This Is No Time To Get Wobbly

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I know you guys deserve a better treatment of this, but these are things I intend to touch on later, hopefully, if I can ease up on pain meds, in posts for PJM — which I have NOT quit. September just got eaten by a trip that was supposed to take a week, but got extended because of a death in the family and a funeral, and then dealing with various house-related things that went off the rails while we were gone — in more full detail.

And then October decided to get INTERESTING (it is 2020 after all) and I hurt my back ahem… to quote younger son (who was actually VERY worried and solicitous over me, but of course, well….is me.) “running like a dork” in an attempt to lose the poundage of the lockdown. Which has earned me a week of doing bloody nothing. Which is why I need to get off this blog post and go finish the short story they’re waiting an anthology for. Only between the muscle relaxants and the pain killers it’s been …. difficult. (No, not opiates. I HATE opiates. Just tylenol and ibuprofen. But for some reason the combination makes me sleepy. Also until yesterday I still had breakthrough pain. It just took the edge off.) The good news is that it’s just muscle pain. My fear was of course that like mom I had collapsing vertebrae. And the better news is that today it’s bearable without pain killers. I’m staying on pain killers today, though, because pain makes me cranky, distracted and TIRED.

Which is more or less how the current state of the elections makes me feel, too. More importantly, the state of most people in this country.

First, like the rest of you I am terrified of a democrat win in November.

Note I don’t think there would be any danger of it, not even VAGUELY if it weren’t for the fact that the democrats are promising next-level fraud. How do we know that?

  • first, past action. They managed to win the house in 2018 by acts of blatant flagrant fraud with the connivance of local authorities. I believe that is ALSO how Obama won in 2012. And possibly in 2008, though that’s considerably murkier, since the Republicans decided to run Senator McCain (and from an etimological point of view, was a surname ever so appropriate) a senator who openly disliked and reviled the GOP base and since a lot of empty heads voted for senator “but he’s black” Obama, to prove that they weren’t racist. (And instead absolutely proved they were racist, as in caring about race above all else. I remember a conversation with someone in my field who kept saying because she was going to vote for him because he was black and so well educated. GAH. This would be like voting for me because I’m Latin and look, my back is dry. Assumptions, anyone?) BUT 2012? At least Colorado was stolen. And I bet other places were too.
  • Second, the whole “Will you concede if you lose?” A party that knows they can win HONESTLY doesn’t need to keep trying to get their opponent to lock in to an early concession, without investigation. This is the move of someone trying to lock the opponent into being a good loser. Probably because they suspect — rightly — he’s neither McCain nor Romney.
  • THIRD because they TOLD us they intend to steal the election and HOW. The whole “red mirage” thing about how at first it will seem like an overwhelming Trump win. And then ultimately the dems will prevail.
    This is what we know as “The Boulder Victory” here in Colorado, because before the fraud became general by executive order, when they needed to overturn an election, Boulder could be counted on to find however many votes were needed, no matter how many photocopiers needed to be called to serve.
    Note the giveaway there is that never in the history of ever — except apparently in a marginal election, in a small place for something like dogcatcher, which the dems trot out when you mention their history of fraud — have “found votes” that mysteriously appear after the election flip the election for a republican. It’s amazing. must be magic.

Something that worries me even more is the right’s propensity to immediately engage the circular firing squad. Already, in response to uncertainty and stupid polls, weak sisters (sorry, yes, even you. I like you, but this is ridiculous) are sobbing out it’s all down to Trump’s abrasive personality and what he said and shouldn’t have said at the debate and sob sob sob.

In the wake of 2012 I watched various conservative sites do this, and tear themselves, the candidate and the whole GOP apart, hand wringing on what they did wrong. At that moment I wished the entire conservative wing had but one head and I had a hand the size of a large dried codfish with which to bitch slap them.

Less so, but I’ve already heard analysis of “why we lost the house” in 2018 on our side. Because, well, of course we should have won, even though all of the Western states except Texas are fraud sh*tshows, and even so the polls in Arizona, Florida, etc. were kept open for days after until the “desired” result was achieved.

Give me a break. We lost because of fraud. Want to do something about it? Study it, highlight it. Point out vote by mail is always prone to fraud. Point out Motor voter is an invitation to fraud. Get in the left’s faces and scream. Do not sit in a corner rocking and asking yourself what you did wrong.

Yes, you did something wrong. You conceded to the Marxists and let them claim moral high ground. Which they do whenever they win. And never concede even when they’re trounced. For heaven’s sake, the USSR, the fascist hell hole called China, Cuba, Venezuela, poor fucked up Africa whose worst colonial oppression came from having their best educated at our Marxist hellholes, and they’re still saying “it will work this time!”

Meanwhile we, proponents of the philosophy and way of life that FED THE WORLD start wondering what we did wrong.

We did nothing wrong.

And btw, dry your noses, and stop snotting into your sleeves. The left is not that great. They’re not efficient and they’re not invincible. Not even at propaganda, which is the only thing they’re semi competent at. AND THAT only if they control ALL means of information, which they keep forgetting they no longer do. IF they were, stuff like this wouldn’t continuously explode in their faces.

Look, yes, the communists were once very very good at agit-prop (agitation and propaganda) partly because they had the full force of the USSR behind them and well….Russia was good at propaganda too.

But there is something to rigid — let alone messianic, which they are — ideological regimes, that allow loyalty to supersede competence. Over time, they decline. It’s ultimately choosing yes men (and yes, women, and in the case of the current left, people who identify as yellow wingless dragons AND ornate buildings at the same time.) Most people who are creative or deep thinkers (to quote my husband to me this morning while I was brushing my teeth “Of course you’re thinking of something. You’ll always be thinking of something so long as you’re alive.”) are not “yes people.” Look at the crazy arguments in this blog. People who think about things and form their opinions, and are capable of thought have the most knock out drag out arguments (often over stupid crap.)

So idealogies that don’t allow disagreement, usually decay over three to four generations. The bad news for the left is that their long crawl was so long and so painfully drawn out by the stubborn …. Americaness of us that they are already in their fourth generation.

Do let’s us take the Jussie Smolleting of Wretched Whitmer. For the love of heaven, neither she nor the FBI trying to to get back at Trump for daring to declassify documents that prove their corrupt and lying bullshit, couldn’t even concoct a credible plot against her. I mean, what the frick sense does it make to kidnap A GOVERNOR? She’s not queen. Kidnapping her doesn’t mean the state is leaderless. It means someone else of her party steps in, and helps find her. “Keeping her in a secure location in” another state? Yeah, because like in old westerns, once you cross the border, you’re safe from extradition. And what WERE they going to do with her once they kidnapped her, precisely? Sell her downriver to Rio? (Snort, giggle.) A credible plot would be to assassinate her, in revenge for the lockdowns, maybe. But of course, for THAT they’d need it to be a credible and present threat not just steam blowing, which I suspect every citizen in her state has done.

Instead the “big plot” they came up with reminds me of a line in a book about plots against Queen Elizabeth. “The only thing that explains this is that everyone at the time must have lived half drunk.” (I think it’s more everyone at the time lived under the boot of a totalitarian regime, so of course, what survives is the regime’s version. And it’s not a good look.)

They’re not competent.

As we found in 2020 they’re not even sane. This entire bullshit of lockdowns and inflating the danger of Winnie the Flu was concocted as (as Jane Fonda would put it) as an answer to their prayers of how to take the economy down. They also got as a bonus, having more people rely on TV for news than ever before. (Though if they were confident of that, they probably would not be talking about Red Mirage.) Which is something they dearly wanted. Oh, and they drove half of the American people completely fricking insane. In interesting, unpredictable ways.

But mostly they made us REALLY angry. And my guess is if they fraud their way to power, that anger, and the sheer orneriness of the US will ultimately defeat them.

Now, whether we can do it in time to save our country, I don’t know.

We might not. And the idea depresses me beyond measure. Yes, I know the ideas will return. You can’t kill ideas, but I became an American because I wanted my kids, my grandkids, world without end to be Americans. Not the same as the rest of the wretched world.

If this is what was going to happen, rationally, I should have stayed in Europe where I had family connections and credentials for a life of ease. And yet, I can’t really regret having come here, having got to be American while there IS an America.

Nor can I be Portuguese enough to emulate the probably apocryphal manner of death of the national poet, who is said to have died as the Spaniards took over Portugal, saying “The country dies and I die with it.”

No. I intend to live and continue working for the restoration of America. Even if that necessitates (well, it’s the “push” I’m getting) retreating into just fiction for a while.

I will not sit down, I will not shut up, I will not engage in self-recrimination.

Our incompetent, half mad Marxist overlords can wait till the end of the world for me to bend the knee to their fraud and lies.

I will however offer their version of events something: these are my middle fingers. They’re very American, and I have a matched set.

442 thoughts on “This Is No Time To Get Wobbly”

  1. Less so, but I’ve already heard analysis of “why we lost the house” in 2018 on our side. Because, well, of course we should have won, even though all of the Western states except Texas are fraud sh*tshows, and even so the polls in Arizona, Florida, etc. were kept open for days after until the “desired” result was achieved.

    We didn’t “lose the House”. The other side barely eeked out a token win after every conceivable advantage was thrown in their lap.

    1. The actions of Paul Ryan to sabotage the GOP sure didn’t help either. Now he continues his efforts at Fox.

      1. Ryan, Romney, and Roberts.

        What is about R names and stabbing us in the back? Neither “Judas” nor “Iscariot” start with an “R”.

        2. It is unlikely but …

          The main flaw in Justice Roberts, as I perceive, is that he pays greater fealty to the perceived legitimacy of the Supreme Court than he does the Constitution. He is an Institutionalist rather than a Textualist.

          This, it can be argued, is a flaw because the Court, as institution, derives its legitimacy not by popular support but by adherence to the Constitution, but I acknowledge that in these ignorant over-heated times it makes little difference: Institutional legitimacy is now effectively granted by the intelligentsia, a more stupid and maleducated class this nation has never seen.

          Any attempt at Court-packing should alienate Roberts, make him a more reliable textualist vote — little good that might do — and, as with Lindsey Graham during the Kavanaugh inquisition, graft testicles onto Roberts. It might even offend Kagan and Breyer (Sotomayor is, I am persuaded, a hopeless mediocrity, full of herself and utterly lacking in integrity.) The newcomers packed into the Court might even find themselves resentful of their blatant pawn status (especially if given some appropriate nickname, such as the Inferior Five) and prove malleable in the hands of Thomas and Alito.

          Not that I’m betting the rent on it but things have a strange way of working out.
          –

      2. “Everyone has a price”. But the Elites are quickest to name it seems. Whatever Paul Ryan wanted, he gave them the GOP for it.

      3. “Everyone has a price”. But the Elites are quickest to name it seems. Whatever Paul Ryan wanted, he gave them the GOP for it.

      1. One of the many reasons I’m (mostly) not afraid of this election: I’ve seen what they have to offer. I wasn’t impressed.

        Also yay! Return of the Foxfier. Let me just figure out something to start an argument over……

        1. I’m not back yet! Just getting a day to MOSTLY sit inside while the grandparents, Auntie, and Almost-Uncle hang out with the kids.

  2. And the better news is that today it’s bearable without pain killers. I’m staying on pain killers today, though, because pain makes me cranky, distracted and TIRED.

    GOOD because to quote my mom– who also almost never takes the good advice– they do not give medals for this! There is no “You Toughed It Out” award.

    Now going back to reading.

    2. Yep, and if you’ve got a reason to be on anti-inflammatories, bearable is not a good enough reason to stop. It’s not identical to the problem with stopping antibiotics before the infection is sufficiently dead, but there is a semi-analogous issue in that having already gotten out of balance once, the problem is likely to resume/continue self-perpetuating.

      1. *nod*

        One of the nurses with Baby #1 helped mom beat it through my head that if I wait until it hurts to take more, then I’ve waited too long– because the level in my blood will keep dropping until my body absorbs the anti-inflammatories. Smaller, maintenance level doses when I start feeling it without thinking about it will result in a lower over-all amount needed, thus lower risk of dependency.

