomato, potato, potato, all nightshade family members.

    3. Something weird. I was listening to a BBC history show with comedians, run by one of the Horrible Histories historians, and called “You’re Dead to Me.” It was a show about Saladin, so I knew they would say something stupid, but it wasn’t too bad.

      Then they started talking about Saladin having publicist poets, and the show derailed. Because the US comedian lady started to joke about Saladin using Twitter… And suddenly everybody on the show was thinking of Trump, and hurrying to assure us listeners that Saladin was nothing like Trump… Except that clearly they were thinking that, because they couldn’t help it. They never did really recover.

  2. Many of the assaults on freedom of speech are coming under the guise of “hate speech”. The problem with this, of course, is who gets to define what hate speech is. It follows just as surely as shade follows a cloud that anyone sufficiently powerful to define and punish hate speech is going to deem speech critical of themselves as hate speech. By this you may know them. Anyone who suggests any sort of legal restrictions on “hate speech” is on the high road to persecution and tyranny.

    First they will come for the skinheads, then for the Westboro Baptists, then for the Jews, Catholics, and Mormons, and then they will come for you. Beware those who would criminalize “hate speech” lest you find yourselves paying a blood ransom for the freedom you had taken for granted.

      1. Well, yes, but sooner or later that *is* how hate speech winds up getting defined. cf Transgender activists and China.

    2. It wouldn’t surprise me if the deep state owns the skinheads and even the Westboro folk by now. The current heretic Pope is a fellow traveler. A whole lot of prominent Hollyweird types are Jews (Weinstein, to state the obvious), as are – IIRC – quite a few ‘battered wife wing of the uniparty’ conservative intellectuals.

      But we Mormons are starting the shift away from relying on public education – as an entire faith, I mean, as opposed to just the gifted and/or needy Odds among us – so I’m pretty sure we’ll stay at the top of the hate list of all the right people.

      (Odds welcome, if you want to be hated along with us!)

      -Albert

      1. > But we Mormons are starting the shift away from relying on public education – as an entire faith
        —
        WHAT?! How will Morman children learn all the latest gang signs, the catechisms of St. Greta, environmental apocalypse, vegetarianism, hatred for Western culture, love of socialism, or LGBTQP rights?!

        They MUST learn these critically important things! That’s what public school is FOR!

        Department of Education SWAT teams are probably laying out mission profiles now…

        1. Well, we’re just starting. Outside of the sane few who homeschool (and aren’t nutcases of the ‘essential oils’ flavor), most of us still rely on public education. Even to the point of being upset when it’s called out as abusive to the physical, emotional, mental, and especially spiritual well-being of those in the vulnerable formative years.

          No, right now it’s more about relying on each other for developing the equivalent of ‘after school activity’ skills. But as it becomes more and more clear that simply clearing away the dead hand of bureaucracy frees us to follow correct principles so much more easily (as we’re already learning from leaving Boy Scouts!), I expect that we’ll grow more self-reliant in educational terms over the next several years.

        2. It’s used in stuff like “My Fair Lady”– ‘And the Hebrews learn it backwards, which is absolutely frightening‘.

          Could use ‘culturally Jewish’ perhaps? Similar to how the Kennedy brothers were cultural Catholics.

          1. Kennedy’s were more culturally-Irish-mobster, but yeah, Catholic veneer.

            The most frightening thing about the “For All Mankind” alt-history Apollo series is the Teddy Kennedy Presidency*.

            —
            * No explanation provided on how Teddy won in 1972 with Nixon already having completely pulled US troops out of RVN well before the election, so no Vietnam War to run against like Bobby was in ’68, plus the Watergate break-ins are somehow known about when they were not placed into the hands of the Post by the disgruntled FBI insider until after Nixon had won a second term in a landslide, and besides the cover up was the thing, and that all happened in Dick’s second term. But they have Teddy pardoning Nixon anyway in spite of Dick telling Teddy “I don’t want your f**ing pardon!”

            1. The best alt history take on the Kennedies was in “Superman: Red Son”. There, it was President Nixon who shot in Dallas.
              JFK a bloated, scandal riddled failure (married to Marylin Monroe) presiding over a malaise riddled 70’s.

      3. So following in the footsteps of the Amish and Mennonites. And a few other related religions…

        Will the Mormon schools accept non-Mormons as Catholic parochial schools have?

        Hmmmm… I’ll have to check our local Amish/Mennonite school to find out if it’s true of their schools.

      4. “But we Mormons are starting the shift away from relying on public education”

        That’s an odd spelling for “indoctrination.”

      5. You do realize that all of the Westboro folks are Democrats, don’t you? Pappy Phred even ran for office as a Democrat.

  3. Oh heck, the Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself meme is showing up in game mods. Got this one recently and was very amused when I got a 10mm pistol in-game and went to the workbench to select one of the paint jobs the mod provides. (Screenshot is from the mod author’s screenshots showcasing the mod.)

    1. Strictly speaking, ephebophilia, not pedophilia. Just like JFK, except he didn’t rape women older than their early twenties. Likewise with JFK, we didn’t find out during his most active predatory years because the media refused to cover it.

      And Epstein might well have killed himself, it does look like he did some of the arrangements behind making the death possible.

      It is simply that if we could trust the people running the prison, they would have made sure Epstein and Bulger were still alive to extract information from.

      1. Well, I do have a “comedy of errors” theory that Epstein did manage to kill himself somehow, but there were multiple plots to silence him afoot and the ones behind said plots are panicking and trying to pin it on one of their rivals to cover their tracks.

        Though I suspect it wasn’t suicide.

        2. If Epstein managed to do it himself, the organization and individuals tasked with seeing to his safety and preventing him from killing himeself failed, so they’re culpable.

          I’d start with the Warden and work my way down the shift logs slinging indictments, but chances are only the two guards on the shift will see any punishment, and somehow I doubt that will amount to much,

          [shrug] Tough patooties, sucka! [smirk]

      2. A true pedophile targets children below the age of puberty. Epstein and his ilk appeared to go after teenage girls, many under the legal age of consent. All the Kennedy boys seemed to have an interest in young, but legal, ladies attracted to men in power. Bill Clinton abused multiple women assuming that his position of power protected him from repercussions from his actions. But then it’s well known that FDR died in the arms of his mistress of long standing.
        The thing is, the left has long used the morality club to attack, punish, and drive from office those on the right they wanted removed. And for a long time had great success as conservatives had a long history of crumbling at the first hint of scandal whether true or not. But our boy Donald don’t play that game, and we continue to see it not only in ridiculous charges against him, but that whole circus that was the Kavanaugh investigation.

        1. One of the things that makes President Trump most effective is that pretty much all of his scandals of that kind happened while he was a Democrat in good standing….. and were ignored until he went Republican. Makes the hypocrisy meter wrap around the stop.

            1. With the added attraction that the majority of the accusations against him are projections of things the accuser has done worse.

              It is funny how the outrage machine stops immediately when the outrageoust outrage happens to be something that was done during the Obama administration. Then there are those who think we’re dumber than cheese hammers and think they still can continue to blame Trump for Obama’s misdeeds. For the first, the “record number of child detentions” under the Trump Obama administration that went from outrage to mumble. For the second, Kamela Harris (or is is Fauxahontas?) with the “kids in cages” slander. OTOH, maybe she’s (for various values of “she”) the one dumber than a cheese hammer.

              2. “can continue to blame Trump for Obama’s misdeeds.”

                Why not? They blamed Bush for Obama’s economic failures and credit Obama for Trump’s economic growth.

                The skill they have in greatest abundance is the ability to dump responsibility and grab credit.

                1. I think that while they can try to claim/credit, there are now a lot of people who’ve seen the bovine excrement and react in ways the MSM aren’t planning on.

            2. Let’s face it, when a man’s wife is as smokin’ hot as Melania, if he needs more woman than that he’s _definitely_ oversexed, at least as long as she’s putting in the time to keep him fed and laid. Trump’s handling the pressure better, or at least he doesn’t seem to be stress-aging like O’bummer, but he can’t have much time to spare for dalliances, either.

              My guess would be that after whatever happened with Stormy and Karen in 2006 and 2007, Melania decided to keep the bimbos away from her man.

              -Albert

          2. Yes – we knew all about The Donald – he had been tabloid fodder for decades. All the dirt there was on him had been out there for years, and we just did not care.

            1. Which really threw the left for a tizzy. “You Fundamentalist Moral Majority types were SUPPOSED to be condemning the guy, not electing him!”

              1. “Not up to our preferred standards” vs. “crazy and vindictive” isn’t a difficult choice…

                1. Trump’s a boor with an over-inflated ego who usually ends up doing the right thing.
                  Compare to the Sec of State who brought slave markets back to Libya.
                  Or the Vice President who funneled millions to his son.
                  Or the avowed communist.
                  Or the Former prosecutor that argued to keep a framed man in prison.

                  I’ll take that boor every time.
                  Not. Even. Close.

                  1. Plus, Trump acts like someone who changed his mind, and is trying to be hired for a job that he’ll then do.

                    The way he talked about becoming pro-life– I don’t know his heart, and I don’t know I’d trust very strongly, but I believe him. And I rejoice.

                  2. If a mob killed an American ambassador and was threatening the remainder of the staff, only being held off by a four-man “volunteer” security detail, does anybody believe Trump would accept generals saying, “Gosh, sir, we just cannot get anybody there in time. And sending in a rescue team might just increase the danger.”?

                    Does anybody think Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden thought more about the people under attack than how it would look on their resumes?

                    1. I have the feeling that it would be a case of “We might not be able to save them, but we can damn well sure avenge them”.

              2. The “Fundamentalist Moral Majority” types, IMHO, are actually a minority. I think that there are far more of us that are “Fundamentalist Fair Dealing” types.

                Re: womanizing. Were the other parties willing and (at least legally) competent to consent, without coercion applied? Not a problem there. Is a contract, explicit or implicit, with the spouse violated? Not good, but let’s see the contract first. (“Cleave unto thee only” was in my contract, but I have been to many weddings where that clause was omitted.)

                Now, business dealings – okay, paying off corrupt union bosses and city officials is not “fair dealing” – but so is not creating the jobs for the people that need them. No dinero, no trabajo.

                1. Of course, us “Fundamentalist Moral Majority” types can recognize that some “not perfect people” are better than other “not perfect people”.

                  Compared to Hillary, Trump looked good and he hasn’t disappointed me since then.

                2. And doing real estate development in the Northeast, dealing with the corrupt bureaucrats and mobbed-up unions is just how things are done. No better, and far less bad than say, selling off 1/5th of the nation’s Uranium supply . . .

                  1. Yes, exactly what I was going to say: Standard Operating Procedure.

                    Just like international diplomacy consists of scratching one another’s backs. Does anyone actually believe that NATO members are in it for the Bonhomie?

                    To believe that kind of nonsense you would have to imagine a system of free exchange is an exploitation racket while command economies are a guarantee of fairness.