        Both the nurse and my mom knew I’ve got a fairly high pain tolerance. (Which makes me feel so bad for folks who don’t, pain SUCKS and being able to feel it faster must be…. ugh.)

        1. When I was recovering from surgery I took MUCH longer — like 4x longer — than doctor expected. Halfway through she found I wasn’t taking pain killers (I HATE opiates) and said that’s why. She said actual pain can retard healing.
          Don’t know if it’s true. But she switched me to ibuprofen/tylenol, and I was fine.

          1. I know that pain– even if you get accustomed to it, so you don’t “feel” it but if you think about it you know it’s there– is a constant stress on the system; there’s also the swelling which is obviously not great for healing.

            Vitamin M is big with the Marines for a reason!

            (K, it’s usually not namebrand motrin. But still.)

            1. My rheumatologist is not amused with my high pain tolerance…”I understand you have high pain tolerance, but you have active inflammation…can you try taking a daily anti-inflammatory to try and knock the inflammation back?” The problem is I sort of want to keep the ibuprofen or naprosyn (Alleve) in reserve for when I DO start feeling pain.

              1. Two tabs per day keep the arthritis under control, mostly. (Big toes, and *not* gout. Don’t want to discuss hands. I hate digging.)

                1. I had a prescription for Percocet once so I could sleep through an attack of gout. I’ve been drunk but never stoned so I was actually curious what the effect would be. I got all ready, took the Percocet and … nothing, absolutely nothing. it didn’t make me drowsy or anything and it certainly didn’t touch the pain. Doctor said that different people react in different ways.

                  I was a rugby player into my 30’s so i take a lot of Ibuprofen.

                    1. I had a prescription for Percoset – and for me, it worked like supposed to. Felt like someone had sneaked up behind me and clubbed me into instant unconsciousness. I stopped taking it as soon as possible. Saved the extra against later need…

                    2. I was on Skelaxin. When in full throttle pain from back spasm I took two pills supposedly every 4 hours by prescription. Reality check, every 6 to 8 hours, because it knocked me out. Not that it helped with the pain. Until I started going to Chiropractor, it always took 8 to 14 days for the lock to loosen; another week for the muscle pain to go away. If my back tweaked & I had the Skelaxin on hand, then it helped relax enough to prevent the lock, even 1/2 dose. If I didn’t have it on hand, even the doctor calling it in, was too late.

                      Additionally, using 1/2 dose on backpacking trips at night, kept muscles from tightening up (between carrying 30 ~ 35#s, & sleeping on ground). Having my back trigger in the middle of the wilderness was so not a good idea. Note, this was before we knew exactly what was happening. The last prescription fill was never completely used because we learned that the Chiropractor could break loose the lock. The pain then could be managed with OTC options, or you know, a reminder not to be stupid. As far as backpacking at that point, I knew how to not move to not allow the lock to occur when stiff in the morning. Only reason I remember the drug name is I went looking for different muscle relaxants. Don’t have it in the medicine cabinet anymore. Haven’t taken it in at least 8 or 10 years.

          2. Opiates are the spawn of something incredibly nasty. I don’t even like strong narcotics. Morphine is right out. I sometimes wondered if I was the only one with that reaction.

            2. You’re not. I don’t take them unless I have to. The thing that pisses me off is that me and my doctor don’t get to make that decision; the malpractice insurer and the plaintiff’s bar do.

              Which is why my spine doctor had veto power over my dentist providing painkillers for a dental infection treatment even though no one was in the spine doc’s office because of Wuhan Flu to approve it.

            3. When I fell into an airplane and broke my left collar bone (while I was working in Panama, Howard AFB) the Air Force doc handed me a 100-tablet container of Tylenol III, the ‘good stuff’ with codeine. I can see how some people could get attracted to the stuff, but I don’t like having my head in a fog. After about three days my body had adjusted to the New Normal and I was able to get by with aspirin and careful movement.

            4. It seems to largely go in inverse of pain tolerance– my dad has crazy high pain tolerance and gets weird and loopy on normal OTCs. He only got up to the point of taking Tylenol about once a week and aspirin every day in the last five years.

              While my sister in law gets agony from little scrapes and shrugs off Vicodin.

          3. Actually pain can impede healing, but also much healing happens when we are asleep – which is one of the reasons they want us to sleep as much as possible initially. I had to have a kidney out and all they were giving me was extra strength Tylenol. Well it was the day after the surgery that it fully hit, yes I really was only starting to be awake. Stupid nurse told me that I had to wait as the next time I could get a pain killer was not for another hour, (I did have a script for codeine). I screamed so much that an older nurse came in and contacted the doctor who said give it to him now.

            1. ….

              This suddenly reminds me of a previous occasion when our hostess mentioned determining that painkillers were making her sleep not as a direct side effect but because she hadn’t realized the degree to which pain she no longer consciously noticed was interfering with sleep…..

              1. Yeah, that was shortly after the surgery.
                To this day if I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t sleep, if I take two ibuprofen I drop off like a baby.
                I’ve tried to tell both my sons this. No avail, but I tried.

        2. High pain tolerance has its disadvantages as well.

          Like ending up in the hospital for a week, because you never felt the slightest twinge of pain despite having severe double pneumonia…….

          1. My only downside, so far, is a tendency to get blood stains on stuff because I don’t realize I’m bleeding until I feel the cold. Bleepin’ thin skin.

            1. The pain toleration is why I end up in the hospital every 5 years or so, trying to die.
              Because I don’t realize how bad it is, and it’s not till I collapse (and last time went into the “crowded room” which when I casually mentioned it freaked my two friends who are end-of-life-nurses. But it’s okay. I came back. Had to. Dan was calling) that Dan realizes how sick I am and tosses me in the back of the car (against my protests) to take to ER.

            2. Same here – very high pain tolerance: did childbirth totally Lamaze without any painkillers until afterwards. Also – a tendency to bruise hideously – and quite forget having bumped against something, until I break out in glorious technicolor purple a day or so later.

              1. I do the bruising thing too. Never considered myself high pain tolerance. But I guess the “how’d you get that bruise” answer is “DIIK” (darn-if-I-know), I must be.

                I don’t have the “why are you bleeding” issue my husband does. But then I’m not on his daily blood thinner either.

              2. Thankfully, I don’t bruise easily (which would worry me; there was a young man at our church when I was growing up who mentioned something of the sort and it turned out he had a form of leukemia that killed him shortly thereafter.) But it does mean that I used the phrase “at least I know I deserve my bruises” and shocked someone who thought I meant it morally.

              3. I have high pain tolerance as well. Broke a bone in my foot, and didn’t fully realize it was broken until a few weeks later, when the pain wasn’t going away. Intern who looked at my foot couldn’t believe I wasn’t in massive pain over it. When I had my hysterectomy, I was the talk of the nurses desk because I was not in that much pain, and was on acetaminophen only. I’m super allergic to narcotics and opioids make me seriously loopy, so it’s probably just as well.

                1. Oh, same here – broke a bone in my foot, had been walking around on it for nearly a week before a client who was an osteopath nagged me into going into the emergency room to have it seen to.
                  OK, I could walk on it, OK? Yea, it hurt a bit, first thing in the morning, when I got out of bed – but I could walk on it OK?
                  It’s just that the swelling hadn’t gone down, after a week …
                  Yeah, I had a cast on it for a month. And I couldn’t get an appointment to have the damn thing taken off, when it was due to come off.
                  Took it off myself with a Dremel and a screwdriver and some other tools, I was so pissed at not having it off when I should have had it removed.

          2. Some day I may be free to talk more to some of the folks here about a rather hilarious medical misadventure.

            Oh, that is just X, I can tough it out, turned out to be Y, and the context makes it even funnier.

          3. Or noticing that your pancreas has digested about 25% of itself because the doctor who removed your gallbladder lost a gallstone that blocked the pancreatic duct.

        3. I feel like I’m a total wimp about it, but I am… not actually sure if I have low pain tolerance overall or just compare myself mainly to people who work through stuff that scares me and sometimes end up hurting themselves worse that way.

          I don’t remember feeling the need for a lot of painkillers after giving birth, but then, I didn’t have a C-section or severe tearing. I took them very diligently on schedule after having my broken leg reassembled. (Before reassembly… um… I spent a few hours in disbelief/denial before seeking medical attention. My first association with fentanyl is positive. No desire for it under normal circumstances though.)

          1. “My first was almost ten pounds and I didn’t tear too badly.” “Yes you did, honey, it was a second-degree tear even with the episiotomy.” “Was it? Uh…”

            That was my longest recovery, what with feeling worn out for several days afterwards. I didn’t deliberately not take pain pills, I just forgot to take them because I wasn’t hurting. Whee…

      1. In an effort to lose the lockdown [amount redacted] and lower my blood pressure, I bought a deskcycle.
        It’s easy pedaling that you can do when you’re sitting down working on the computer.

        That might be a better option than running for low-impact exercise that doesn’t take time away from other tasks.

      1. It’s *supposed* to be a splint to get you back down the mountain, to folks who can set it right. What it turns out to be is a background fuzz that you don’t notice sometimes for months at a time, that you weren’t feeling quite right, or that you were getting tired easier. You get depressed, lose your temper, and can become a general, all around grump (not that there’s much difference in my case, if I’m being honest).

        It’s not on purpose. At least, I wouldn’t have asked for it this way, and I highly doubt other folks would either. When you barely notice the pain your body is ignoring signals that are important- “hey! You’re damaged. Don’t do that again. And fix yourself!” It’s annoying to have to clean up the blood when you can’t remember getting cut/punctured. It’s worse than annoying when your doctor says you’re lucky to be alive after what was supposed to be a routine checkup.

        1. I leak right well because of warfarin. My last one got $SPOUSE quite annoyed because it was on the light-blue sheets. Mercifully, Oxiclean likes to digest my bloodstains.

          Doc gave me an additional set of exercises for not-quite-sciatica, but a well and truly pinched nerve. I’ve gone through the stretching bit for previous pains, and that set is now on the daily cycle. The Lab-Aussie likes it because I’m on the floor in ready licking distance. She’ll stop after I pet her in return. Fair enough.

  3. I had thought the United States was rid of The Wobblies long ag. I think their contemporaries, The Know-Nothings, have taken over the Democrat Party.
    –

    1. With an arguable break for Truman, the Democrats have been peddling their “We are the Aristocracy, do as we tell you” bullshit ever since before the Civil War.

      Harry spent a lot of his time trying to clean up the messes that sonofabitch FDR had created. He didn’t finish.

      JFK was a handsome mediocrity, put in the White House by a first rate political machine, paid for by Daddy (who was scum). The Democrats have been trying to find another JFK ever since, coming close with Bubba Clinton (two thirds the charm, twice the smarm, arguably smarter, and a crook) and John (I didn’t realize that being an incautious anti-war twit would make claiming to be a war hero problematic) Kerry. God alone knows what they mean by nominating Grandpa Grope and the Wicked Witch of the West. Seriously, they’d have done better sticking pins at random in a phone book.

      1. I thought that was Shrillary? Or MaligNancy?

        Hell, they’ve got enough Wicked Witches to pack the east and west quadrants of the compass solid. They might even have to get into fractional degrees! What is it about Leftoid females? Did the Left drive them barking mad, or were they already batshit crazy and sought congenial company?

        1. Harris is worse than Her Shrillness, if only because she has more stamina. Pelosi isn’t in the running against those two; as her fumbling over the last (nearly) four years shows.

          Just my opinion, of course.

          Seriously, though, every recent picture of Her Shrillness looks like she’s devolving into a blob. I’d say that, unless he actually gets to the White House (which ages Most people FAST), it would be a toss-up who had to be confined for their health first; Grandpa Grope or Bubba Clinton’s charming wife Bruno.

        2. If you hunger for power, the philosophy of feminism is not going to promote your mental health.

          Beyond that, they lived through the sexual revolution.

          I cannot disprove the existence of women who are not harmed by such behaviors. That hypothetical does not appear to be a majority. There seem to be many men and women who are scarred up from the sexual revolution.

          1. If you hunger for power over women, the pathology of modern Feminism will provide you with endless prey. Naive, indignant, lacking anything resembling situational awareness or ability to fight. And, as the popularity of THE HANDMAID’D TALE appears to demonstrate, guiltily titillated by maledom/female victim fantasies.

            *shudder*

            1. Notice, however, that the TV show began showing June mouthing off and acting up and generally doing things that would have gotten her severely punished — with no consequences. My own suspicion is that they were afraid that any realism might burst their fans’ bubble

    2. Not that long, I guess. U. Utah Phillips, a strong supporter of the IWW, died in 2008. The college radio station broadcast a show he did in 1973 or so, and that was Wobbly central. (OTOH, he’s also the perpetrator of “Moose Turd Pie”, so he wasn’t a complete loss.)

      “It’s good, though.”

      1. Leslie Fish is an actual Wobbly…. who’s being called a “right-wing shill” on FB because she’s pointing out the Antifa/BLM BS.

  4. And, of course, the initial claims that it was a “right-wing” group going after Whitmer quickly pivoted to “it’s STILL Orange-man-bads fault” when it came out that one of the ringleaders (at least one,) is ALSO anti-Trump.

    But it’s still Trumps’ fault.
    Really

    1. I fully expect that, as information dribbles out, the “right-wing militia” people will be Democrats and BLM supporters, if not Antifa.

        1. Meanwhile, you’ve got people on this site calling for banning the ISPs of those whose views they find disagreeable.

          There’s always a reason……

          1. Next you’ll be saying there’s no difference between private property and public resources.

            It is already policy that trolls may be banned here, is it not?
            –

            1. No, I’m pointing out your galactic level of hypocrisy. As for being a troll, O kettle, thou art black.

              1. Says the pot, eh?

                As for hypocrisy, I cannot be held accountable for your incapacity for simple distinctions such as that between private and public sector.

                For the record, it is already established that certain topics are basis for suspension of posting privileges here, including but not limited to, The War of Southern Secession and Theological Doctrinal Differences. I merely proposed an additional cause – defeatism – to the list.
                –

      3. Wasn’t the initial number six? Call it two raving Anarchist twerps, two Antifidiots, and likely two FBI agent-provocateurs.

        Wasn’t it said of the KKK under Reagan that they would have a hard time forming a softball league except for the FBI agents undercover?

            1. There are reports depicting this as an even greater Charlie Foxtrot:

              Militia plot may have aimed at ‘arresting’ Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, not kidnapping: sheriff
              A Michigan sheriff who shared a protest stage with two of the seven men accused of scheming to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer downplayed the alleged plot as an attempt at a citizen’s arrest.

              Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf suggested in an interview with Fox 17 West Michigan the men may have an explanation for their actions.

              “It’s just a charge, and they say a ‘plot to kidnap’ and you got to remember that,” Leaf told the station. “Are they trying to kidnap? Because a lot of people are angry with the governor, and they want her arrested. So are they trying to arrest or was it a kidnap attempt? Because you can still in Michigan if it’s a felony, make a felony arrest.”

              “I have to look at it from that angle and I’m hoping that’s more what it is, in fact, these guys are innocent till proven guilty, so I’m not even sure if they had any part of it,” Leaf added.

              Leaf took part in a protest in Grand Rapids in May against the state’s coronavirus lockdowns and appeared on the same stage as two of the men, Michael Null, 38 and William Null, 38. The brothers were among six accused in the plot who were arraigned Friday night on a slew of state terror charges, the state attorney general announced.

              When questioned, Leaf expressed no regrets about associating with the accused terrorists.

              The sheriff insists the Null brothers were always very nice and respectful and that he was “shocked” at the accusations.

              “The two gentlemen that I know of from my county, were they involved in that? I don’t know. They’re innocent till proven guilty. And we really, really should be careful, trying to try them in the media,” Leaf said.

              The sheriff said he feels for the governor and that no one should be threatened with violence.

              “I haven’t read everything up on it, I’ve got other duties to do, it wasn’t our investigation,” adding he had no regrets about being on stage with the pair.

              Both Null brothers are being held on a $250,000 cash bail and if convicted could face up to 22 years in prison.
              –

    2. This is just like many of the Police shooting issues. The left starts screaming OMG there was an unarmed {name your minority} shot by the police for no reason. After 48-72 hours most times the reasons start flowing in, but the MSM notes NONE of this. They are absolutely in the tank for the Tranzi/SJWs and don’t even try to hide it any more.

      1. As with so many real issues, the Fascist Left has stunk up the issue of police reform so badly That it may take decades to accomplish anything worthwhile on that from, if we can ever get them to drop it.

        1. There will also never be true reform as long as the police are used as a means to enforce the nanny state and its vast amount of rules that seek to micromanage every aspect of our lives. Ultimately every single one of those rules is enforced by an officer with a gun.

          1. There’s actually some pushback going on, if you keep up with it. Occupational Licensing is being fought, and the good guys are winning a few. The Supreme Court has ruled that ‘excessive fines’ are a Constitutional violation. And asset forfeiture is being worn away, albeit slowly.

            And, of course, Trump is doing as good a job as a mere President can be expected to on reining in the EPA and Department of Ed.

            You can hear the squeals, from time to time.

            1. In the Peoples Republic of New Jersey, they just added a bunch of more occupational licensing, including for things like “dance therapy” and “art therapy”, among others.

              1. Yes, but that’s New Jersey. As the joke goes about the Curate’s egg, “Parts of it are excellent”…but none of those parts involve governance.

                1. Yes, but New Jersey’s policies and attitudes are standard for the Democratic Party; thus if Democrats take power nationally, its insanity, like California’s, goes national as it gets imposed at a Federal level.

            2. Many thanks are due to the Institute for Justice for these victories. (Most of them, anyway. Not sure whether it’s ALL of them.)

    3. I have never understood how anyone could see Bill Clinton as either handsome or sexy. To me, he was obviously a crooked Southern politician and yes, I’m a southerner, I,can say it.

      1. Give the swine his due, he carried himself well. His voice annoyed me, but I’m picky. And before you trash on his looks, consider some of the other rat-faced toads the Democrats have offered up for worship by the Proles.

        My favorite remark about Kerry was that he looked like Lurch’s brother who had been to Choat.

          2. Oh, me too! He lied as a matter of reflex, rather than from necessity. His policies were tripe. His famous ‘triangulation’ struck me as nipping in front of a lynch mob and pretending it’s a parade. But he was at least twice as politically savvy as his Charming Wife Bruno (a phrase coined by The American Spectator, and which always struck me as apt), who was his biggest political liability.

            However he annoyed my far LESS than Obumbles. And I strongly suspect that Al ‘wandering blizzard’ Gore would have annoyed me more than any two Democrat Presidents and a Women’s’ Studies Professor to be named later.

            1. Let’s not forget the role of Al and Tipper Gore in the effort to censor music and other entertainment they didn’t like.

              1. In the case of popular music with explicit lyrics, I’m torn. On the one hand, it tends to be tiresome and vulgar. OTOH, censorship, especially by the State, ranges from pointless to dangerous.

                For me, it comes back to the problems associated with jumping from “ all OK” to “verboten” in one go. There are all kinds of ways to dismiss drivel without suppressing it. Words like Tiresome, Vulgar, Trite, and the like should really be used more.

                But I’m a grouch.

                1. ” There are all kinds of ways to dismiss drivel without suppressing it.”

                  Personally, I’ve found the OFF button works just fine.

                  1. I guess in my ideal world, when something like Andres Serrano’s PISS CHRIST was up for federal funding, it would be dismissed not on the grounds that it was blasphemy, but because it was obvious tripe.

                    2. In my ideal world it wouldn’t get government funding because government is not supposed to be in the art funding business. For ANYONE.

                    4. It is well-established fact that it is private (corporate) money which corrupts science and art. Funding from other than boards of certified experts always taints the recipients. Only people spending other people’s monies can be reliably altruistic.
                      –

        2. Dollar Billy spoke mostly standard American English. He apparently spent a lot of time getting rid of the rural Arkansas accent when he went off to school in Yankeeland.

          It was a surprise when I saw him on TV after he started campaigning for President. It was a ridiculous over-the-top “elder statesman” makeover, and even when I pointed it out to people who had seen him just weeks before, they couldn’t see it. The suddenly-greying hair, the 40-pound strap-on belly, cheek fillers (?), and the weird “Marlon-Brando-as-hillbilly-Godfather” accent, totally different from the way he spoke before.

          Memories like goldfish, in their world he’d always been that way… people look, but they don’t see. Or maybe it’s vice versa.

  5. Though I was a member of the AFL-CIO-affiliated IBEW, I have never,nor will I ever be, associated in any way with the Industrial Workers of the World.

    1. There is a really obnoxious ad being run by a Democrat running for reelection in New Jersey which claims “he can’t be bought” because he doesn’t take any corporate campaign money and that he is not beholden to special interest groups as a result. However he takes in millions from unions, particularly public employee unions, as well as leftist and Democratic Party PACs. So apparently corporations are special interest, but government employee unions are not in his warped view.

      He is running against a strong Republican candidate (for NJ, even though like almost all NJ Republicans he is pretty much a RINO but better than the Commie Dems) with name recognition, and is, along with allied PACs, running a nasty smear campaign.

      Of course with the mass fraud by mail NJ Dems have imposed it won’t matter anyway.

      1. Yeah, that. A quick wiki-bloody-pedia scan on AFL-CIO shows that the two biggest member organizations are the AFT and AFSCME. Teachers and government workers (though I repeat myself), neither of which (to my way of thinking) fit the traditional definition of ‘labor’ nor ‘industrial’.

  6. But mostly they made us REALLY angry.

    When we get back to a stable internet connection– AKA, “not my phone”– I’ve got some pictures and observation on campaign signs.

    Short version, there’s a lot more Trump, and there’s a big variety (pro and home made, plus flags) but the really interesting thing is I can tell with about 90% accuracy if the signs are Dem or Rep by where they are placed.
    The Dem signs are almost all out by the front of the yard, or on public property. (such as the side of the road, near public parking, on medians, in the public areas that aren’t maintained as part of the park but are legally part of the park, such as between sidewalks and roads)
    The Rep signs are placed more like yard ornaments that might explode; near the door, or sort of sheltered from easy access in a yard, or they are securely placed like one alcove I saw where the U shape around a drainage ditch had (didn’t get a picture) been turned into a Trump and other politicians shrine, with solar lights, because there is NO WAY to reach it other than over the eight foot solid wood fence at the back.
    I have seen ONE Trump sign that was placed “like a Dem” sign, and my shock at realizing it was a Trump sign was what triggered the identification of the tendency for difference. I don’t describe it very well, and no pictures for THAT for obvious reasons, but something to look around for.

    My sample is pretty odd– Iowa to Virginia, avoiding Chicago and DC proper both– but between that and noticing the only folks following mask orders are the non-trucker folks with out of state plates and the people in cities, “really angry” pretty much covers it. Angry, and recognizing there’s a good chance some a-hole will set your sign on fire.
    Dems do kind of have a history of setting stuff on fire in folks’ lawns, to make an obvious, cheap, but accurate, shot.

      1. I mean, would you rather use Wolf or Tula to reach and touch someone in a small vital area, or a Black Hills Match OTM? ….

            1. That reminds me, I need to load up some more .223 for the poodle shooter, just in case the neighborhood gets festive in early November.

    2. Back when Kerry was running against Bush, right-wing apologist (not) website Slate did an experiment by putting people in either Bush or Kerry attire, and sending them through neighborhoods with the opposing party affiliation. The consistant response was that the people with Bush clothes in the blue neighborhoods encountered more open hostility than the people wearing Kerry clothes in red neighborhoods.

      Over the years since, I’ve seen the results validated in similar experiments, and *never* refuted.