          3. I wonder how much dirt he knows about from his time as a Democrat in good standing for decades. All the chit chat at parties. All the backroom deals he was involved in for his real estate business. He is somewhat vindictive just look at his tweets. I wonder if they even know how many of their secrets he holds. Once he is out of office he will not just go play golf and stay out of the limelight. I expect their will be some payback for all the crap that has been slung his way.

            1. Oh, heck yes. Not only that, now he has access to the whole shebang … every single redacted word. Every report by the Secret Service. Everything.

          1. Just to be clear, practitioners of either are the lowest scum of the Earth, and I recognize that the public tend to use pedophilia for both cases, but I am a sometimes editor so precision in words is a pet soapbox of mine.

            1. *nod* Quite unobjectionable, just was turning it over in my head and got an unusual sparkle.

              ****

              At one point I was working on a character that that was a pedophile in the actually just a mental illness he was philosophically horrified by, trying to develop my RP abilities. Had to stop because it was just too obviously easy to hijack to justify evil and give it a sympathetic face.

        3. Reminds me of an old joke.

          Q: How many times does sixty go into sixteen?
          A: Ask Ted Kennedy!

        4. I’ll go a bit further. The one sided use of the morality club by leftists, making sure conservatives lived up to their standard while shielding any leftists, made Trump possible.

          If Clinton had not been given a pass for Lewinsky and if Ted Kennedy had not only had a lifetime pass but was hailed as a champion of women, the “pussy grabber” attack would have worked.

          But conservatives finally accepted holding leaders up to your standards when the left demands it is a chump’s game.

          1. A lot of us understand the English language and recognized that Trump’s observation was not an endorsement of “pussy grabbing” but a recognition that women are drawn to power, wealth, and celebrity like moths to flame, that Monica Lewinsky was not attracted to Billy Jeff because of his physical beauty or potential as doting father to her children” but because of his position. See: hypergamy

            This was once doctrinal among feminists, as expressed in their arguments that where sufficient power/status imbalances exist there can be no consent.

            1. Meh. But they could make “binders full of women” poison, while they couldn’t make “grab them by the pussy” a killing shot.
              They keep pressing the button, but the pellet won’t come out.

              1. It did succeed in the case of Roy Moore, but that was a very special situation with a rigged and sketchy primary, typical Democrat shenanigans, and resulted in just enough evangelicals staying home on election day to slip the Dem candidate into the remaining two years of Session’s Senate seat.
                And it angered a bunch of folks who still haven’t gotten over the ACW, so that whole business was very much a one trick pony.

        5. The key is in your words – Epstein and his ilk appeared. How much don’t we know?

          Someone produces and sells the child porn that was on my former doctor’s (and 2 other people I know) computer that landed him a sentence that ensures he’ll die in jail. Were those people also friends of Epstein?

          The point about Bill Clinton making multiple trips to Lolita Island, that was known long ago. It’s also known (as in I read about it years ago) that Trump made one trip there, looked around, and was on the next plane home, disgusted at what he saw. Trump, non-drinker, non-drug user, attending parties with politicians and celebrities all now being caught up in various shenanigans. And a lot more information about their shenanigans making it into the public eye. (Crazydaysandnightsdotnet is an almost daily stopping point for me.) How much does Trump actually know? That’s a mystery. He’s also had his own intelligence service for a while. Not with NSA type capabilities, but those aren’t often needed. Aside from other players in the real estate field, what have they been gathering intelligence on?Also his own security. Which apparently has free reign in the White House. Tough for the Secret Service to mount public complaints about it when one of their own went public and said she wouldn’t take a bullet for Trump – requirement one of the Presidential Unit.

          I suspect a lot of law enforcement at all levels has known about a number of these things for, well, a long time. But going up against the powers that be takes a good deal more (for lack of a better word) courage then most people have. By now, they know Trump has their back. A second term of Trump and we’re going to see a lot more legal type action.

          I was one of those who thought Trump entered the race to throw it to Clinton. Didn’t realize until late in the game he was serious about winning. I haven’t read his writings or viewed all his TV interviews. Someone did and I read his synopsis which boiled down to – if you had been paying attention to Trump all these years, you’re not surprised at a single thing he’s doing.

          1. *puts head in hands* stop making me picture Trump as WWII Era Fury, please? He’s NOT a red head. lthough the hair….no, stop Foxfier! Evil crossover!

            Because that is seriously what it sounds like– the Supes are doing their thing, as best they can….”hey, we’ve got a proposition for you, so you’re legit and we back you up.

          2. That, and Epstein tried to play some kind of crap on a girl staying or working a summer job at Mar a Lago (I forget which) and Trump banned him from all Trump properties everywhere. I remember reading that Trump was behind some of the Florida push that put Epstein in jail the first time.

            1. Yes. In fact, the prosecutor at his first trial noted specifically that Trump was the only(?) business owner that would actively assist the government.

            2. Towel girl, 14 IIRC, at MaL; she told her supervisor, who told Trump; the police from the time noted that Trump had personally called them and asked if they could use an official statement or any kind of help, and generally gave the kid all the possible support he could. (That was right before the whole “Epstein was a friend of Trump’s” vanished.)

              1. Sidebar there:
                I read that apparently the young girl was the daughter of a friend of Trump. He had hired her for the summer job as a towel girl – someone who brings fresh, dry towels to tennis players and such.

        6. I don’t know, when was the legal age where he was when he was alive?

          Because apparently the people around him made certain that young teenage girls were not left alone with him. His daughter was definitely too young for him when the commie murdered him, he wasn’t a pedophile, but it is not obvious to me that his tastes were only for those of legal age.

        1. I appreciate technicalities as much as the next Odd, and I’m even of the opinion that the age of consent should probably be 16 most places rather than the California cultural standard of 18. (Texas and Colorado both say 17, with close-in-age exemptions of 2 and 4 years, respectively.) But honestly, quibbling about whether it’s pedo- or ephebo- for girls as young as 13 or 12 is over the ‘creepy’ line.

          That said, if I were writing rules for ‘blank slate’ national law, I’d be tempted to put the automatic age of majority at 25, with everyone able to apply for majority status earlier, with it being ‘shall issue’ for anyone who has their own place to live, source of income sufficient for needs, etc. (Student loans, grants, and trust funds probably shouldn’t count.) (Continuing to live with family needs to demonstrate that the offspring are able to move out to the previous standard, or are involved in the family business as an adult, or equivalent that I haven’t thought about.) Alcohol, drivers licensing, gun ownership, etc. for minors remains under parental/guardian oversight, even if it’s the day before the 25th birthday.

          Joining the military grants immediate emancipation rights for most of that upon completing basic, with the vote included – if not yet 25 – after 4 years of honorable service. Joining can be as young as 14, but you’ve still got to get through training.

          -Albert

          1. I’m good, although I’d move automatic to 25 or when both parents are dead, which ever comes later, so the trust funders wait until they’re 50 or so.

            Also, I’d be happy in one direction for the military to be 2 years and honorable discharge in the other.

      4. Epstein was a high-value high-risk prisoner. The protocols for “keep it alive to testify” are well established.

        I assume that he was reminded multiple times a day what awaited him in “general population”. He likely had already been introduced to “con-al knowledge”, either as a recipient or an observer.

        Guards can be quite effective in encouraging their charges to deliver messages to other prisoners. Imagine being awakened several times a night with promises of attention to come.

        They may not have strangled him. They almost certainly encouraged and facilitated his hanging.

        And they absolutely could have prevented it, had that been the mission.

        1. From all accounts, Epstein had way too many elite people on the blackmail list, with some of them capable of wielding of awesome levels of organized thuggery. When you are on the shitlist of everybody from Hollywood elites to the Clintons and (some of) the British Royals, your “get out of this alive” card has been torn, spindled, mutilated, and put through a criss-cross shredder before being burnt.

          There was some speculation that it wasn’t Epstein’s body going out on the gurney, but I don’t think he was valuable enough alive to have a switch like that pulled off.

          1. “… it wasn’t Epstein’s body going out on the gurney”

            I think Michael Baden’s autopsy review would have precluded that.

            Unless, of course, it was Epstein’s clone on the gurney. Lack of memories congruent with the original’s hardly matters when the purpose is provision of corpus delecti, and it is hardly likely Baden would have had sufficient access to Epstein’s medical records to compare details.

            N.B. – if a substitute body was employed they should have been more careful about means of death … unless, of course, the “Epstein didn’t hang himself” meme was intended as red herring to distract from the switch.

      5. Reportedly Epstein had a huge cache of blackma- er, I mean incriminating documents, which are now in the possession of law enforcement. Whether they’ll ever come into the air and light is a different matter, but if they do, it kinda renders moot whoever thought they could protect themselves when Epstein didn’t kill himself.

        That, IMO, is the strongest evidence against suicide: he had plenty of ‘insurance’ stashed away, and could easily have plea-bargained himself into a cushy stay in white-collar detention. Or maybe a plane ticket to Belize.

        1. Evidence always works better if you’ve got context, and Epstein could have provided that.

          Ghislaine Maxwell might be able to do so as well.

          1. I’m thinking PTB dangled Epstein as bait to protect Maxwell. As the head organizer Epstein had all the information. Uh, no … Maxwell does. Think about it. Who holds the information for the CEO? Who does the CEO go to to get things done? The Executive Secretary, they know where the bodies are buried … oops I meant all the information is filed. In this case this is your recruiter and manager of the under aged, the Executive Secretary, any other context, the “Madame”. She has all the goods. She isn’t in prison. She is being protected. Rumor has it she is talking, long, and loud, and backing it up with physical data, dates, locations, and pictures. She provided access. She didn’t partake. She is likely an early *victim. Just because they were provided access, didn’t mean they had to follow through, and they didn’t report it was happening.

            * Not saying that excuses what she did. Because it is interesting that other victims didn’t take her path once they were no longer on the preferred list.

        2. Evidence can be “misplaced” or it’s veracity disputed in court.
          Eye witness testimony from a participant in criminal activities is a harder nut to crack. Whereas reaching out and touching someone in maximum security really isn’t so hard after all.
          Doesn’t really matter, they either killed him or greased the skids to enable him to take the long jump himself. Given the sort of player Epstein obviously was, and having beat a similar rap years before, on his own it seems to me he would have bided his time and waited to barter for another wrist slap, or done a Polanski and jetted off for some non extradition country to settle down at to write his memoirs.

        3. Except given what we know of the FBI at al, them having the blackmail evidence renders it moot.

          Most of it has probably already been destroyed and dumped with Hillary and her aide’s cell phones.

        4. Once “the Party of the Third Part” has the video Epstein is hardly needed and could prove an embarrassment.

          Like Aladdin, he might discover the genie of the lamp but that doesn’t mean he gets to keep the lamp.

        5. blackmail has always been a classic way to get yourself killed. very hard to ENSURE it comes out after

      6. Strictly speaking, ephebophilia, not pedophilia

        *wiggles hand*
        Some of the girls were still going through the initial puberty– more importantly, part of why the word is used for the whole range of predators is because it’s aimed at child, not “isn’t biologically able to reproduce.”
        Folks have noticed that a lot of pedophiles will go for any vulnerable target, such as the mentally disabled. It’s the vulnerability aspect of “child” that is being targeted.

        The transgression aspect is probably a large chunk of the ‘appeal’. Like folks who deliberately target married men, or priests.
        *shudder*

        2. Here’s the other thing, too. 15 and 16 year old girls tend toward the “I want a sugar daddy who will provide for me” type of mentality. Which they don’t/are unable to really think through, and get drawn into situations they can’t get out of because of it. Like this one.

    2. I *must* know what mod this is. (Though I’m currently stuck waiting for the Scrap Everything folks to issue an update, I still want this mod.)

      1. “Girly 10mm Paintjobs” by NaiRae. It was on the front page of the Nexus FO4 page, but no longer is.

        It uses the same slot that the Creation Club paintjobs do, but happily you do *not* have to buy any of the Creation Club items to be able to use it. Tested it Sunday afternoon. I have never purchased any CC content and it works fine on my system. Though I’m not doing any real serious playthroughs until the next Unofficial Patch gets released.

        https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/42243

        1. Oh, yeah, I just saw it over the weekend, but didn’t look closer.

          The updated Unofficial Patch was just released…last week, I think. Like I said, the only thing I’m now waiting on to update is Scrap Everything, ’cause I can’t live without it, and it’s currently not playing nicely with the updates and is booting me out of build mode every couple of minutes, sigh.

          (I did finally cave and get SOME Creation Club content, because it looked really cool. Mostly quest-related stuff, though. Or settlement building stuff, because that’s somehow what I always spend all my time doing–I *still* haven’t finished the main quest, lol.)

          1. The beta for UFO4P is out, but it hasn’t been fully tested and released yet.

            Yeah, I got to the Institute awhile back but then had to restart the game for one reason or another.

            1. Ah, well, I admit I don’t pay much attention to the betas vs the finished ones–I mean, with mods it’s pretty much all beta all the time anyway, lol.

              Heck I haven’t even gotten that far. Killing Kellogg is about as far as I’ve ever gotten before getting thoroughly distracted with settlement building.

              1. The Glowing Sea is horrifyingly beautiful at night. That and BoS Vertibirds will pick you up if you use a signal.

                I’ve been getting distracted by using a mod called Start Me Up which lets you make alternate starts.

                1. I’ve got that one downloaded, but have not yet given it a try–because I want to play through the “vanilla”, Lone Survivor of 111 story first, lol.

                  I loooooove the Alternate Start mod for Skyrim, though.

                  1. Well, be warned: There’s a bug in Start-Me-Up where if you take too long getting to Vault 111 it won’t open up. Seems to be about a couple in-game weeks or so. May be dependent on how many mods you have and what kind of scripts they run.

    3. Just ordered a sweatshirt with that message. Amazon has 100s of various designs just for tops.

      1. When you can order it through Signals, the Public Broadcasting catalog, you will know the balloon is about to go up.

  4. Heretic here: Epstein killed himself, but there was a conspiracy afoot to make sure that he was able to kill himself without interference.

  5. One of the guards was awake, and surfing the internet for things that one would surf for if one had recently received a pay off and was very stupid about it.

    1. My favorite Soviet joke: The day after the Warsaw Pact was signed, two Poles are walking down the street. “Comrade,” the first says, “Are the Russians our friends or our brothers?”
      “Why Comrade,” the other replies, “They are our brothers.” He darts his head around and whispers, “You get to choose your friends.”

      1. Reminds me of a joke from the days of Solidarity when the possibility of the Warsaw Pact “assisting” it Socialist brothers and sisters was real:

        Comrade! We have Czech forces coming from the south, the Germans from the West and the Russians from the East. Where do we send our forces?

        We must destroy the Czech forces first!

        Why?

        Ahh comrade, one must always place duty before pleasure!

        1. Cold War joke that if WW3 ever broke out, the hope was that the Poles wouldn’t run out of Germans to kill before the war ended. Because otherwise they might remember that the Russians were fighting in that war, as well, and attack them next.

            4. Germany won in 1871, and collected tribute in gold in exchange for not turning France into a German principality.

              Unfortunately they never got over that easy victory…

  11. I for one can confirm that banning forms of expression of dissent has never really worked. Another joke from the old red days was about two commuters on the tram, one of which is reading a paper. The other guy goes – “Huh?” The reader responds – “Nah.” Which in practice translated as “Has that bastard gen-sec died yet?” “Not today.” And the modern left thinks that chasing “dogwhistles” is productive…

    More interestingly, what ultimately killed the old regime was actually the removal of certain restrictions, with campaigns like “glasnost” and “perestroika” backfiring spectacularly. To put it simply, ol’ Gorby never could believe that people didn’t want to be socialists. He thought that, given the choice, they’d still prefer the red regime to the evils of Western decadence. Spoiler warning:they didn’t.

    I find this to be just as relevant today, in the sense that the modern left is going berserk not just with regard to the right; but over the increasing realization that “their own people” – women, minorities, entertainers etc. – are falling out of formation. From what I can tell, “cancel culture” might bother right-wing artists to some extent, but its primary target are actually conventional leftist entertainers that aren’t toeing the party line. People who might still find success among conservative or center-right audiences. People who, in short, have an alternative.

    Because that’s what killed the old union decades ago, and that’s what kills the left now – people choosing something else. And that’s what all the paranoia regarding “dogwhistles” and “hate speech” is about – demonizing alternatives, and the people who choose them. You can see that easily in politics – like how any disagreement on climate issues gets wailed at like it would bring about the Apocalypse or something. But it’s becoming just as evident in entertainment. There was the Sad Puppies debacle, of course; but even in television, some of the fastest growing cable networks include the card-carrying conservative Fox News, and the card-selling (heh) officially-non-political-but-family-values-oriented Hallmark Channels… which now regularly get thrashed as being racist, sexist, generic consumer schlock. Fancy that.

    In short, it’s not just rattling the cage doors that the left fears; it’s discovering the huge gaping hole behind the pinup, and moving to better accommodation. In both politics and its traditional bastion of entertainment, the left has simply nothing to offer, that can’t be found elsewhere, with better pricing and higher quality. It’s not the Apocalypse that they fear… It’s Exodus.

    1. On that Exodus note, several recent polls have shown minority approval of President Trump in percentages the 31-34% range and planning to vote for him in the 23-29% range. We’re still a year away from the election with no clear Dem candidate and plenty of things in play, but even still that is bad news for the Left – and good news for America.

      2. If Trump can get double-digits of the black vote, I’ll be impressed and relieved, because that’ll be evidence that even being on the LBJ voting plantation can’t ruin a people entirely.

        But if they stay home and refuse to vote for Creepy Joe or Fauxcahontas, that’ll be good enough. (Albeit far less impressive.)

        -Albert

        1. Here’s the thing: many people on the LBJ voting plantation *don’t* want to be there. Sure, it sounded good in the 60’s, but as they’re living with the (unintended?) consequences 2-4 generations down the line, they can see the difference even more clearly than East Berlin could see the light pollution from West Berlin.

          Getting out of a culture that neither values work, nor the skills required to be successful at work in the Western world is *hard*. It often involves many setbacks, failures, and several firings – as well as suffering the financial penalization that you get slapped with when trying to get off welfare. And when jobs are scarce on the ground, this makes those who finally crawl back out of the event horizon quite rare indeed.

          But in a roaring economy, when a felony conviction is no longer an automatic disqualifier to hard-working blue-collar jobs, there are a lot more chances to make it. When even being fired from your last job is no longer a guarantee you won’t get another, because there are 16 places that are hiring, and when nobody’s offering bare-minimum wage because they can’t get anybody to apply at that rate…

          It’s still really hard, but no longer all-but-impossible. And when you go from a resentful, bitter aimless life on the government dole to proud, accomplished, and… staring at the chunk Uncle Sam took out of your paycheck so your former friends and relations can be resentful and bitter at you? That does not encourage voting democrat.

          1. Getting out of a culture that neither values work, nor the skills required to be successful at work in the Western world is *hard*.

            And this is before you hit the cultural hard parts.

            Things like, you’re used to relying on social capital for things the middle class use financial capital (ie savings) for. Things like the disapproval of family members for you “putting on airs” and “not being willing to help out”. Things like not having been raised with certain defaults. There is a great chart in A Framework for Understanding Poverty which covers a lot of it. That book was invaluable for the few years I was a landlord in a welfare neighborhood.

            Note, those are not “acting white” because poor white people have the same issue moving up.

            I also, in my very conspiratorial moods, wonder if that’s why the left goes all out to encourage debt and discourage savings.

          2. Yup. One thing that has heartened me is to watch how many Blacks have been willing to get off the welfare rolls and go back to work.

            There’s a dignity in having a job that a welfare can’t provide.

            1. A couple of decades ago, I spent a few months on disability following a knee injury. The vacation aspect wore off and got damned dull after a couple of weeks, and I got to the point where I enjoyed rehab, because I was out of the house and doing something.
              Going back to work was a joy. I can see just why so many unemployed people turn to drugs and booze.
              Being sedentary is destructive to both mind and body.

          3. “Getting out of a culture that neither values work, nor the skills required to be successful at work in the Western world is *hard*.”

            Practices such as “Last hired, First fired” exacerbate this problem. When you go off the dole you sacrifice a number of benefits — food, housing and healthcare support,for example — as soon as that first paycheck arrives. And it can take three months or longer to qualify for employer-provided healthcare, and even longer to build up sufficient capital to look for better housing.

            And when you get laid-off after seven months you are back to the starting line on regaining your Welfare benefits, meaning you and your family are without any form of health insurance until the re-approval comes through … from a bureaucracy not especially famed for its efficiency.

            How many times through that cycle does it take for a person to decide working “on the books” is for suckers?

            1. That is one reason why I actually sort of like working two part-time jobs. One pays enough that if I lost the other I would survive on that pay alone, even if barely, while the other, well there is a reasonably good chance they could increase my hours enough to achieve that, with cleaning usually at least half of their workers in this city are students and with them the changeover can be pretty fast (the bad part about cleaning jobs – the firm I work in is not one of the longer existing big ones, and the competition in that business can be rather cutthroat, those smaller ones usually being the losers. There is always the chance it will fold).

              It would be a bit scarier if I depended on just one, especially since with mine the pay isn’t good so saving money is a slow project. I think that having multiple streams of income is always good, even if it just a couple of rather scrappy jobs. If I lose one or the other I will probably start looking for another new job to replace it rather than settle for having just one. And I keep looking for a third one as things are, right now concentrating on something that isn’t cleaning (if I get it I will keep the cleaning one, just try to get rid of a couple of hours). If that doesn’t pan out maybe I will start looking at the cleaning firms again, it would be possible for me to have hours in two different ones at the same time.