            1. Yeah, but an evil cause — the enslavement of mankind — disproportionately attracts the evil.
              Also their obsession with destroying humans by any means necessary, their naked hatred of humanity is not either sane or good.

              1. Heck, the reflexive movement to destroy that which is clean, or ordered, or even just of value to another– that’s not healthy.

                But it’s common. That’s what vandalism is– “you love this, even in a slight way; I will damage it.”

                1. But it’s common. That’s what vandalism is– “you love this, even in a slight way; I will damage it.”

                  Wait, *that* is how vandalism is defined?

                  Hmm

                  1. I’m pretty sure folks here know the definition of vandalism– doesn’t mean they’ve ever fiddled with the why, especially since they’re more likely to be the ones busy cleaning up than beating their chest over what they did to deserve this.

                    1. Yeah. Learning to never visibly show enthusiasm or interest in anything is very familiar. Also the self-recrimination at inevitably failing.

                  2. Well, some vandalism is just good clean destructive fun, except they pick somebody else’s stuff to destroy. Unfocused vandalism does not think about people’s feelings. Focused vandalism wants to hurt someone’s property and make a mess.

              2. If we follow the idea that Communism is just the most modern mega-heresy of Christianity this is unsurprising. They simply held on to one of the crueler streaks of it.

                I mean; plenty of christians would agree that you can’t possibly be a proper christian if you don’t spend your days cursing all of god’s works. They wouldn’t put it that way of course. They might have to think through the implications.

              3. All attract evil — that is one of the problems of holding power: you attract those who wish to exploit that power.

                But some watch for and reject evil, some discover evil amongst them and denounce it, while others discover such evil and think, “Hmmmm, we can use this.”
                –

          1. That’s just how you know they haven’t reached their opinion by thinking about it. I’ve told the young ones to not debate them, just ask, in an uninterested tone, “Why do you think that?”

            1. Beloved Spouse was telling me of recently getting crosswise with a friend by expressing the view that Americans need to be more respectful of cultural differences …” which the friend whole-heartedly endorsed, until Beloved Spouse continued, “… for example, American women in military service, when stationed in Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, need to dress modestly when going off base, in respect of local mores.”

              I will go further and suggest American women in Spain, Italy, Greece and nations south of America’s border, need to recognize local culture and accept having their bottoms pinched.
              –

              1. > culture

                As a Saudi air traffic controller found out during Desert Storm, when he refused to talk to an incoming C5 because the pilot was female. It was common news back then, but I’m finding bupkis on the web now.

                1. I remember hearing about an American military woman getting hassled by a member of the mutawen – the Saudi religious police, and she cold-cocked him with the butt of her M-16. Also of a band of mutaween getting all hot and bothered about a military female officer in a vehicle with a bunch of men, and trying to administer their usual discipline in that case. (A sound thrashing to the woman, as was their custom.) It turned out that the woman in question was the CO of a company of Security Police, and the other military men in the vehicle took violent exception to their commanding officer being whipped by a bunch of unwashed Arabic savages. Very violent exception, as it turned out.
                  The gen is that after that, the word went out from the very top – that the mutaween ought not to take any notice of American military women and refrain from chastising them for perceived cultural sins.
                  I had a near brush with a TDY to Saudi, late in the 1990s. Part of the prep for that assignment (which never came off, thank G*d) was a course in qualifying with the Beretta side-arm. For good reason, it seemed.

                  1. I remember that one! Or at least a similar one; there were apparently many of them.

                    The story on the pilot was that she announced she had a communication problem with the tower so was unable to get instructions, would the other aircraft please give her some room? and then dropped her C5 onto a runway, after which she walked to the tower and gave the ATC a premium chewing-out.

                    I would write it off as flight lore, except I know that ATCs in Montreal regularly tried something similar, ignoring aircraft that won’t speak French to them. At one time it was a big enough problem that several airlines, the Feds, Transport Canada, and the Quebec provincial government got involved.

              2. “Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs. ”

                -Sir Charles James Napier, upon learning that the natives held the practice of throwing the recent widow on the funeral pyre as sacred.

            2. I just got home from a social event that devolved into everyone badmouthing Trump supporters. (I’m a republican, but not a Trump fan though I will be voting for him with bells on). No arguments, just snarky comments. Then they tell me they get all their news from late night comedy. How exactly can one reason with that?!?!? Logic does you no good here. It’s all virtue-signaling all the way down.

              1. I was thinking about that. The problem is that these people, even our colleagues, in difficult and demanding professions are NOT in any sense of the word ADULTS.
                They’ve lived so long, so well, they think nothing they do will come back to bite them in the ass.
                I don’t know WHAT to do. Today is really bad. I fell like just letting go of everything.

              2. “,,, they tell me they get all their news from late night comedy. How exactly can one reason with that?”

                Intellectual ju-jitsu: roll with it.

                “That’s like getting all your medical advice from pharmaceutical infomercials.”

                “That’s like getting your fashion advice from Kim Kardashian”

                “That’s like getting your investment advice from Bernie Madoff.”

                “That’s like getting your dining recommendations from Ray Kroc.”

                “That’s even dumber than getting all your news from Rush Limbaugh.”

                Then hit ’em with some Bidenisms.
                –

            3. “Why do you think that?”

              Ooh, nice. I need to remember that one and try it. Grey matter, NPC! Can you use it?

          2. Kind of like when they say, “We need to have a conversation about (whatever)”, what they mean is, ‘You need to sit down and shut up while I lecture/scold you’.

            2. I always hear “We need to have a conversation about …” in the same tone in which I hear a Spouse say, “We need to talk about your drinking/drug use/driving/spending/contributions to household maintenance …”

              I am fairly confident my part of the conversation will be limited to “Yes, of course, I completely agree, I hadn’t realized that and now that you point it out I can see I have been wrong.”

              At no point will I be permitted a statement beginning “Have you considered the possibility …” or “I don’t agree and I think you’ve overlooked how your behaviour contributes to this …”
              –

            3. I have a sociopathic narcissistic cousin who, until I finally kicked her out of my life, used to pull that “Can we talk?” schtick at which point she would oh so patiently explain to me what a horrible, unthinking, selfish person I was for not giving in to her demands. Now, if anybody starts down that conversational road with me, I tune them out and then do not contact them again.

              1. Not usually an option in video game type forums; I’ve taken identifying the (text, obviously) tactics with an e-snarl once they’ve set the hook, and so far it works fairly well. Amazing how holding them to their claimed standards is so destructive.

          3. Which Twitter is once again doing to another Republican candidate for Congress, this time the Republican Senate candidate in Delaware:

            https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/10/10/twitter-censors-senate-candidate-lauren-witzkes-immigration-views-as-hateful-conduct/

            Yes, the censored her for disagreeing with the Democratic Party narrative on immigration and have declared that criticism of mass migration is “hate speech”.

            Given that the Second Circuit already held that Twitter to be a public forum when it barred Trump from blocking people, stating that people’s use of Twitter was an essential part of public debated, it appalls me that the DOJ has not taken action against Twitter for its acts of censorship

        3. They not only think were evil, they think we should be eradicated unless we convert; sounds a lot like the Jihadists, doesn’t it.

          1. Heck as long as you come up with the Jizya the Jihadis will merely denigrate you in every way possible but otherwise leave you be (they’re not killing the goose that lays the golden egg). Tranzi’s take your money and then kill you for the fact that you dare to not conform.

            2. Yes, and no.

              The moderates in power are happy to leave you alone so long as you’ve paid up. And they’ll secretly buy your alcohol.

              The fundies will murder your sons in the name of righteousness, and rape your daughters. Following the latter, they’ll either claim that your daughter is now married to the rapist, or is a wanton harlot and should be punished appropriately. No matter which option they pick, they’ll also add another element – said daughter is now also a follower of the their religion, no matter her own opinion on the matter, and will be executed by the state if she tries to return to her original religious practices.

              The (always present) corruption of the former when in power invariably seems to bring about the rise of the latter as the people become more and more frustrated by their leaders. And then the leaders of the latter either become sufficiently relaxed themselves, or the people get angry enough to do away with them. No matter which way it works out, the fundies are rarely any *less* corrupt than the moderates, except perhaps for maybe a small handful of people in the early leadership.

          1. They’re not. They’re outright, aggressive evil
            Though some are stupid. All my middle class friends voting for Trump because Orange Man Bad have no idea what’s coming down the pike.
            They will scream like stuck pigs when the new power destroys all productive endeavor, confiscates all property (because the rest of the world is poorer than us) when electricity is only available two hours a day, when anyone who even says boo is killed.
            But then it will be too late. They think this is a game, and they’re just voting for the “good people.”
            May G-d have mercy on all our souls.

              1. Like a similar meme on a picture of Trump says, “In reality, they’re not after me. They’re after YOU. I’m just in the way.”

        6. I used to think that they were wrong, now I think they’re either actively evil or depraved in their indifference to the facts. There’s just too much stuff you have to not know to be a lefty.

    3. It’s not just property destruction. There’s been at least one person killed solely for being a Trump supporter. Quite possibly more, given how the MSM hides anything that might encourage people to side with Trump.

      1. They were putting people in the hospital since before he was elected for not being sufficiently hostile to Trump, nevermind being a supporter.

        Those were in known danger situations, though. Not at your home.
        I am very loudly opposed to “protests” outside of folks’ house because that is a threat, and not a subtle one. “We are here, and violently opposed to you, where you live.”

        Even signs on cars are a thing where you can recognize you are going to be going into an unknown-threat-level area.

        At your home?

        It says a lot that there’s a strong enough division in comfort level with showing sings of supporting one of the two mainstream, national parties– and the way it is so uniformly looking at violence from one direction means that it does not say anything nice.

        One side screams the other wants them dead.
        The other side acts like the other side might try to harm them.
        *Shudder*

        1. In Wisconsin the Antifa/BLM crowd was smashing windows of residential homes after officers shot someone with a STOLEN GUN WHO WAS SHOOTING AT THEM.
          Meanwhile the candidate challenging Ted Wheeler for Mayor of Portland (she lost Democratic Party primary and ran as an independent) showed up at an event this week with a skirt celebrating Stalin, Mao and Che!.

          Trump and his team and all of the PACs need to flood airwaves with images of this stuff. If showing that these people are Marxist revolutionaries who riot even when cops defend themselves from people shooting at them with stolen guns, doesn’t convince people that they must do everything possible to keep these people from taking power, then they are truly hopeless useful idiots.

          1. “Trump and his team and all of the PACs need to flood airwaves with images of this stuff. ”

            Not if the media won’t run the ads.

            1. It’s doesn’t provide all the nuance, you see. They just want to kill Trump supporters. Not real people

          2. AND he’s a black cop!

            So now it’s RRRAAACIIISSST!!! when a black cop shoots an armed criminal in self-defense.

        2. Which side is refusing to permit members of the other party to dine peaceably in restaurants? (Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Red Hen restaurant in Lexington Virginia, June 22, 2018.)

          Which side us harassing members of the other party, refusing them the pleasure of a quiet night at the movies? (Pam Bondi, Tampa Theater showing of Won’t You Be My Neighbor, June 24, 2018.)

          Which side is storming restaurants and compelling diners to commit acts of obeisance, flashing gang signs (raising a BLM fist?)

          By their fruits and nuts shall ye know them.
          –

          1. Oh! One other fact floats to my mind’s awareness: which side repeatedly stage faux race/sex crimes (a trend long preceding Jussie Smollett but now bearing his moniker) in order to defame their political opposition?

            I am no Biblical scholar but I believe that falls squarely within the False Witness box.
            –

    4. According to my spouse, who spends a certain amount of time tilting at progressive windmills on FB, his progressive friends have explained the reason there are no Biden signs because: a) the Dems didn’t print up enough and b) they’re afraid to put them out because the (evil) Trump supporters will destroy them.

      I can only say I’ve been around a fair amount of Oxford, MS, a university town, and seen two Biden signs. No Trump signs in town. After spending five months on the road, I’ve seen a grand total of five Biden signs. Have lost track of the Trump signs. Also Trump flags, billboards, banners, facemasks…

      1. We are a solidly red county, but even I’m impressed by the number of Trump 2020 flags I see when I go into town. *Far* more than showed in 2016.