              With a job with better pay it might be possible to find other ways to diversify one’s income into multiple streams.

      3. > no clear candidate

        It will be Bloomberg. The other candidates have shat themselves so thoroughly they’re toast. There aren’t enough crazies among the Democrats to make any of the others a viable alternative.

        Remember what I said a while back about the “man on a horse” sweeping in out of nowhere? Here he is…

          1. A late entering, post-primary Michelle or Hillary or other Great White Savior of the Democrats would just guarantee a Trump landslide.
            People don’t like it when someone just jumps in line ahead of them.

            Plus, if Michelle had those kind of ambitions, she would have already run for office.

          2. Me too. And also that it backfires. Because, you know, Black Men won’t vote for THAT black woman. And most women won’t vote for a woman, not unless she’s exceptional.
            But hey….

            1. THANK YOU! Finally! I am not the only woman who will speak to this! I have been saying for YEARS that the lack of a woman president has never been because of men not voting for women. It’s because women won’t vote for women. All one needs to do to see what I mean is look at the comments under any “Who wore it best?” photo spread after any awards show. The things women will say about other women are downright tribal. We don’t ever built each other up. We always tear each other down. At least, that’s been my experience. ESPECIALLY amongst women I know to be progressives.

    2. “In short, it’s not just rattling the cage doors that the left fears; it’s discovering the huge gaping hole behind the pinup”

      One of their greatest fears is denouncing Hallmark movies as “racist, sexist, generic consumer schlock” and the public not caring.

      Just as the public didn’t care that the new, improved feminist, woke Ghostbusters and Charlie’s Angels and Star Wars sequels were critically praised and bore the Good Mindkeeping Seal of Approval.

      It’s no fun being the doorman when nobody wants to go in.

      1. What will be amusing as hell is when next year’s Ghostbusters 3 hits theatres and is a smash hit. They have the original cast in their original roles. I am currently wondering if Janeane will be in mourning for Egon (she spent the cartoon carrying a torch for him).

        Also kind of hoping they work in the 3 junior employees from Ghostbusters Extreme…

        1. I’m more interested in what would be the next Ghostbusters in terms of spirit – that is, ordinary people standing up to supernatural evil. The main flaw of the all-female flick was it treated ghostbusting as some kind of glamorous superhero-style affair, full of lame quips and forced posing. To contrast, the original films were very much about how it was akin to a small-business exterminator job, complete with boring overalls, incessant government regulation, and a total lack of appreciation as soon as a given crisis is resolved.

          Same goes for, say, Ocean’s 8 – it pretty much crashed and burned, because all it had going for it was a “girls can do it too” mentality, without actually focusing on what “it” was. For comparison, I’ve yet to see any advance complaints about the Expendabelles – the all-female Expendables spin-off – since it’s advertised with the exact same spirit as the originals – classic action actresses kicking ass. Nor has anyone complained about Lara Croft being Indiana Jones in short shorts – because she follows him in substance as well as superficial style, all while having her own feel.

          So yeah, I wonder what the next actual development would be on that front, and where it might come from. Streaming services are iffy at best and already compromised at worst; SyFy originals are a different beast (or bizarre mixes thereof) altogether… I’m open to suggestions.

          1. Mr. Plinkett pointed out that one of the biggest problems with the Fembusters is the style. The director & writer came from The Office and Parks & Rec, and tried to use the same kind of improved style for the movie. And had Fembusters been a mockumentary, it may have worked.
            Instead, we wound up with incessant babbling instead of jokes, incessant babbling instead of actual tension, and just general incessant babbling.

          2. complete with boring overalls, incessant government regulation,

            That is the single most feminist thing about the Termagant Ghostbusters (they weren’t ladies…moderated the word I wanted to use). In the original, government was something to overcome. In the Termagant Ghostbusters, they got government grants at the end.

      2. I thought the bit about Hollywood Reporter complaining that the Hallmark Christmas movies were not about other religious holidays was most amusing.

              1. I can see it now … Dyce has unearthed and refinished a valuable antique and hit the big time, become a furniture celebrity with her own line of refinishing products and a nationwide TV show … but she’s not happy, and as she returns to Colorado to take care of the paperwork involved in closing down her parent’s book store …

          2. They are too “white” and too centered on Christmas, not enough on other religious holidays and/or people-of-color. The CEO pointed out that they market what sells, that four of the films have non-pale leads, and that for Hallmark, Christmas is a secular holiday. If they started getting into religious holidays and messages, they’d have a lot of controversy that Hallmark prefers not to deal with.

            2. Oh, that probably explains why I’ve seen miscellaneous snitty comments about Christmas obviously not being a secular holiday around tumblr lately.

              1. “Christmas obviously not being a secular holiday …”

                It’s a religious holiday AND a secular holiday! It’s two, two, two holidays in one!!!

                That America has done to Christmas* what decaffeinated coffee has done to that noble beverage does not alter what Christmas fundamentally is.

                Besides, people have been practicing region without belief since religion began.

                *See America’s favorite Christmas movies: White Christmas, Jean Shepherd’s A Christmas Story, It’s A Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, Home Alone, National Lampoon’s Christmas, and Die Hard. The Birthday Boy gets scarce five minutes screen mention and zero screen time.

                  1. If it sells well enough, two weeks a year is plenty.

                    Seems to me Polar Express, The Christmas Box, The Elf on the Shelf, and that ghost story by Chuck Dickens have earned plenty of moolah* with no greater sales window.

                    *Past performance no guarantee of future results.

            3. The critics wanted Kwanzaa, not Hanukkah. Oh, and not Diwali. They wanted a Muslim festival but didn’t actually suggest what the heck would be a suitable Muslim romance setting.So

              Of course Christmas isn’t secular, and Hallmark has religious cards for all sorts of faiths. But the movies are just trying to be light secular fluff for everyone, which is an honorable thing to be (especially in today’s world).

              Hallmark cable probably knows that if they roll left, they will die a red ink death of body proportions.

              1. I’m setting my bunnies to write ‘It is not a Thanksgiving romance if it is set in Japan, has a bunch of explosions, and part of things settling down is a deal the new prime minister cuts with some aliens’ on the chalkboard.

                I wonder if I could write a Cameron Day romance that Hallmark would touch with a ten foot pole.

                1. “Cameron Day,” huh? Is this “a day commemorating David Cameron, or namesake,” or is it what my own DuckDuckGo search populated: “Ascension Help” and “Awakening” and “How To Exit The Matrix” and “Remote Energy Clearings” and “Why I Am No Longer A Lightworker” and a YouTube entitled “Are You Possessed?”

                  About halfway down the second page is a Wikipedia article, hopefully unrelated to the above, about the “Battle of Camerón” during the second French intervention in Mexico, in 1863. Celebrating new-agey tele-crackpots on its anniversary– by means of Hallmark Holiday Romances– would take the cake.

  12. Pingback: Rattling the Cage Doors — According To Hoyt | The zombie apocalypse survival homestead

  13. Now, how do you expect me to laugh when someone says all leftist politicians are lizard-beings from Ganymede?

    Now, that’s ridiculous. The moon-ferrets would kill any extra-planetary lizard beings long before they could get anywhere near Earth’s atmosphere.

    1. I say let’s dissect a few to be certain. Pelosi, Nadler, Schiff, Waters, Green, and Swalwell seem a good sampling.

        1. I’d compare them to Thin Men, but it was actually brave when interrogated in X-COM. Though I’m sure Dr Vahlen would be eager to start with these folk.

          1. …and of course, as soon as I post that link I find a video with ALL the interrogation/autopsy cutscenes.

    2. I suspect they are rebel Priest Kings of Gor who decided instead of importing slaves from earth they’d just come here and enslave us all en mass. The various environmental stuff is them implementing the tech limitations they have on Gor.

      Hey, that makes as much sense as any other explanation.

      Plus, that makes Leftists giant insects and given their locus like tendencies on taking over…

  14. “Well, dear fever swamps, I want to apologize to you.”

    Yes, I had to make my own apologies to the “right wing fever swamps” too, after revelations from Snowden, Binney, et. al. about the depth of gov’t hoovering (or is it Hoovering) up of everyday American’s electronic communications and internet activities, parallel construction police deception and a standard practice, Journ-o-list, etc.

    I won’t say that I trust the John Birch Society or that weird guy on the gun forum completely now… but I do trust them more now than National Review. They, after all, have a better track record of accuracy. 😦

    1. This confused me. Echelon was disclosed, with much hand-wringing and news articles during the Clinton administration. I seem to remember that The New York Times even had an OpEd piece on how this kind of thing was unfortunate, but necessary to “keep us safe.” Fast forward to 2011, and they got their fever dreams of having the brakes removed with the Patriot Act.

      My take has always been that if Snowden was a whistle-blower under a Republican administration, the press would have made him out to be a hero, but his cardinal sin was that he made a Democratic administration look like the Stazi. But then their motto was basically “If you know everything, you can control anyone.”

  15. In 1984, another writer had a similar idea.

    Royko To Voters: Tell a Lie

    The only answer to the question, “Are there guns in your home?” is “No!”

    On a similar vein, I use every browser known to man (almost). Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, Pale Moon, TOR, and sometimes even Edge. It’s harder to track me if I’m not always doing the same thing.

    And when a newspaper or any sight that I don’t really like, asks me to “sign up for a free account!” I use a bogus name and a disposable email address. Because

    2. If they ask me to sign up for a free account, I almost always view the information they want from me to be far more valuable than what they are peddling. The main exception is a site that’s under more attack from the MSM than the MSM’s claims of the site’s coverage warrants.

      Would the MSM try a gaslignt? Is the pope a commie?

      1. FB, etc., are always marking that I haven’t completely filled out the “volunteer” information … uh, yea, duh!!!

        I have no idea what most sites are trying to market to me. I installed “uBlock” and “AdBlock Plus”, both free. A lot of sites complain. Oh, well, guess I don’t want to read what they have to say.

        The only site that has more information is Xfinity Mobile … well duh, they provide my phone #. Even then they don’t get more than I have to give them.

      2. Many moons ago (so long I don’t remember the name as it was multiple computers ago) there was a site you could use to get a login and password from a fake account to get into sites requiring registration. You sometimes had to go back and get a new one as the sites caught on.

        Don’t know if it is still out there or what it’s name was, and now it’s killing me.

    3. “The only answer to the question, “Are there guns in your home?” is “No!””

      In 1984, that worked. In 2019, if they have enough interest in you, they will have datamined your life and shopping purchases and will almost certainly know you are lying. Not saying don’t do it; just saying it will be exponentially more likely to be detected.

      1. In light of your statements (and I’m pretty sure you have it right), the only reasonable answer to such a question should be a variant of “Sod off, Swampy”, or a pithier expression. If they don’t already know, they don’t need to know. If they already do know, it’s just screwing around with you.

    4. Hence the gobsmacked looks on the faces of the cognoscenti on the night of the 2016 election – ‘How can Trump be winning? All our polls had Hillary ahead 45 – 42% (with the remainder going ‘undecided’ or 3rd party) and 297 electoral votes locked up!’

      1. Thing is, the polls were right for the nation.

        The problem was that no one bothered to do more than perfunctory state polling in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, because they were assumed to be part of the Blue Wall.

        2. The final polls. Right now, it’s all fake polls, but the last ones before the election are the ones people remember and refer back to, so they’re likely to be at least closer to right.

        3. Hence the importance of the Electoral College: massive fraud in a few states is likely to only affect states that were going for that candidate anyway (e.g., California, Illinois, NY — one party states.)

          Their problem is that it is much more expensive to do in-state polling … and is unlikely to produce the numbers the Narrative requires.

  16. I guess all out of touch would be elites, in their terminal state seem to get a little … odd.

    Oh, Finagle, NO! Don’t give them ‘odd’! *We* are odd, they can be weird, outre, unhinged, etc. but don’t let them usurp yet another term of ours. 🙂

  17. I was one of those “fever swamps.” But, I knew people who worked in the White House under the Clintons. Folks who had to serve Madame Clinton and her clone on their various military base trips overseas, made sure they never served the two of them again. Let’s say that those two in particular didn’t have a good reputation with the “servants.”

        1. when still a kid in the Whitehouse, I’m told she took more after Bill than her mom. Same source as below. Everyone on the details liked her back then.

          1. There’s no question of who her parents were, at least. Though the genetic dice came up with the worst features of both parents. Including their criminal tendencies…

            1. Happily, she doesn’t seem to have inherited her parent’s gnawing, driving, insatiable ambition.

            2. Using DDG to search on “chelsea clinton, web hubble” brings another perspective.

              Image searching is interesting.

    2. Worse, I knew one who effin Liked her. Even though she treated his companions like dirt (military guards who work with the Service . . . he was Air Force). By the by, they disliked Gore as a group even more than Hillary. Says a lot.

      1. I hadn’t heard to many stories of Gore (although with that last name–he would have to live up to it). But then my contacts were not with the Service. Mine were in the crypto side.

        1. I heard, in general they like Bill, he was decent to them.
          They disliked Hillary, because, Hillary (excepting that one nutter I knew)
          They all hated Gore. Service and military guards. The only time the guy I knew volunteered to go with Gore, was to go somewhere he could visit family or friends.

          1. I read a fairly recent book on the Secret Service and apparently Bill’s detail (out of office) was willing to warn Bill when Hillary was returning home.

            IE Hillary’s detail told Bill’s detail so Bill’s “Lady Friend” could leave. 😉

            1. Even if they didn’t like Bill, I suspect they’d do it to not have to witness the fight and, possibly, break it up (as their are stories about them having to stop her from assaulting him).

                1. First, I never got the impression Bill was a snob — a lot of other things, sure, many of them unprintable here, but not a snob. Compared to the folks he had to schmooze in Arkansas I expect the Secret Service detail was a pleasure.

                  He was also (unlike Hillary) smart enough to know that when ts somebody’s job to take a bullet for you you don’t want them hesitating to consider if they really want to. In situations like that snarling, “Do your damn job and stop whining” probably is not the greatest motivator.

              2. ONE of the reasons Hillary doesn’t like the Secret Service is because after she threw the ashtray at him they took her aside and explained to her their job was to protect him from all threats – including her. I knew this long before the ashtray incident made it into the media.

                The mother of the boatswain’s mate who worked for me at my final duty station lived next door to the mother of a secret service agent……

                It’s really amazing how information can travel. Hence the saying “Loose Lops Sink Ships”.

                Something I was told by someone once- all of Reagan’s and Bush’s (both of them) secret service detail are (were) volunteers. Hillary’s detail is not only assigned, but every agent on it has put in a request for transfer – to anywhere -as soon as eligible.

                1. She singlehandedly turned like 75% of the Seattle liberal AF Reserve pilots into Republican voters, at least if she was the alternative.

              3. Sure — would you want to be the Secret Service agent who took a bullet from Hillary that was intended for Bill? Think of what the MSM would have reported: “Rogue Secret Service Agent Killed Attacking First Lady!” or “First Lady Saves President’s Life; Kills Rogue Secret Service agent!”

            1. Apparently his wife agreed, since she bailed on him after he failed to get into the White House.

            2. A friend of mine who was a big contractor in the area said that Gore is a True Believer.

          3. I have to admit that there weren’t too many stories about Bill–except for his womanizing– Hillary was a nasty piece of work. Now I know Gore was too.

            1. The founder of the original milblog that I got started on, was an AF mechanic and crew for Air Force 2 at Andrews AFB during the Clinton Administration – that is, the AC who hauled around everyone else but the President. According to him, and he had to be fairly discreet because of having signed a non-disclosure form upon moving on to another assignment – the only two people in the Clinton administration who were decent, civil and considerate to the military help were Louie Freeh of the FBI, and Tipper Gore. Everyone else who were passengers on his airplane were pretty awful.

          4. For all his faults, I suspect Bill based on his good humor personality (which was a key difference of 1992 to 2016) and his personal history, was someone who related to “the help” and was decent to them.

            The Bushes were just plain used to having “the help” and were brought up with old New England values so were decent to them, but probably in a less personal way.

            Something interesting about Donald is every news report, and employees coming forward, indicate he is more a Bill than a Hillary. Salena Zito talked about how he stopped to talk to waiters, servers, ect, on the way to the stage as much, or more, than the GOP grandees. Explains why the later hate him and where a lot of his votes came from.

            2. There were reports that Donald would periodically visit the maintenance/housekeeping people of places he owned.

              They’d know problems that he needed to know about and he wanted to keep them happy.

              Oh during his campaign, Trump made sure that the local policemen were well fed and otherwise well-treated.

              1. I happened to be going through Salt Lake City when he flew in to return all that land to the local and tribal control– comparing and contrasting with when Obama flew into the Seattle area was amazing.

                I’m pretty sure we saw his plane land. And…there was no big impact on travel, as far as driving went. The kids and I stopped for “lunch.”

                In Seattle? We were way out from it, and EVERYTHING was nuts.

                I think Mr. Trump may take the incredible step of going “hey, local guys– what’s the least pain in the neck way for me to do X, Y and Z?”

                While Obama handed folks by them being handed his schedule and told to make it happen.

                1. worked at the airport for Clinton and Bush jr. Clinton it was lockdown, no one outside the terminal, no movement of vehicles, including the service road, and even street traffic.
                  Bush was post 9/11 so they stopped even the interstate while AF1 was on final, but not long after we just had to park and sit still while the plane landed and taxied (was driving to top off and got stopped once) but you could work a flight and be out on the ramp (AF1 went to the opposite side of the airport from the terminal)
                  Around 2003, it loosened up, and I was driving on the service road as AF1 was landing on the runway just the other side of the chainlink, just a few yards away, service trucks and fuel trucks were driving on the ramp like normal etc.
                  Wasn’t there for 0bama.
                  Also, if Laura wasn’t with him. GWB had the pilots “Just get me on/off the ground” and do short landings/tail-standing takeoffs. About as short as a 747 can do. Press corp that flew with him hated it. A 747 landing and stopping in 2700 feet is impressive

                  2. “Just get me on/off the ground” and do short landings/tail-standing takeoffs.

                    Saw a Freedom Bird do that at Osan once. When a 747 is climbing out on a steeper path than a U-2…

                    Press corp that flew with him hated it.
                    Feature, not bug.

              2. My cousin did a stint as a CEO (temp fill in as he was the CFO but it was a rather long temp stint), and took some of that Trump method to heart. When he decided to retire, people under him cried, while the board talked him into taking over a totally unrelated business, that was much smaller with less for him to do, just so they could keep him around. You talk freely with the lowest on the rungs, treat them respectfully (truly, not the false version so prevalent) and act on their concerns best you can (and explain why it might or might not be within reason) they will follow you through hell.
                My cuz went from cutting “sticks” in the woods (pulpwood for paper) to making a 2 year degree from community college into a stint as CEO where he could sigh and be relieved he was “taking a $250,000 a year pay cut”, when he went back to just CFO (like Larry, he’s a gun nut Accountant)

              3. There were reports that Donald would periodically visit the maintenance/housekeeping people of places he owned.

                And thus bypassing any yes-men with a motivation to hide problems to make things look good to the big boss, and instead talking to the people who actually knew what was going on.

              5. Trump understood that the last people who would tell you the truth about a project were the ones whose careers depended in its “success.”

                And it isn’t as if New Yorkers are shy about telling the top boss their opinions, especially if that boss has a rep for not firing the people following orders.

        2. I heard one story from a friend who was in the National Guard when Gore came to visit. IIRC, most of the people in his unit resented being dragged away from duties for a speech by Gore, and they resented even more being disarmed for it.

    3. I’ve heard similar RUMINT. Extremely nasty people…as opposed to the Bushes, who the staff adored.

  18. since no one ever needed a right to free speech to say that … ice cream tastes delicious.

    ——————————

    You’re too impatient! Give Michael Bloomberg a little time! He still has to work his way up from soda!

    As for fever swamps…

    One of the things that I found most irritating about Obama’s time in office was that I had to keep reminding myself that knowing about things like “Fast and Furious” and the many other outrageous things that his administration was up to didn’t mean that I was a tin-foil hat wearer. Every now and again I’d have to stop myself, take stock of what I know, and verify that I was still more or less on stable ground, and hadn’t wandered off into nuttery.

    3. “knowing about things like ‘Fast and Furious’ and the many other outrageous things that his administration was up to didn’t mean that I was a tin-foil hat wearer.”

      No, it meant you were a racist.

    2. Pretty much. It’s not a great idea to irk the people who make modern life modern (water/sewer, food on demand, electricity/gas, et cetera.) Unhappy plumbers can make lots of people even more unhappy.

      1. We cook your meals. We haul your trash. We connect your calls. We drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not f*** with us.

        I went back and watched the movie a couple of years ago. I was afraid it wouldn’t have aged well. Instead I found it more compelling in 2017 than the year it came out.

      2. Unhappy plumbers can make lots of people even more unhappy.

        I’m reminded of a certain scene from The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress

      3. It’s another situation where America’s European upper class wannabes forget that most Americans aren’t Europeans, don’t react like Europeans, don’t want to be Europeans, and left the damn place for a damn good reason.
        We don’t have that tradition of Knowing Our Place, Respecting Our Betters, Tugging Our Forelock When Our Lord passes by, ect.
        They just don’t grok us flyover deplorable bitter clingers.