        Thinking about it, I see more flags than bumper stickers. Considering a fair number of people have to go west over the Cascades, keeping a Trump sticker off your Subaru is appropriate camouflage. (Yes, Virginia, you don’t have to be a lesbian to drive a Subaru Forester. 🙂 This *is* snow country.)

    5. I live at the edge of blue, liberal, white-guilt Fairmount in Philadelphia. I just commented to my husband tonight as we walked into the heart of the neighborhood, that I hadn’t seen as many Biden/Harris signs as I’d seen Clinton/Paine signs in 2016. I think people will vote for him, because they can’t imagine anything else, but they’re definitely not enthusiastic. That MAY cause some of them to stay home. We can hope.

      1. I’m boggling, still.

        We were driving through freaking Virginia. Most of the neighbors work in DC, or for gov’t.

        I got lost in Columbus, Ohio on teh way home– saw two yard signs in the very low rent area we were trying to get through.

        One Biden. One Trump. (Bringing the count of “Trump sign put up exactly like a Dem sign on a yard” to two of…lots.)

    6. Matches up with what I saw back in the summer months. Virginia to Texas and back. Trump flags on the porch, Trump signs in the window, and so on- this was mainly the places I stopped in West Tennessee and Arkansas. North Texas was pretty deeply red and darned proud of it. Austin, not so much- but then, it’s Austin.

      1. I’ve seen Biden/Harris signs. But this is Eugene.

        I’ve also seen Trump/Pence signs … um, guys, this is Eugene. Granted the Trump/Pence don’t put stickers on their vehicles. But that may mean they are like hubby & I. They don’t put any stickers on their vehicles.

          1. We don’t put magnets on our vehicles either.

            Having the wrong thing on your vehicle has been known to get it burned in Eugene.

            This is A reason. But we didn’t before these incidents either.

            1. Zero stickers on the work rig (company truck) – zero stickers on the wife’s minivan. Although I may put the Red Sox sticker I have on.

              But yeah, no stickers otherwise. OPSEC.

              1. I have a “Liberty and Union” flag on my car. I’ve had people confront me about supporting “hate.” Honestly surprised it hasn’t been keyed.

                1. WTF? They perhaps think the superposition of a St Georges cross over a St Andrews cross in the canton is a Confederate Battle flag? Are they color blind or just fricking stupid? The Battle Flag is a blue X on a red background with white 5 point stars. That in the canton is a Union Jack sans the St. Patrick cross . as the Union jack was at the time of the revolution.

                  1. Well, that flag was raised in 1774, on the Taunton Massachusetts Green (city square) as a protest. They still considered themselves British at that point.

                    1. Number 2 son was given a hard time for wearing a Monaghan Gaelic Football jersey on campus. it has the red hand you see since Monaghan is in Ulster.

                    2. Indeed. Didn’t know that one was raised in Taunton. I’m in North shore Massachusetts so down the road a bit. And indeed the colonists thought they were British with the rights of englishman which is why they got so cranked up by their mistreatment.

                  2. “ Are they color blind or just fricking stupid?”

                    Embrace the power of “and”.

                    Also historically illiterate, generally mal-educated, and utterly tiresome.

                    2. I cannot kick anyone too much, I much doubt 90% of the population of Massachusetts know the flag, and those offended by the Confederate Battle Flag would consider it too obscene to know the details of it.

                      There’s many other details of history regarding which ‘d rather thrash them about the head and shoulders.

                  3. (this is actually a response to your next response, but the nesting won’t allow it) I knew you were in Mass, didn’t know which ‘paht.’ Next time I’m there doing a Kane’s Donut run, I’ll see if I can grab you a box or two to drop off 🙂

                    1. You Sir are a Gentleman and a Scholar. Kane’s added a new store on Rt 1 in Saugus near the site of the Orange Tyrannosaurus (Dino is still there, Mini golf and Ice Cream Not so much) back just before the wuhan flu craziness. I haven’t managed to get out there yet but my understanding is they are awesome.

                2. I am continuously amazed at the amount and breadth of puerile drivel that people accept with no questions.

        2. We saw three different Trump stickers on the windows of expensive, new cars in Virginia.
          Only one was even slightly stealthy– one of those see-through ones, I could see it from a safe following distance but couldn’t identify it until I thought, as opposed tos eeing the colors when you scan a parking lot.

  7. As a heavy equipment operator I can assure you that Aleve(naproxen) and Robax Platinum(Ibuprofen and Methocarbamol) are the life givers for a bad back with touches of sciatica just for flavour! 🙂

  8. The Red Mirage happened in pretty much *all* of the Orange County, CA, congressional races in 2018. Orange County is getting more lefty as time passes, but still has lots of conservatives. And at the end of the night, quite a few of the Republican candidates from that area were ahead. Yet somehow every single Republican candidate running for Congress in that county ultimately lost, including a candidate who should have been the first Asian woman to sit in Congress.

    The means to accomplish this was the legal but dubious ballot harvesting that the Dems engaged in. Even Paul Ryan publicly noted the absurdity of the situation, though nothing happened in response.

    Incidentally, the Asian woman – who is Korean, iirc – is running for the seat again. Let’s hope she’s better prepared to deal with the cheating this time.

  9. Hum, reading Sarah’s rant (nothing derogatory ’bout that word) the thought crossed my mind; when a country requires all citizens wear masks like bandits, once can expect things to be stolen, including elections.

    Hey, not suggesting it was a great thought or anything. 😉

  10. “Second, the whole “Will you concede if you lose?””

    Heh. The proper answer might be, “What do you mean? Do you mean instead of setting the CIA & FBI to manufacturing a false foreign collusion narrative, framing my opponent as a tool of foreign dictators?”

    Or perhaps, “Define ‘lose’ – I certainly won’t follow the examples of Hillary Clinton and Stacy Abrams.”
    –

      1. The Democrats won’t concede, period. That is why they wargamed a scenario where Trump WINS the electoral college vote and rather than accepting that Trump won, the Democrats have governors of states they control send alternate slates with Democrats rather than Trump electors, threaten secession if their demands are not met, etc.

        Again, this scenario was concocted by one of the ultimate party insiders, John Podesta, and thus it absolutely represents the thinking of the very top of the party leadership, including Pelosi and Schumer. Hillary is in it with her message to Biden of “don’t concede no matter what?

        This is going to get very ugly very fast and I don’t see how it is avoided.

        1. Of course they won’t concede. What’s the downside for them? They might win that way. It’s not as if they have credibility that will be lost if they concede. More, they’ll lose the far left if they do. They have every reason in the world to lie, cheat, and riot until they get their way.

          I mean, if they have integrity, honor, and heck, even so much as a *little* knowledge of history, well, you’d think they would think twice.

        2. This secession idea keeps coming around, and I keep wondering if every single Democrat just skipped all those boring US History classes back in school.

          Does the Democrat Party lack any vestige of institutional memory?

          Do they have no conception of how badly it went for them when Democrats tried exactly the same thing 160 years ago?

          Or do they somehow think that they managed okay as a party in the long run after their last loss, and rolling those dice again might come up in their favor, with no consideration that given the vast shift in norms since then, it might go oh so very much worse?

          I just don’t get it.

          1. “Does the Democrat Party lack any vestige of institutional memory?”

            Yes. That is why they so freely rewrite it whenever History becomes (cough*1619 Project*cough) becomes inconvenient.
            –

          2. “that given the vast shift in norms since then,”

            They think they’ve shifted the “norms” their way. They may be right.

            2. And one norm they shifted was their own ability to fight. One reason the South held out so long was its military tradition.

          3. The senior citizens are criminals who haven’t been arrested yet, and the junior varsity honestly think ‘the parties switched sides’, and are profoundly ignorant of history, warfare, and strategy.

            1. Also economics, mathematics and biology. They have been carefully taught what not to know for their role as serfs.

          4. There’s a flip side to this: have they considered the possibility that the Country is so fed up with Democrats that, if California secedes, that the rest of us may very well say “Be our guest, have fun with Biden as President”?

            California, more than any other place, is a major thorn in Republicans winning the Presidency and the House. If we lose California, there’s a good chance that Republicans will be in power for a couple of decades. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll fall into temptation and allow it to happen!

            And if, after all is said and done, California wants to rejoin the Union again, won’t they have to do it on our terms?

            This is another “Have they really thought through all the potential consequences of this course of action?”

            (On a similar note, I have often wondered if, after all the Democratic promises of packing the court, that court packing will be done after this election … but by Republicans, and not Democrats, who pulled off surprise victories, and then said “Hey, there’s been a lot of talk about packing the court! The idea has grown on us!”)

      2. She might be smoothing the way to remove Biden. It was noted elsewhere that the 25th Amendment requires the input of the President’s cabinet. But if he hasn’t been in office long enough to pick a cabinet…

        Of course, Pelosi isn’t exactly a disinterested party here. Let’s say, for instance, that President Biden is removed using the 25th Amendment. And then two days later, the newly sworn-in President Harris suffers an unfortunate accident that leaves her in very difficult straits…

        1. I recently read an interesting analysis that pointed out that the Speaker of the House cannot constitutionally be in the lie of succession by virtue of not being a member of the executive branch.

          I confess it would grant cause for me to smile upon seeing Nancy’s face when this is communicated to her.
          –

          1. I’m gonna have to play contrarian here. The only criteria that the US Constitution provides is that the next in line after the Vice President must be an officer designated by Congress. The succession act passed in 1792 picked the Senate President Pro Tempore, followed by the Speaker of the House. So clearly, the men who wrote the US Constitution were comfortable with people who weren’t in the Executive Branch ascending to the presidency in the event of the removals of both the president and vice-president. These were removed in 1866, and then reinstated in 1947 in reverse order via statute (apparently Truman was good friends with the Speaker, and didn’t get along with the senator in question).

            As a result, there’s no question in my mind that Pelosi is indeed next in line after VP Pence.

            1. Disagree on Speaker being an officer. Officer by definition excludes being a member of Congress. Members of Congress are not officers, they are representatives. Officers carry out laws enacted by Congress and the constitutional duties of the executive branch. A member of Congress is no more an officer than a member of the judiciary is.

              1. Again, the Speaker (and the President Pro Tempore) was first put into the succession in 1792, when the people who wrote the Constitution were still alive. President Washington signed the bill that did that. Make of that what you will, but to me it seems rather unlikely that something of this nature passed during Washington’s first term would be unconstitutional.

            2. Play whatever you like, I never said there’s a compelling argument, I said there’s an interesting analysis, and that there indeed is – sufficiently interesting to impede Pelosi’s Presidential progress:

              From Power Line:
              PRESIDENT . . . MIKE POMPEO?
              As I’ve been watching all the commotion of possible election chaos in November, and the various wild scenarios being played out involving military coups, or the ascension of Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the presidency on January 20 if the election is somehow not settled by then. I’ve been pondering one possibility that I’m surprised has drawn little attention. And it is quite relevant to the demands some Democrats apparently want to make that Amy Coney Barrett pledge to recuse herself from any election-related case that might reach the Supreme Court, as it did in 2000.

              [SNIP]

              One could imagine the Supreme Court having to decide this disputed question. And it wouldn’t do for the Supreme Court to deadlock 4-4 on such a vital issue. And note that such a case wouldn’t be deciding the election or any aspect of the vote count, but merely the constitutionality of a statute governing succession.

              I’m not the first person to wonder about this remote but not impossible scenario. Harvard Law’s Jack Goldsmith and one of his students, Ben Miller-Gootnick, wrote about this issue several months ago on LawFare:

              [T]here is a powerful (though not airtight) argument that the Succession Act’s placement of the speaker in the line of presidential succession (and after her, the president pro tempore of the Senate) is contrary to the Constitution’s Succession Clause. That clause states that only an “Officer” may succeed and act as president. Most of the pertinent commentary maintains that the term “Officer” here does not include members of Congress. If that is right, Pelosi could not constitutionally “act as President,” even though the statute says she can.