        1. But we spelled it out for them! “A Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

          If you don’t want to be of The People, then you damn well shouldn’t be in government. Cause we’re not here for the government’s pleasure, they’re here for ours!

          1. They’re not especially patient, so they shorten that to “Government to the people.” And recommend we hope they do not shorten it again.

        2. Our politicians and bureaucrats, on the other hand, seem to have become thoroughly Europeanized; they perceive themselves as masters and us as serfs.

    3. Note that today is 2 December.
      On this date in 1942, Chicago did NOT blow up into a radioactive mess.
      “The Italian navigator has arrived in the New World. Natives friendly.”

  20. Bernie Sanders may be a communist, but the Clintons’ only ideology is themselves. They’re Clintonists!
    ———————————
    If you find yourself in charge in a crisis, you must either Do, or Delegate. If you don’t, you’re Dithering, which leads inevitably to the fourth D, Dying.

  21. Yeah, you can do that. You can route around. You can Samizdat.

    You, or at least some of you, can also rearrange your lives so that you are out from under the thumb, and you can tell the entire world exactly what you think, and that they can F-O if they don’t like it. I highly encourage this for those who can manage it.

    Ask yourself this: if this was 1933, in Germany, how hard would you work to try and change things? What would you risk? At the time, maybe not much. In hindsight, perhaps a hell of a lot more.

    So where are we now? Is it 1933? I personally think it’s a HELL of a lot closer than people think.

    1. I agree on the year, but not the country.

      We’re in Spain and as soon as a Dem gets the WH again we’ll go from ’33 to ’36.

  22. Regarding the whole freedom of speech discussion, the left is very fond of the famous Oliver Wendell Holmes quote that you cannot yell fire in a crowded theater. The thing is, if we followed their interpretation or rather the implementation they desire, theaters would require patrons to don locked ball gags before entry. What the left fail to grasp is that what the Holmes quote means is that if one does yell fire maliciously and with intent to harm one is not protected from the consequences of their actions.
    To be very clear, under our First Amendment I damn well do have the right to yell fire in a theater or anywhere else I wish to, but 1A does not give me a free pass should my action cause harm.
    I would also note that the Holmes quote was from a case where the Federal government was trying to silence protesters against the draft during World War One in 1917 and that ruling was at least partially overturned in a later SCOTUS case. Ironic, isn’t it, that the left with their legacy of protest stemming from the 1960s Viet Nam war demonstrations would cite a ruling intended to squash very similar protests from a generation prior.

      1. …and now I feel tempted to post a link to the wierding module scene from that 80’s Dune movie.

      3. And how long before that curves back around to bite them in the ass?
        Bloody idjits apparently cannot fathom the simple fact that a sharp edge cuts both ways.
        The thing is one of our fundamental beliefs is fairness and equal treatment under the law. And the left “bless their hearts” no longer pay even lip service to hiding their hypocrisy from the public.
        They have spit in the collective faces of a very large portion of American citizens and so far show sweet FA remorse for it. Trump in 2016 was just a taste of what’s coming down the highway with them in our headlights.

        1. Depends on the jurisdiction, doesn’t it? But this is why taking the judiciary is critical.

          Although the latest line of bilge from NeverTrump Central is that means we aren’t in favor of smaller government because we’re using the Leftist tactics against them.

          1. No. We’re clawing back some sanity from the enforcers of the law.
            The NTs need strings of pearls for Christmas. The ones they’ve been clutching are getting grimy.

            1. No, the NTs need the above mentioned ball gags for Christmas…as big as we can fit in there and with no towel for the saliva.

                  1. Phunctor is vaguely associated in my mind with “giving trouble.” I could be wrong… There are so many on that list. But that’s the back-of-the-mind feeling.

                    1. It might be the name, we had a guy who was one or two letters off of, um, medical term for a-hole, IIRC.

                      OTOH, it could just be an inability to resist poking fun.

                2. What, that wearing a gag makes you drool.

                  That should be obvious, but yes, yes I am. I thought I was fairly out about that 🙂

                  1. “You can’t fix stupid with duct tape.
                    You can, however, make it a lot QUIETER.”
                    — mistressmatisse, 23 Apr 2016

                    1. For permanent chastity I’m used to hearing about adding metal filings when supergluing the lock, I’m I’m good, yeah.

                    2. On a weird note, I do know a woman who asked for a scold’s bridle to help control her tongue.

                      I was a long few months for her.

          2. “… we aren’t in favor of smaller government because we’re using the Leftist tactics against them.”

            Sorry, small-government is not on the menu. That was demonstrated by Lois Lerner when the T.E.A. Party tried to order some on her watch.

            1. And even more conclusively demonstrated by the “you must vote Republican” GOPe when T.E.A. Part candidates won primaries.

      4. Well, then why should we not move up to less vocal ways of causing harm.

        If I’m going to do the time I might as well do the crime.

        It’s what they did to me with raciss/sexiss/homophobiss/transphobiss. Do they really want to do it with violence?

        Because once telling off a leftist puts me in jail, why shouldn’t I make the thing I’m paying for more satisfying.

      5. They say that our speech causes harm. (rolls eyes.)

        I have so far resisted the temptation, when confronted with that particular piece of idiocy, of providing the person uttering it with a practical demonstration of the difference between the “harm” from “hate speech” and “actual physical violence” (to quote an episode of Chicago PD .

        So far…

    2. Side note: If you look up instances of actual fires in crowded theaters, you find out why that’s such a potent quote. It’s why those push bars on the inside of outward-opening doors are nicknamed “panic bars.” (And why they exist, and why doors in public spaces open outwards…)

      1. One of my mom’s horrified early memories was of a theater fire, and of the bodies being brought out. I mean, she wasn’t in it, but she saw the aftermath.
        Doors opening outward, or easy-to run through isles were not a thing in 19th century theaters, converted to movie theaters. And the film itself was flammable as hell.

        1. One of my early nightmares – came from the ancient building at FEN-Misawa. It was a TOW (termination of war-era building; meaning frame-built in the late 1940ies-early 1950ies, and insulated with some weird local Japanese stuff which was basically pressed seaweed.) The way out of the TV control room – where I and the other board operators worked for the hours that the TV station was on air – led past the TV library (chock-full of reels of acetate film) and the radio library – full of pressed-plastic recording discs. There are people who have died because of the out-gas from burning records. (Can’t find the link at the moment – but the stuff is deadly, when burned.)
          There was a glass window between the control room and the front office – soon blocked off by the racks with the VCR machines, which my supervisors jovially informed me – that I could break with a chair, if I ever had to escape in the event of fire in the station.
          I hated working in that place – and the fact that it was a death-trap if it ever caught fire – was one of the main reasons.

          1. I was working at Spangdahlem in 1994, and to house the new servers, they had cleared out an old mainframe room because it met TEMPEST standards. Plenty of room for us and the machinery.

            Just two problems:
            1. It still had the old mainframe underfloor AC….. hard wired to keep the mainframe cool. You could hang meat in there.
            2. They also hadn’t gotten around to disabling the old HALON fire suppression system…. which meant that if the fire alarm ever went off for real, we had 30 seconds to clear the building before we were smothered by it.

            1. Why do so many people get that wrong? The whole point of HALON is that it puts out the fire without suffocating the people. I’ve seen several demonstration videos where they have a guy in a booth with a fire, they shoot in some HALON, the fire goes out, and the guy just stands there.

              Enough carbon dioxide to put out a fire will kill you in short order, but unless they use WAY too much HALON, the risk is minimal. They did advise us not to loiter in a room full of HALON, but the time scale was minutes, not seconds.
              ———————————
              Governments can only print money; they can’t make it worth anything. They can make it worth nothing.

              1. Again, I suspect that they were dumping enough Halon to smother the volume of fire you could get from the original equipment. Besides, airmen are cheap and contractors are cheaper…. 😉

            2. I worked in a hardened facility at Osan in the 80’s. We had the Halon system as well. The kicker is that, in case of evacuation, we were supposed to put a tape into a teletype that sent out a pre-canned message that we were down and for other sites to pick up the mission. While the timer on the Halon system was counting down.

              I formally requested that we get a couple of bail out bottles from the flight line to keep next to the teletype, but it never went anywhere.

        2. People tend to forget (if ever they learned) that before electricity the means of lighting enclosed places tended to be highly flammable, relying upon candles, oil and gas lamps. The term “limelight,” for example, harkens back to a time when stages were illuminated by

          means of an oxyhydrogen flame directed on a cylinder of lime and usually equipped with a lens to concentrate the light in a beam.
          Merriam-Webster

          so it is little wonder that the primary question about a theatre was not would it burn down, but when.

            1. OTOH, many flaming ballerinos* were just dandy.

              *Had to look that one up — there is no commonly recognized English term for male ballet dancers, proving ballet is sexist.

      2. Same reason revolving doors are not only flanked by normal ones opening out but also collapse with sufficient force. In disasters crowds are as or more dangerous than anything else

    3. They forget that the actual quote is ” . . . falsely cry ‘Fire’ in a crowded theater.” If the building is, indeed, on fire, well, then some notice is appropriate.

      2. There is also the fact that “it ain’t illegal if you don’t get caught.” Practically, the difficulties of being fingered as the one who started the panic and demonstrating you had knowingly called out falsely were sufficient to make it a fairly risk-free* endeavor.

        *Aside, of course, of the risk of being trampled

      3. Actually, the entertainer Eddie Foy, who was in the Iroquois Theater fire, implied that the custom was to get people out calmly by hiding the fact that it was a fire that was the problem. Hence keeping the orchestra playing and having singers keep singing, while everyone was ordered out. He was very bitter about the “fool” who broke protocol and shouted fire, because that was when panic hit and people jammed up the stairs and exits.

    4. Holmes was wrong.

      The 1st and 2nd Amendment are written in an absolutist way because the founders were well aware that even the tiniest chink in their armor would result, effectively, in their utter destruction.

      And so it has proved.

  23. Although the First Amendment only encompasses governmental entities, there was an interesting extension of it in the case Marsh v Alabama, in which the Supreme Court held that a “company town” had been sufficiently opened to the public to mandate that First Amendment activity be allowed. The function to which the property was placed was tantamount, not where title to the land rested.

    https://uscivilliberties.org/historical-overview/3630-company-towns-and-freedom-of-speech.html

    The proprietor of the Grim’s Hall blog suggested that this decision is relevant to Facebook, Twitter, et al.

  25. “I heard of Bill Clinton and flights in the Lolita Express”

    But none ever even thought there might be anything odd going on because Bill Clinton is a man who respects women and defends their rights, a man who would never sexually exploit a vulnerable gal. So says Jame Comey, and James Comey is an honourable man. So says John Brennan, and John Brennan is an honourable man. So says the New York Times, And, sure, the New York Times is an honourable paper.

    2. Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest—
      For Brutus is an honorable man;
      So are they all, all honorable men—
      Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.
      He was my friend, faithful and just to me.
      But Brutus says he was ambitious,
      And Brutus is an honorable man.

  26. This reminder that there are only 23 shopping days left before Christmas is brought to you courtesy of

    Matuschek and Company, Budapest.

  27. That’s the weirdest shadow graphic… took me a while to see broken handcuffs. To my brain it looked like a pair of robots.

    1. Every mind sees things differently. I saw the handcuffs instantly, but a couple of years ago, Sarah previewed the cover of her Vampire Musketeers novel Sword & Blood, and it took me close to a quarter of an hour to figure out the shirtless musketeer on the cover was not an amputee who’d tattooed his shoulder-stump, but a man pointing his rapier directly at the viewer so that the hiltwork was between the POV and his shoulder.

      Ever since then I’ve had a healthy respect for how everyone’s eyes fool them in different ways.

    2. *blink* Oh. I thought robots until I saw your comment. I think I just kind of figured I was missing a reference.

        1. Me too. Now that it’s been pointed out, I can see both. Kind of like the lies of the left….

  28. Us from Ganymede Lizard People are offend of the slanderous juxtaposition of we and leftist politicians.

  29. IMHO part of the reason for the increasingly paranoid behavior of the left is that they know there is communication going on but they don’t understand it/know what we’re saying. They just have the impression that we’re getting restive, and they don’t fully get it. Even though they obviously should.

    This is partly why they are so determined to invent some insane conspiracy theory to discredit everybody they don’t like. When the New York Times publishes a major piece decrying how Youtube radicalizes thousands of people to the far right, and yet there is only one example in the whole story, and that example refutes the very point of the story because he ends up de-radicalizing himself, and they don’t seem to understand why that’s a problem for their narrative, you know they’re high on something. Fear, most likely.

    Then there was the “study” a year or two before that which claimed, straight-faced, that any interaction at all between individuals constituted a “web”, thus placing former lefty, current libertarian Dave Rubin next to full-on neo-Nazis like Richard Spencer. Because he talked to someone who used to know someone who saw Spencer protest at 31 flavors last night. I guess it’s pretty serious.

    2. “outube radicalizes thousands of people to the far right,”

      And yet it seems hardly anyone gets radicalized the other direction, don’t it? Mighty peculiar system that only radicalizes one direction.

      Unless, of course, you hold it as axiomatic that nobody can be too far left.

      1. With the left holding total control of the public schools and the universities, I think “radicalize” is basically “oh, shit, they’re learning to disagree with us! NOT good!”

  30. Another stellar column from Sarah. There are people I’d love to send the link to, but alas, they’ll never read it, and even if they do, it will be thru the leftist-filter, so “what’s the point” I tell myself.

  31. Well the usual form is that things like Jeff Epstein fade away if the press doesn’t talk about them. Look at all the other scandals that have faded away. Even false flags that led to wars. This one may had invoked the Streisand effect. I hope so. Just DON’T LET IT GO people. Even if you are tired of hearing it. Even if a newer scandal seems more important.

    2. This weekend I was looking at a site that has home decorating advice (things like “this string of lights works well, but gets hot so don’t use it with real evergreens” type stuff.) There was a picture in a piece about how to hang things from mantles without using nails or causing permanent damage. The picture was captioned, “here you see [brand L] ornament hangers in use. The stockings, like Jeff Epstein, did not hang themselves. The hangers may be purchased at . . . ”

      Subtle, but there.

      2. I saw a comic set in an art museum with a similar theme. A tired-looking worker pointed to all the pictures he’d hung, then to a last one in the rightmost frame. “That Epstein didn’t hang itself.”

      3. Oh, the places I am seeing it. The phrase sums up a mood that should have people who think they are above us very, very scared. If they were smart they’d heed the warning while it is in good humor.

  32. I’m not — not even close — the most hot tempered on our side.

    Hell, as far as I know you’re not even learning how to manufacture your own munitions, much less figuring out the logistics.

  33. Second ultrasound.
    …
    Heartbeat flicker is still there, but it didn’t grow more than a day’s worth in a week.

      1. Thank you.

        I can’t… quite stop hoping yet, but it doesn’t look good. The doctor says with a normal viable pregnancy we should have seen more development.

        (But it’s trying so hard. 😦 He’s surprised the heartbeat is still going, even if they apparently still can’t measure it.)

          1. The thing is I’m pretty sure about the start timing and

            ….I hope he’s just taking his time. I don’t know how that would work, biologically speaking. Part of me thinks it would be easier to resign myself now.

            I’m not going to stop taking the progesterone unless it’s all over though.

        2. “Where there is life, there is hope.”

          For that matter, Fulton Sheen is being canonized this month for a stillborn boy they worked on for hours, past the last possible chance, and he just woke up after they finally called it quits and removed the medical equipment.

          It isn’t over until it’s over.

    5. Prayers, but also alternative theory: this one isn’t waiting until its born to be a little sh!t, but is getting shots in on mom now.

      1. Hey, I thought younger was dead. He didn’t move. Heartbeat was very slow. His size went the other way, though. As in “it’s impossible I’m that far along because we weren’t even near each other.
        And yet, he was born almost a month late. And there he is, completely functional and a pain in the butt.

        1. It would be nice if this one is just weird….Thank you for the reminders that sometimes they are just weird.

  34. “Totalitarian regimes create people who find a way to get around them.”

    One of my favorite fictional examples of this is Mr. Miracle, in DC Comics. He was Scot Free (yes, I know), raised on the hellish planet Apokalips. His response was to become the greatest escape artist in the universe.

    1. I have tremendous regard for the imagination of Jack Kirby but, alas, naming his characters was not his strongest suit.

  35. Way up above Sarah said “And all the time, all the time I thought “Right-wing fever swamps. I guess we have nutters too.”

    The published response of what the USA will do if attacked by another nation with WMDs, defined as nuclear, biological, or chemical, is to strike back with nuclear weapons. That’s it – no proportionality, no measured response. The thing about such threats is- for them to be viable, if it happens, you have to do it. Or do you?

    In SEP 2001 there was an anthrax attack on the USA. It was following these attacks that Bush started pushing for war against Iraq. Pushing hard.

    On 13 DEC 2003 Saddam was captured, and everyone knew he was headed for the noose. All his spawn had already been killed. No one even bothered trying to capture them alive. They were killed.

    The following is a quote: “On December 19, 2003, long-time Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi stunned much of the world by renouncing Tripoli’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs and welcoming international inspectors to verify that Tripoli would follow through on its commitment. And he did. Not any of our business which nutcase runs Libya, as long as they leave us alone. (Until Clinton and Obama screwed that up….)

    Q: Are these items related?
    A: IMHO, absolutely yes.

    The FBI proved themselves to be useful idiots, immediately going after Dr. Steven Jay Hatfill. Thus distracting everyone. The people who knew let them chase all their wild geese. Do you honestly believe that spooks and the CDC didn’t identify where the anthrax came from within 24 hours? Noise and misdirection – they knew where it was from, and not an American lab. Again, IMHO.

    Regardless of whether YOU think they’re connected, assume for a moment they are. Was that the correct response? Or should we have notified the world where it came from and dropped a few nukes to make our threat real? Along with that – would anyone have believed us?

    Looks to me like a good choice was made.

  36. They just have the impression that we’re getting restive, and they don’t fully get it. Even though they obviously should.

    Not fully? Not an iota. Drag Queen story time in communities not just of clueless soccer moms; but of South American Catholics, working-class normies, lesbians who’ve lost a beloved autistic daughter to trans-activists, and African Muslims, etc.

    And they are out-raged and shocked that anyone organised a protest. They are literally in tears at how they’ve been victimized. The top official has promised mandatory all-staff race- and gender-sensitivity training. Speaking to a sweet colleague who is otherwise very good a her job, I suggested that perhaps the protesters didn’t trust us because THEY didn’t feel they were “included”.

    ” Like we’re going to offer white-supremacy storytime-? ”

    No. Clue.

      1. Simple, Sarah. Anyone who disapproves of any Left proposal is a white supremacist. See also “racist”, “alt-right”, Nazi.

        1. It’s stupid and irrational. And by throwing us all in the same basket, they’re giving power to the REAL white supremacists (most of them not American, but foreign agent provocateurs, btw.)

          2. Maybe, but it is also effective for certain values of effective. And it’s rapidly being translated into legal precedent for excluding anyone so labelled from daily life.

          3. Some of them seem to be domestic agent provocateurs and/or false flag operatives – like that Obama supporter who organized the Charlottesville “Rally the Right” event.

        2. Also, there’s “Identity Politics” at work.

          Every group that’s not “Straight White” is “Special” and deserves Celebrations of their “Identity”.

          Being “Straight White” isn’t something to “Celebrate” because “Straight White” is “Evil” (unless the “Straight White” embraces Leftish Politics).

          Of course, if a “Straight White” embraces Leftish Politics, he still has to be ashamed of being “Straight White” and must “Honor” the Special Groups not being “Straight White” or being “Just An American”.

      2. Exact quote.

        Negative clues?

        And I must stress, the lady in question is polite, generous, conscientious, hard-working, and generally a pleasure to have around.

        All hail the Narrative.

  38. I remember writing about Epstein during the Obama years, I couldn’t get a hit on the piece to save my life.

    and as I’ve kept writing about it my web traffic simply disappeared.

    only a coincidence I’m sure

  39. Yes, OMERTA. I think that explains a lot of the slavish loyalty of the MSM to the Dems. For starters: you’ll never work in this town again.

  40. Absolute Truth !!! They won’t like us when we’re angry. And we’re angry NOW ! Millions of us, are very angry !!

  41. Pingback: “That much I can promise you. You won’t like us when we’re angry.” – Small Dead Animals

  43. I read Monster Hunter: Guardian over the Thanksgiving break and had a blast doing so. EAT TOES!

    2. Hmmmmm … frosted* sugar cookies, shortbread, or marzipan toes?

      Set out for Santa, of course.

      *for the nails, of course.

  44. Somebody with artistic skills ability, please craft a design suitable for posters, t-shirts and bumper stickers displaying a wide variety of firearms* with the legend: Celebrate Diversity.

    Idea free to a good home.

    *perhaps in silhouette

      1. Yes, a lady named Rachel Lucas here in Dallas came up with that idea quite a few years ago. She had a blog for a while, but got tired of dealing with the fallout, IIRC.

    3. My husband has that shirt!

      He wore it to the BBQ with the ATF guys. They wanted to know where he bought it, and at least two bought their own….

  45. …curtailment of free speech doesn’t actually silence people. It leads people to communicate in other ways.

    C’mon Trumpies, don’t accept being silenced or ignored by the enemedia. Communicate! Self-organizing a dozen of your number in your hometown then, oh, maybe holding up your homemade signs at a prominent spot on the daily commuter route for an hour or so during the commute hour for two, three, or four days in a row would be a good start.