              But who would decide the controversy? Imagine that Pelosi declares herself acting president after Trump and Pence become incapacitated. And imagine that, at the same time, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (the executive officer next in line under the statute) declares himself acting president on the basis of a legal opinion from Attorney General William Barr proclaiming legislative succession to the presidency unconstitutional. How would the matter be resolved? The answer . . . is unclear. . . [T]he matter is genuinely contested and there is a powerful argument that legislative succession is unconstitutional.

              There’s a lot more background in the whole article, including the irony that it was some liberal law professors, back when Newt Gingrich was Speaker, who disputed his place in the line of succession on separation of powers grounds. Like election-year Supreme Court appointments, we can expect a lot of people to switch places on this issue if it comes to pass.

              1. I think it shows how un-conservative and how much of his decisions are motivated by end political results that Roberts is assumed to be voting with the three remaining leftists resulting in a 4-4 decision; although frankly I am not terribly confident that Gorusch wouldn’t join him after that absurd statutory interpretation of the Civil Right’s Act.

                Of course if the Supreme Court rules against Democrats, with or without Barrett on the Court, the Democrats will denounce the decision as illegitimate, promise “resistance” and try to get the military to intervene.

                1. “Of course if the Supreme Court rules against Democrats, with or without Barrett on the Court, the Democrats will denounce the decision as illegitimate …”

                  They’d do that if the Court ruled 8-0, or 8-1 with Barrett the lone dissent.
                  –

                2. If one were to look to the historical record most of these idiots seem to be following, the recipe is take power and start issuing pardons for political assassinations – pop enough Representatives in the House without your followers getting charged so you’re impeachment proof, and then selective Senators and Supremes so you can pass your repeal of the 22nd amendment, and then of course you’d need enough state houses depopulated appropriately, and Gaius Iulius is your uncle.

                  Though even with all the “we’re really, really not Rome” points taken as fact, I think we’re more rhyming with the Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix pattern than the Gaius Iulius or Gaius Octavius pattern that Nancy Imperator thinks she is cleverly planning.

                  1. OTOH, we’ve already had the “running for office means immunity to charges” that Julius Caesar used.

                    1. And OTGH, if you want to see what this really looks like (“change the laws to keep me in power or die”) look at The Shirtless Tsar – he’s clearly the Praetorian Choice and will be in charge until he dies.

                    1. Between Kratman and Schlichter we have dueling prophetic Colonels – and I keep thinking a trip through a Kratman prophesy (“You think that’s American Imperialism? Dude, you have not seen actual Imperialism. Yeah, you will not like it when we get angry. Do not test this. Really. Really? Okay, hold my beer…”) might be more likely than a Schlichter one.

              2. Once the Speaker assumes the Office of President, she (or he, there’s no guarantee that numbskull Nancy will be speaker post-election*) *becomes* an officer of the U.S.. In that case, the Speaker can no longer be a member of the House of Representatives under Article II section 6. This part also disqualifies any congresscritter from attaining the office if the ’emoluments’ of that office were increased during their time in the legislature. As I read that, it means that if the Speaker ever voted for a Presidential pay increase, that Speaker is disqualified from the Presidency.

                OT but perhaps somewhat relevant, further down the page Article II Section 10 reads in part: “No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation”. Doesn’t that make the national popular vote compact kind of – shaky? IANACS.

                *The Demonrats may lose control of the House, or a coalition of upstart Ds and Repugnantcons may oust her.

                1. What I really want to see on November 4 is MaligNancy standing on the Capitol steps holding a cardboard box full of office knickknacks. With a ‘Shocked, Shocked!’ expression.

        2. I just got in a debate with someone on Twitter about this, and he pointed something out:

          25th Amendment, section 4
          “Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”

          That bolded AND means that the VP MUST be part of the decision. The bolded section starting with OR means that the Cabinet picked by the President can be bypassed by Congress, Which means that even if Gropey Joe has enough loyalists to staff up the Cabinet with people loyal to him, or they haven’t been confirmed yet, Pelosi and Schmuckie in the Senate can bypass them and take him out. Yeah, this is aimed squarely at Biden. I’m amazed they didn’t wait until after the election on this since it requires control of the Senate and the House; I think this is a desperate attempt to hold the Bernie Bros / Antifa and turn them out.

          1. MaligNancy proposes setting up a board to implement a section of the 25th Amendment that has not been used once in the 55 years since it was ratified. Seems excessive.

            I have to speculate, though — why must it be limited to the President? Anybody can become impaired, to the point that removing them from office benefits the country. We’ve certainly seen enough examples. Maybe we need a watchdog group which can declare any government official, elected or unelected, to be ‘unfit for office’ and cast them out.

            The Chairman of this new board can then do something about all those instances when the voters make some terrible mistake and elect someone unworthy, or a judge issues rulings contrary to the Public Interest.

            The board will need a name, though. How about ‘The Committee Of Public Safety’?
            ———————————
            Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do remember history are doomed to watch everybody else repeat it.

          2. The charitable explanation for this is that the head of one of the major tickets is clearly incompetent. Pelosi is taking steps to deal with this in case he wins.

            Anyone else who becomes incompetent can be safely ignored. For instance, if Pelosi were to turn into a drooling idiot tomorrow, then the House could elect a new Speaker. The only possible problem spot would be a Supreme Court justice that’s unable to work. But so far, the Court has managed to survive questions such as those about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s physical health, and Justice William O. Douglas’s mental health.

            1. “For instance, if Pelosi were to turn into a drooling idiot tomorrow, then the House could elect a new Speaker.”

              So it is only Dry Mouth keeping her in the Speaker’s Chair?
              –

              1. It’s the support of her party, actually. If she does turn into a drooling idiot, then her party will almost certainly remove her. There are plenty of other Democratic congresscritters that was her job. She might end up serving the rest of her term in Congress, but one representative out of over 500 generally isn’t going to be that big of an issue.

                Same thing with McConnell. If he suddenly were to become unable to fulfill his job duties, then the Republicans in the Senate would replace him. The only important officials who can’t be easily replaced are the President, and the Supreme Court justices. There are guidelines in place to allow for replacing the president. But if a justice becomes unable to fulfill their job responsibilities and refuses to step down, then the only option is to impeach them.

                1. “if a justice becomes unable to fulfill their job responsibilities and refuses to step down …”

                  I gather the only thing required for Justices to fulfill their job responsibilities is signing off on the decisions their clerks put before them. I once believed that job responsibilities involved asking sharp questions (or at least staying awake) during oral arguments but that seems not to be the case.
                  –

                  1. Justices *can* do that. Some might. I know that others don’t. For instance, I’ve got a biography of former Justice Byron R. White that notes his views on the matter. That wasn’t the sort of thing that he would do. There is, of course, a lot of suspicion that Ginsberg was doing it toward the end given her physical health issues. But given the concern that the court privately had when Justice William O. Douglas started to suffer from declining mental health, it doesn’t sound like he was just signing off on what the clerks wrote.

                    1. Of course the reports are unconfirmed as SCOTUS clerks adhere to a strict code of discretion, only rarely breaking their silence. I’ve little doubt that Justices Thomas or Scalia ever were lax in their duties but I vaguely recall rumours of Justice Brennan and a few others giving excessive latitude toward their clerks.

                      Unlikely we can ever know, nor properly understand the function of SCOTUS clerks and the role(s) they play.
                      –

                  1. Unfortunately, they’ve yet to establish what constitutes “good behaviour.”

                    I say “unfortunately” but I hope it never proves necessary.
                    –

        3. That too. I mean, you notice how they’re putting all their efforts into defending Harris, not Biden.

          1. Joe Biden is no more in control of that campaign than those monkeys we shot into space back in the 1950’s. He’s just along for the ride. Maybe to do a few tricks for the cameras.

  11. “it’s all down to Trump’s abrasive personality and what he said and shouldn’t have said at the debate”

    If the nation’s leadership is determined not by policies, actions and results but by manner, style and “acting presidential” then the republic is dead and the election doesn’t matter. I refuse to concede that is the case and will never act as if it were so. It ain’t lost until we stop fighting for it.

    “If we take the widest and wisest view of a Cause, there is no such thing as a Lost Cause, because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause. We fight for lost causes because we know that our defeat and dismay may be the preface to our successors’ victory, though that victory itself will be temporary; we fight rather to keep something alive than in the expectation that it will triumph.”
    —T.S. Eliot
    –

  12. Sarah: Have you tried getting a prescription for a low dose muscle relaxant, if there ones they can you can tolerate. When I have muscle issues, I take a muscle relaxant because anti-inflammatories are useless (the muscle issues are caused by nervous system issues from MS). I have scrip for a 2mm does (the smallest pill) and start with that, and if needed I take a second, although if I can I will take it an hour or two after the first). It usually works.

      1. Perhaps a different one might work better. For instance the one I take, tizanidine, is commonly used with MS patients because the way it works has been demonstrated to effectively address the kinds of muscle spacicity and rigidness issues that MS causes (for instance the muscles and the front and back of the calf or upper leg contracting at the same time-excruciatingly painful.

      2. Are you able to use Tiger Balm? Em uses that for her back and joints and it works well.

        1. Thermacares and other heat wraps applied to the areas that are acting up can also help.

            1. I use the patches because they are a bit more focused and don’t lead to causing my core body temp to get elevated, which creates its own set of MS related problems (and it only takes about a half a degree increase for problems to start)

                1. The last time my lower back did that to me the heat stuff and analgesics/NSAIDs helped a little, but alternating hot-cold packs were a miracle.

  13. Want to do something about it? Study it, highlight it.

    Why not just commit it ourselves? We have a better work ethic so we’d be tter at it.

    Screw “saving” Pennsylvania. Le’ts flip California.

      1. Ditto!

        Though we left when Gray Davis was misgoverning Cali. Cal-DMV tried to dun us for license tags after we a) left the state, and b) traded the vehicle. I was going to let them keep rattling on, but $SPOUSE just wrote a letter telling them that and to go to hell. I didn’t realize they were going to take the latter portion of her letter seriously.

      2. Nonsense. There are still plenty of us here. No need for you to come back. You can have just as much of an influence here as you can in any other state that you don’t reside in.

        I’m tired of people talking about California as if it’s a permanently lost cause. Yes, things are bad AT THIS TIME. But they WILL get better. They always do. The only way in which they won’t get better is if things are so far gone that the country as a whole is beyond salvaging. You CANNOT win a war by only playing on defense. If you don’t go on offense at least sometimes, then you’ll eventually lose.

        There are interesting rumblings around the country. People report conversations with supposedly stereotypical Democratic voters who are voting for Trump. Trump gets big turnouts at his rally, while Biden gets turnouts that are so small that the journalists outnumber the other supporters. We don’t know what’s going on, but it’s clear that we might be on the verge of witnessing something very spectacular. It probably won’t be another 49-1 state blowout. But it could potentially be very, very big. So wait and see.

        No one knew how significant 1989 was going to be until it ended (quite literally; Romania’s revolution took place in late December). Do what you can, when you can. But be ready for surprises. As the Beautiful But Evil Mormon Male Space Princess With A Great Rack likes to say, it’s the Author that’s calling the shots. And He likes to surprise the world when it least expects it.

        1. just weeks before leaving CA in 2017 I went to a birthday party for a ex-roomate. In attendance were several other of his local friends, so it basically ready like a who’s who of the a A/B level artists of the VFX community. People you would think would be smart, right?

          Naah. They spent most of the time bitching about how horrible of a president Trump was and how it was all his fault that their teenage kids can’t find jobs. (Aug 2017, the Trump jobless drop still hasn’t reached CA and the people living there were basically oblivious to the fact that the unemployment rate was different anywhere else….) Completely ignorant of the fact that their kids wouldn’t have been able to or couldn’t have found jobs any of the preceding eight years.

          I lived there 18 years and did every little ‘write your assembly members’ on second amendment issues, and all that crap (microstamping, bullet button ban etc etc etc ) all passed anyway. 18 years of more and more dictates from on high, passed despite me voting the exact opposite.