    But you don’t need me or Trump Campaign Master Control or the Russians in Moscow to do your thinking for you. Self-organize. Think globally and act locally. Muster up your own creative ideas. If you try an idea and it’s a bust, you had a learning experience. Consider it tuition in your poli sci home study course of life. Take video and audio recordings. Send ’em to a few of the friendlier local TV stations and talk radio hosts. But do it. More doing, less talking. Go for it! I’ll be happy when you succeed but I’ll be thrilled just to see you give it a go.

    2. Hey everyone, look! A drive-by-troll! light ’em up!
      wait. you know what? anything this poorly written and missing the massive point is not worth the pixels.
      carry on

      1. Micha’s a rather persistent Insty troll, whose shtick is telling everyone they aren’t doing enough. Of course, he’s not stepping into the light himself.

    3. “Go for it!

      Funny, that’s the exact same reaction John Oliver had when Trump first announced he’s running for President. So yeah, good advice, apparently it does work out… for conservatives, at least. And like mentioned above, right-oriented media does seem to sell strong, going on stronger.

      To contrast, how’s that protesting on open roads been going lately? How’s that CNN rating holding up? Is it still enough for Fredo Cuomo to afford his happy pills so he doesn’t flip out in broad daylight… again? How’s Ruth Ginsberg – is her mummification going well, or are they taking her to Castle Frankenstein this time, with Igor preparing for the next thunderstorm? Oh, and how’s the whole “diversity” thing working out, given that liberals’ current best candidate to even reach the ballot box is merely a different white male billionaire businessman, with political experience as a Republican at that?

      All things considered, I don’t think conservatives are to worry about their self-organization endeavors. Leave that to the participation trophy crowd, who can’t run a lemonade stand without three volumes of government regulation telling them how.

    6. I’m sorry, unlike libprog ninnies we can’t just make signs and go protest during the commute. We’re driving to our JOBS then.

    7. …enemedia…

      Would that be a mashup of ‘enemy media’ or ‘enema meda’?

      It’s still treating English like ze German, either way.

  46. Pingback: Anger - BitsBlog
  47. Pingback: Rage – The American Catholic

  49. Thank you, Sarah. This articulates how I feel exactly. There’s an Alice in Wonderland feel to trying to impeach the President over investigating something that in a just world should have gotten Joe Biden impeached.
    The double standard stands in plain view as the media trys to tell us black is white. And anger is what I feel.

    1. I forget where I saw a tweet to the effect that the House is abusing its power for political advantage to attempt Trump’s impeachment on charges of abusing the power of his office for political advantage.

      IOW: Hey! We’re working this side of the street! Abusing power for political power is our thing!

  50. This! I’ve been thinking exactly this for a while now. If they’ve got a middle-aged computer programmer ready to hit the streets, they’re sitting on a powder keg of enormous size.

  51. Sundance over at the Last Refuge calls is “cold anger”(non-violent) at the absolute treachery of our ‘betters’ and I very much agree. If ‘they’ want to make it violent we are prepared.

  53. I did not know of you until I linked to this blog. I am now going to take the remainder of my Black Friday budget and fill my Kindle with as many of your books as I can afford.

    Thank you for bolstering my suspicions that we are legion and we are getting legion-er and more PO’d by the day. May God let our wonderful electoral system do its magic again in a year, and failing that, let us praise Him while passing the “potatoes.”

  54. And we’ve seen things that just ten years ago I’d have thought were insane: we’ve seen Hillary pardoned for crimes that would have sent anyone else with her clearance to prison.

    So one nit with a very large “bright side” note attached: The Dowager Empress of Chappaqua and Penultimate Patron of Chardonnay Vintners was not pardoned: She was Not Prosecuted in an egregious abuse of prosecutorial discretion and a idiotic press conference by Comey.

    The bright side is, there is no way to get past a pardon, just like there is not way to get past an acquittal at trial, but the crony craven FBI and DOJ not doing something they actually should have done is eminently reversible by any future less-evil DOJ.

  55. “Fellate” is spelled with 2 LLs. Outside of that, your piece was spot on the money. Obama proved to me very quickly that the Dems were iredeemably liars, corrupt, stupid, malicious, nasty, demented and dangerous thugs. My anger is deadly serious. The Dems are almost there at destroying this nation, completely. Kiss the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 9th, 10th, 14th, hell, all the Constitution and Amendments good-bye if they win this election. Only a bloody Civil War might save this nation, but realize the Dems are not our Brothers, anymore than Lenin and Stalin, etc, etc are our Brothers. We must never forget or forgive the Democrats. Liberty and Freedom must not die with a wimper. Lastly, why all the comments about Jews, here??? I didn’t know Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Pelosi, Obama, etc, were Jews. Jews are 2% of the Nation and 1/3 are Conservative. What about the other 48% of the fools that support the Dems???

    1. Yes, and I even know it, because I’d looked it up for an intro at instapundit. (Hey, don’t ask.)
      Unfortunately my first language only doubles r and s so I tend to be weird with double letters. Yes, I know what they do. But my fingers are stupid.

    2. Er… What about Jews? A sizeable portion of my readership — I think around a third — here are Jewish.
      We don’t have anti-Semitic comments — quite often found on other right leaning blogs — because I block trolls with Russian IPs. Yes, it’s that simple. Actually I block Russian IPs as much as possible.
      However, you can’t prevent people here getting upset at ANYONE of Jewish heritage who is cheering for the left. THEY SHOULD KNOW BETTER. And they’ll be on the front lines of suffering if the dems get in. The comments you see are MOSTLY family squabbles.
      A lot of my readers are gay, too, and if they feel like it they’ll you how they feel about gays that support totalitarianism.
      And as a Latin female, I have nothing but WITHERING disdain for Latins, particularly immigrants, who support socialists and communists.
      That’s all.

      1. “However, you can’t prevent people here getting upset at ANYONE of Jewish heritage who is cheering for the left.”

        Oh heck, sometimes some people even get upset over me and I’ve never apologized for the Left in my life (well, there was a “Forgive them, they cannot help themselves, they were raised by jackals” but that was long ago. And I’m so Jewish I sneeze in Yiddisch.

        Being one of the “Chosen People” is not, as Sgt. Harper might advise his “chosen men” any picnic.

        Not that I like picnics, mind — nasty unpleasant things, picnics are, what with flying insects as well as crawling ones, uncomfortable seating and (typically) cold-served food (but warm beer.)

        1. As my old buddy Michael would say from time to time. “G*D, I know and appreciate that we are Your chosen People, but would you consider choosing someone *else* occasionally?”

    3. . Lastly, why all the comments about Jews, here???

      ???

      There’s a decent amount of geekery on the subject– example, the whole Hebrewish-ancestry-and-or-Cultrally-Jewish thing, aligning with the sadly evergreen Catholic, Mormon and Evangelical versions– but other than having a lot of cultural-Jewish folks, and being a friendly sort of place, not seeing it.

        1. Also a few casually Jewish, as well.

          I think the term of preference is “observant Jews” but then, nobody even mildly acquainted with me would ever call me observant. “Oblivious” is the more commonly employed phrase.

          1. I am not in good word choice today. It’s been a weird day, including such joys as coordinating 2 vet and one human doc appointment and our less than a year old dishwasher going all over the kitchen floor.
            Yes, the idea of anyone here being “observant” is odd. But yes, I KNOW the proper term. My head is not working. One of those days you call everyone by the wrong name and all your words are “sounds like”

  56. Sorry, that should be “whimper”, nor “wimper”. Terrible things happen when one doesn’t use spell-check. And I’m 72 years old, my parents were refugees, but my father still managed to serve 5 years in the Army as a Master Sargeant, in the 2nd Armored Division. Both my parents would be spitting furious at what has happened in our country. All my life I’ve been nice and tolerant to the left, but that ended in 2009. And to think I donated to Obama, because I thought Clinton or McCain would be worse. I learned fast, as Obama’s lies became so appalling and the media protected him, and all of a sudden any and all dissent was “racist”, told to me by an Attorney General, who insulted me and all people of my skin color, as well as by almost all of the MSM, except for Fox, which I don’t watch(I don’t watch TV)… As he sold Guns to Mexican cartels…

  57. If you’re gonna rattle the cage bars it helps to have a firm grasp on which bars are less tightly set:

    THE RUSSIA HOAX IN REVIEW
    Scott Johnson, Power Line
    The Russia collusion hoax represents the biggest scandal in American political history. That’s not the way it is presented in the mainstream media, but they were active participants in the hoax. They are not inclined to look back or to try to understand what they have done. They think they are Woodward and Bernstein, but they are tools who are happy to be of use to their allies in the Democratic Party and the law enforcement/intelligence establishment.

    Two essential books investigate the story underlying the Russia collusion hoax. There are other books on the subject, but these two are, as I say, essential.

    The first is Andrew McCarthy’s Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency. I wrote about Andy’s book in “All the president’s men, Obama style.” The second is The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History. I wrote about Lee’s book in “All the president’s men, take 2.”

    Having written about these books, I was of course interested in how mainstream media outlets would assess them. Not entirely surprisingly, they have ignored the books. They have maintained what appears to be a discreet silence. Why? Perhaps for the obvious reason that the books belie the collusion hysteria that the mainstream media outlets pushed over the past three years, but I wonder if there isn’t more to it.

    McCarthy brings his remarkable professional experience and expertise to his account of the hoax. The theme of his book is pretext. In the concluding paragraph of the book he summarizes the variety of pretexts at work in the collusion hoax: “counterintelligence as a pretext for a criminal investigation in search of a crime; a criminal investigation as a pretext for impeachment without an impeachable offense; an impeachment inquiry as a pretext for rendering the Donald Trump presidency un-reelectable; and all of it designed as a straitjacket around his presidency.”

    [SNIP]

    Is it too much to expect engagement of any kind by the organs of the mainstream media with McCarthy’s book, or with Smith’s, let alone intelligent engagement? Apparently so. …

  58. Pingback: Hump Day: Don’t Suffer Fools Gladly, My Lady | The Universal Spectator
  59. Pingback: EPSTEIN DIDN’T KILL HIMSELF, YOU KNOW?  Rattling the Cage Doors…. – The usa report
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  62. Sarah, I am impressed by the clarity of your “rattling-the-cage-doors” article… It has always disturbed me that most literary and media tarts seem to have a ridiculous lurch to the left… Almost all Australian media comment about United States events seem to have originated at the Democrat propaganda dept.
    And then here you are…clear sighted…straight talking…and you write books!!
    It is refreshing to see decent people able to see past the left leaning media hype…
    I have actually observed left wing politicians using hypnotic language delivery for very effective results and what horrified me the most was that on every media entity that I observed the event replayed, they all presented it perfectly to get the left’s desired result…. a bit scary…
    So how do I think the left keep the party room on side?? ..Well it ain’t the true facts.!!
    Keep up the good fight Sarah..
    Cheers,
    Mal

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