          And then the latest dictate from on high, AB5, is going to put the final nail in the coffin of the entertainment industry in CA. Combine that with covid shutting down in-person VFX facility work, and after more than a decade of insisting that VFX studio artists can’t work remotely, some are now doing exactly that. TPTB are insisting its only temporary, but I foresaw this coming and the next shift is going to be said VFX artists not even living in CA anymore… things like that will do far more to get ‘enlightened progressive thinking’ out of the entertainment industry than all the visible campaigning and getting yourself blacklisted ever could.

          1. And guess what’s happening – those same people are following you to your new home.

            Once again, you CANNOT win a war by only defending.

              1. If people want to leave, that’s their business. Each person knows what’s best for them, and what their own personal situation is. If someone feels it would be a good idea to relocate, then I can’t have an issue with that. I certainly wouldn’t encourage someone who’s uncomfortable with living in California to move back, or to any other state with a politically hostile government.

                But I see so many comments that just arbitrarily write off entire states as if they’ll be progressive now and forever. And that just isn’t true at this time. People change. Times change. And sometimes, when you least expect it, the Iron Curtain falls overnight.

                I mean, we have at least three regular commenters over at Ace’s blog who live in San Francisco. Yes, they’ll be the first to tell you that they’re extremely careful with talking about politics even in private. But the fact of the matter is that they exist. And one of them is quite blatant about the fact that he or she exists, taking pictures of public events that show just how screwed up the Left is. It’s not Sodom and Gomorrah time yet. It may come one day. But it hasn’t arrived yet.

                1. And if Sodom and Gomorrah time ever comes for San Francisco, then I hope that Zombie, SanFranpsycho, and SF Goth, have all safely left beforehand, along with those close to them.

              2. It’s one thing to leave Colorado for health reasons. My wile and I left New York for that. It’s also one thing to leave a place because the political atmosphere has made it intolerable to live there (as has happened to Ben Shapiro — he endured LA for as long as he could). It’s entirely different, though, to leave because you give up on the place.

                Having said that, though, I suspect that the biggest reason that things are going to change in California, when the change comes, is because something is going to open the eyes of the residents who remain, and they will realize it has been their policies that have caused them to be in the position they are in — and that the politicians have lied to them to implement those policies, and that they have cheated to get into those positions.

                When that happens, there will be a Reckoning, and I bet it will be scary. It will be amazing to behold, too, I suspect!

                At least, that’s what I expect will happen. Hopefully there will be enough Californians who remember what freedom looks like, or who have visited the United States and seen for themselves what freedom can do, and then return and teach the others, for this Reckoning to occur.

          2. Oh, the exodus is on big time. SF is simply emptying. I hear upper-tier areas down south are as well.

            California 2A stuff was subject to traitorous quisling “leadership” for decades, with the head “lobbyist” best buddies with the State Assembly and Senate Dems writing the gun restrictions, some say giving them advice to get them past challenges.

            But the big issue in CA is the “Redistricting Commission” that Ahnold signed in and still brags about, the one that has set districts that elect a 75% Democrat Assembly in a state that at the worst is a 60-40 split (that’s what the vote split was in the 2016 Presidential election, which I posit is the worst it could get for CA non-D turnout given that race).

            Without any basic structural change, structurally locked-in rule by one-party-captive-to-the-unions will not change here.

    2. While in the lunch room at work today, I was suddenly shocked to overhear a very simple message at the end of an ad: “I’m Donald J. Trump, and I approve this message.” I didn’t pay attention to the ad, so I’ve no idea what it was about. But I did catch that last little bit.

      This happened in LA County. So there is at least a minimal level of ad buys here.

      1. I am not entirely sanguine about the effects given the level of irritation, but I suppose it must penetrate to some degree… Youtube is definitely interrupting me with ads from both parties.

        1. Come to think of it, I can’t help but wonder to what extent YouTube has made it easy to nationally campaign in places that would otherwise be limited to one area or another.

          When you buy an ad on TV, you buy for California. When you buy on YouTube, I can’t help but wonder if the price between selling ads locally, and selling them nationally, are small enough that they might as well campaign nationally anyway, and even attempt to appeal to places that otherwise wouldn’t normally be targeted.

    3. Flip the courts- the federal courts- in California. *Then* investigate their most recent elections. Most recent in the interest of time, of course.

      I believe the results would be quite… illuminating.

      1. The 9th Circuit is getting very close to having a 50/50 ratio of Republican appointees versus Democratic appointees.

        1. Which is why the Democrats are willing to try a military coup to obtain power if they can’t achieve it purely through vote fraud.

  14. IF they were, stuff like this wouldn’t continuously explode in their faces.

    Does it explode in their face if it never makes CNNBCBS or MSNBC or ABC or NPR or PBS?

    Because those sources will make sure they are presented as Trump campaign workers somehow.

    Does it explode if Facebook “fact checks” it and, using their definitions which are “false”=”helps Trump” and “true”=”hurts Trump”, deletes it as soon as you post it?

    2. Yes, it does. It matters. In my completely non-scientific, anecdote based surveys of FB I can now tell what issues are making an impact by the sound of crickets when I post something. If they really don’t have an answer, then only my conservative friends reply or react. And, no, not all my liberal friends have unfollowed or unfriended me.

      1. The “Paula Cale / McGovern (not that one) Effect” (Paula Cale played “McGovern” – a token conservative character on Murphy Brown for part of one season or so, but there was no clear response to her positions, so rather than attempt such (dubious prospect, yes) the character was quietly dropped.

      2. Well, here’s an eyeball stat for ya: When I view a Trump tweet, Twitter likes to show me a bunch of Orange-Man-Bad tweets immediately after. Trump tweets typically get 100-200k likes. Trump supportive tweets get around 50k likes. OMBad-tweet likes usually don’t exceed 4 digits. Given how many dedicated/paid trolls are out there, this is somewhat remarkable.

        Also, his account has gone from a couple million followers five years ago, to 87 million today. Even allowing that plenty are bots and OMBadders, that’s remarkable, and puts him at all-time #7.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-followed_Twitter_accounts

        [Timelines of tweets for Trump vs Obama are also interesting… it’s fairly obvious that a staffer was handling most of O’s while he was in office. Also, I’d be very surprised if most of O’s followers were not either bots or sockpuppet accounts. No one is that damn interested in him anymore.]

    3. We no longer live in the era of where there was the paper, the evening news, and the radio- and that was it. The internet cracked that beyond repairing (though they still try). The signal propegates. You can’t stop the signal.

        1. Consider twenty years ago. Early internet age, blogs still cute and new. Internet cat videos. MTV still has music, even if its bad music, but are getting in to reality tv madness. Bush is president, and the Yankees beat the Mets 4-2.

          Talk radio is still the conservative go-to. How many folks of similar bent do you deal with on a daily basis in Y2K? For most of us Odds, that is not many. It’s even worse in 1990. And 1980, the year Reagan won.

          Consider if Obama was transported into the past, and won the 1992 election somehow. And the scandals of the then future were somehow transported into the past as well. How much would we, the public, know? Consider also this is before Drudge, PJMedia, Ace, and the rest of the online political right. Before Project Veritas.

          You have the EIB network, Rush Limbaugh and Neal Boortz. Hannity and Ingram are still getting their feet wet. Much respect to Rush and his friends, but do you think we’d know a thumblefull as much as we do now?

          Humanity changes slowly. I believe, because I lack proof, that the Left was then just as it is now- grasping for power, corrupt, and without shame or remorse. There were controls, yes- public opinion did not swing so far in their favor as yet.

          Come back to today. The dumpster fire media has gone full potato, and everybody knows it. Their industry is dying and we are watching it in real time. Alternative media reaches the individual. We get it in the raw from cell phone videos and security cameras, routing around the ones who before would act as the middle-men, choosing what the public could know. Individual voices have torn down the walls and ignored the gatekeepers of yesteryear.

          With that comes consequences. The radical left has found each other, just as the political right has. They think they are powerful because they have key positions controlled in places like Farcebook, Twatter, and Gurgle. To some extent, this is true.

          But allowing normal people to see their excesses was a strategic error. The masks are slipping. Off completely in some cases. The leftward lurch in culture hasn’t caught up with the leftward sprint in media, and even people on the left are escaping their control. Viz Brandon Straka, and others (even Tim Pool claims he is no longer liberal, but left leaning independent and “politically homeless”).

          That isn’t to say it’s all moonshine and skittles, bro. Blue cities are in a bad way. There are innocents caught in the crossfire. Portland is on day 130something of riots, and those have spread to other places. People are being attacked, beaten, shot, and killed. Homes and businesses are set to the torch, and the accumulated property of lifetimes are now ash and memories. How does one make good when that happens, you may wonder. I have.

          Yet do not despair. No, not even then. Despair, like fear, is a liar. It tells you that nothing good will ever happen again. That with what has happened now will never change, except to get even worse. That’s a particualarly good lie because there is a bit of truth- things *can* get worse.

          But if they can get worse, that means change is possible. The only way things never get any better, the only way all those problems freeze in place and never get the chace to improve is suicide. Where there is life, there is hope.

          It’s no good to rely alone hope alone. And fleeing from all our problems doesn’t work either. Every human is born with and nurtures within him flaws. Greatness is in striving against our inherent flaws, the words and actions of others, random chance and deliberate sabotage all at once. Think. How likely was it that we would have a Trump *just* when things were getting worse? When all we could see was a future sliding inexorably towards chaos and destruction? If Donald Trump can win, *anybody* can. They thought they had it in the bag all along. Thought they cheated more than enough, that their made up lies and paper tiger scandals would make him fold, just like it worked in the past- remember Reid admitting, “Well. He didn’t win, did he?” after a reporter questioned him about his lies? I was surprised someone even asked the question.

          In the end, I choose to believe that the best revenge is living well. Our foes, they hate it most when we are happy. Content and engaged in pursuits we enjoy. Which is why I read books, hike the trails, put tiny holes in paper targets, cook delicious food, and laugh with friends. This, they despise more than anything. Do I get a teeny bit of joy from seeing their impotent rage? Maybe. But that’s far less important than the next book on the pile.

          1. Well, Drudge *did* get his big break reporting on a scandal involving the president that was elected in 1992. And a lot of stuff about coincidences involving the Clintons got around. So we might still know a lot.

            Plus, in 1992, it was still considered a thing to report on sex scandals involving the president. Hart’s candidacy got torpedoed in ’88 due to the good ship ‘Monkey Business’ and reporters at the Miami Herald. There was plenty of news circulating about Clinton’s sexual escapades, and it wasn’t as if a lot of people didn’t hear about Paula Jones.

            So imo, it’s hard to say how much of a difference it would have made.

          2. One thing we need to remember about the internet is that it was designed to withstand a nuclear war. Sure, some Big Actors have control over the social networks, but I’m convinced that we can, and should, find ways to route around this. In particular, figure out how to decentralize social networking, and pass around “packets” of internet, even if we literally have to do so in our pockets, via sneakers, walking them to the next node. (The technology is there, by the way, I’m not saying this as as exaggeration — one of the fascinating ideas I’ve encountered over the years is internet nodes on Vietnamese canal boats that connect with each other via radio whenever one passes another.)

            I don’t necessarily expect it to get this dire. But it is an option, regardless — and because cryptography is already open-sourced, and because these ideas are, as well, and because steganography can make it look like we’re merely passing around photographs of pretty scenery — there’s no government regulation that can stop those who are determined to get the signal out there.

            1. One thing that may help in routing around central control: https://beakerbrowser.com/. It’s a peer-to-peer Web browser where your site is hosted on your Internet connection, and anyone else’s Internet connection who chooses to mirror your site to help host it. (And mirroring someone else’s site is just a single button click, so it’s simple to do).

              I haven’t used it, just read about it a little. It has some interesting ideas, and I’m going to keep track of it to see where it goes. One thing that put me off using TOR (The Onion Router, a privacy-enhancing network) is that I can’t control what someone else is using my computer to access. I might be fine with helping some guy in China access info on Tianenmen Square that he doesn’t want his government to know he’s reading, but I don’t really want to help some guy in Russia access porn that he doesn’t want his boss to know he’s watching. But with Beaker’s “hyperdrives”, you can choose which parts of their distributed Internet you want to help host.

              Oh, and not once in their technical documentation did I see the word “blockchain”, so that’s a good sign that they’re not just chasing fad-of-the-month concepts. 🙂

    4. If a scandal explodes in the Democrats’ faces, and none of the Main Stream Media report it, does it make a noise?
      ———————————
      Long ago, when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks they called it witchcraft. Now they call it golf.

      1. The MSM never ignore a Democrat scandal* — reporting of it always takes the form, “Republicans Pounce ..” or, occasionally, “Republicans Seize …”

        That is because the true scandal is Republican efforts to exploit personal tragedy for political gain.

        *It might be considered whether Democrat scandals are even newsworthy, being in the “dog bites man” category.
        –

  15. Regarding the reading of entrails:

    I note with interest that the Gropey Joe campaign for the 25th-Amendment-predestined Harris Administration is spending ad money in California markets.

      1. I assume it’s the popular vote thing, though anything that takes away from money elsewhere is a good thing given the in-kind contributions by all the fading media.

    4. So is Trump, apparently. I overheard the tail end of an ad while on my lunch break today here in LA County.

      Makes me wonder just a bit…

    5. This seems to be a routinely Democrat thing: campaign where you’ll get stroked, not where you might swing votes.

    6. The fact that both Biden and Harris have been spending time in deep deep blue Miami, rather than flippable Orlando, makes me wonder if they’re scared of losing the “safe” areas, or just the bog standard stupid they appear.

      1. Pretty much the same thing Hillary! did in 2016; spending too much time in the places that were already likely to vote for her.

        Ego-stroking might be a factor in that. I can’t see any political advantage to it.

  16. Nor can I be Portuguese enough to emulate the probably apocryphal manner of death of the national poet, who is said to have died as the Spaniards took over Portugal, saying “The country dies and I die with it.”

    Unless there is a miracle, I fully expect to be dead this time next year in the fight against whatever crazy they implement. Unlike Trump and riots, they’ll put the military on the ground before there is even any resistance. They can’t want or be gradual this time. Their supporters are too ginned up, and they’ve taken too many risks.

    No point askin’, when it is
    No point askin’, who’s to go
    No point askin’, what’s the game
    No point askin’, who’s to blame
    If you’re gonna die, die with your boots on

      2. This week, a more serious answer was the protests moved to the suburbs in Wisconson, threatening people in their homes. Not famous people, just random people were threatened. A man who defended himself in that state is facing murder charges. Protestors are at best like fishing, catch and release.

        There is a line of progression visible from Memorial Day to now of the allowed violence by the Left. If Biden wins there will be no push back against that violence. Extrapolating the line shows sometime next summer, failure to have a BLM sign of some sort in your yard will be “justification” for violence against your property and you.

        I refuse to be Havel’s green grocer, so if we continue along the currently allowed line of escalation I will face violence against my property and ultimately me. Given self-defense is now considered murder, but political murder is considered “mostly peaceful” I maintain no illusion of surviving it.

        1. So what I expect soon is an all-in line will be crossed, where someone with nothing left to lose ends up on the other end of a brick through the window and decides “I might as well shoot’em all – it’s not like there’s a difference between one Soros DA murder charge and thirty.”

          Then the Soros-protected side will escalate.

            1. Even just standing in front of your home and trying to warn off a mob that it is threatening to burn the house down gets prosecuted by the Soros prosecutors-look at the Missouri couple.

              1. Right – the ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’ effect is what I’m expecting next.

                And I am actually surprised there’s not been any agent-provocateur-ing by an Antifa shooter on some roof with a scoped rifle popping some of the Antifa-demonstrators to set them off.

              2. From the looks of things, the decision to prosecute that couple may have serious negative effects on the idiot who made the decision. He’s going to have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the couple tampered with the firearms between when they faced off the mob, and when they guns were taken in evidence, and I doubt he can.

                It’s going to be interesting to see if he does a crash-and-burn like the imbecile in the Duke case.

                1. He won’t.

                  Even if there’s a change of venue, the entire jury pool knows by now that a not guilty verdict means only three things in our current legal system:

                  1. There will be a riot to destroy the area where the trial is held, unchecked by law enforcement.
                  2. the same DA bureaucracy Soros paid for will leak every one of their names for mob attention.
                  3. they will get the same treatment if they dare defend themselves,

                  Oh, and one thing more: someone nominally “conservative” will be pointing out how much worse fighting back will make things.

                    1. Not surprised you would come to that erroneous conclusion, since you will be one of those voices claiming that even though it is not true in that legal climate. A thin coat of legal varnish doesn’t really hide people being picked off one by one.

                    2. Not surprised you would clearly repudiate what you’ve said since you’ve been one of those voices inciting thoughtless tantrums without proposing a coherent response to a history of repeated injuries and usurpations.
                      –

          2. I believe that you need to be more selective in your anger. What is a BLM or Antifa stooge worth. There are others more deserving. It should never come to that and I pray it never does. My life is worth a lot more than that. I would want to receive proper value. So should you. Besides I am lazy, it is just too much work to gather all those small points and they run so fast. Their bosses are so much slower and predictable. The first Soros DA will be easily replaced but the 5th??? Plan, Execute, STFU, repeat as needed.
            In the Michigan group, half were Fed informers or undercover. To bad they don’t have people in BLM or Antifa. In any group you might join, how many will be informers? You HAVE to trust the group, that will be a VERY BAD idea, until MUCH has been sorted out. And everyone is a long ways down the road.

            How many people do you really TRUST?
            If you have even one, you are lucky beyond any riches that you could ever have.

            1. Talked to a fellow last week who said he’d been discussing the problem with local ranchers: to a man, they said they’d 3S any BLM/Antifa types who showed up and tried their usual shit.

              Of course, we also have an excellent stand-your-ground law in this state, with license to protect persons or property, and no duty to retreat.

            2. Sorry if it was not clear, but I was prognosticating not volunteering – I’m not the nothing-to-lose dude who will take the get-off-my-lawn Clint Eastwood role, but I’m certain there are some of those out there that are this close…

          4. My long-held view is that the trigger for hot civil war (if it happens) won’t be some poor schmuck breaking and shooting back, but the schmuck’s neighbors shooting the rioters/raiding LEOs/whoever IN the back.

            And the DA problem isn’t just Soros-funded DAs, but all the DAs who consider self-defense to be a malum in se crime. (And if the benighted barbarian laws make self-defense justified, then they have a DUTY TO CIVILIZATION ITSELF to stretch and twist the law to properly punish the scum who committed felony self-defense.)

            1. And you notice the coin shortage? The discouraging of the use of cash?

              Credit makes it easier to track your purchases. Such as guns and ammo.

              Spend cash if you can.

              (And if it’s NOT something they ginned up for that reason, spending cash helps mitigate the coin shortage so you’re Doing A Good Thing either way.)

              1. It seems to be extremely regional– maybe half the places I went to in Virginia had dire warnings about an impending shortage, two places on the way (I think Indiana?) had signs about please use credit to avoid infection vectors, and nothing in Iowa.

                1. I’ve seen a meme, perpetuated from my daughter – that the coin shortage was instigated by the Marines, instituting a nation-wide swear jar.

                  1. ’ve seen a meme, perpetuated from my daughter – that the coin shortage was instigated by the Marines, instituting a nation-wide swear jar.

                    –
                    🙂 Unless it’s posted, it didn’t happen (as in posted here). 🙂

                    I would believe that a quarter shortage is occurring because of everyone collecting quarters. First with the State Collection. We collected two sets: One State board saved, another book collection. MOM collected 8 sets, one set for each grandchild. Now they have the National Park / National Monument quarters. I wouldn’t mind collecting those myself. But I’d need something to track what I have/need.

                    Didn’t have any problem with quarters in Yellowstone, needed to do laundry; $28 worth between washers & dryers.

  17. Just tylenol and ibuprofen. But for some reason the combination makes me sleepy. Also until yesterday I still had breakthrough pain. It just took the edge off.) The good news is that it’s just muscle pain.

    –
    I’m the same with Tylenol & Ibuprofen. Knocks me out.

    Regarding back pain. Starting mid-late-’90s I’d have what I’d have was “Oh No.” moments (hurt too bad to swear). Back Spasms. Couldn’t stand up, couldn’t sit down, couldn’t lay down. First time I went to the doctor he poked, slightly, me lower middle back to the side it was hurting and asked “Does this hurt?” When I came down off the ceiling … Got muscle relaxant. Must have been on the proscribed list, because when the same condition triggered again, two years later, when I was finally out of the 30 day prescription, he was reluctant to reissue the prescription. Fast forward. The last prescription I got was almost full & was 5 years past “use by” date. We found out what was triggering these muscle back spasms.

    Not saying this is what is triggering your back pain & spasms, but something to consider. Both my husband & I have the same problem. His was complicated by bad hips (now fixed/replaced), but the spasm trigger was the same root cause. Over doing physical activities be it exercise or whatever, didn’t help. The condition triggers “no joke” pain.

    What happens is our hips get locked out of alignment. Besides the pain the hip locking causes one foot to be shorter than the other. That is the hip side that is “locked above” the other. The hip locking causes the tendons to stretch farther than they are suppose to, but not to tearing. Tendons have no pain sensors (tell that to my knee, but I digress). Pain is caused because the back muscles are now forced to provide the support that the over stretched tendons can’t but are suppose to. Over time, those muscles become over strained and eventually triggered into repeat spasms. I went to the doctor, I had scans, none of them detected this. So did my husband. My husband got to the point where doctors were recommending back surgery. Which would have meant 6 or more months medical leave without pay, when I wasn’t working … Someone suggested he go to a Chiropractor. Wasn’t an instant save. Because everything had to be trained to stay where it was suppose to. He went twice a day 3 times a week for months (for something that insurance pays for 6 days worth, max). Worth every penny. Plus the kicker? He could still work. Me? I wasn’t that far gone. Worse I’d had to do was once a day, 3 times a week for two weeks. When a session would originally trigger, you’d not know what was happening. After an adjustment, when muscles are still “tender” and the hip slipped & locked, you know it right now. The adjustment just breaks the lock & frees the tendons. Which relieves pressure on the muscles. Doesn’t stop the muscles from being in pain, because they’ve been abused. It does stop the “OMG, just kill me now” pain. Knock on wood … it has been years now since I have had to go to the chiropractor. My husband goes every 6 months or so every couple of years. Once he got where he didn’t have to go every 3 days, he was able to taper off to every month, every quarter, etc.

    Just saying that your overdoing the muscle pain might have a deeper root cause. Something to explore.

    1. D I’ve had a very similar condition, hip lock and everything. I eventually figured that just the chiropractor wasn’t enough and found a good physical therapist whose exercises strengthened the muscles that needed it so things aren’t slipping any more. As long as I don’t do anything stupid to trigger it.

      twist and grab and heave a couple gallon water jugs was stupid I admit. Always pick up heavy things while straight. I have learned my lesson.

      1. Yes. Strengthening the muscles helps. I haven’t engaged in physical therapy, but chiropractor & physician, gave me exercises to do. What I needed to know was what was happening.

        Once the tendons are stretched, they don’t un-stretch. The key is to keep the hips from locking. I gotten sensitive enough to the process that it is surprising what triggers an episode (as in “dang it all I did was sneeze!”), fast enough to usually be able get it to unlock before everything tightens up. Still end up with some pain, but it isn’t “Oh holy God” pain. Key word is usually. (Knock on wood) I haven’t had an episode for almost 5 years.

  19. As far as the “Jussie Smolleting” of Obergruppenfuhrer Witmer goes (by which I’m guessing you mean it was a false-flag attack orchestrated by her or the FBI)… I’m going to have to disagree. And retract yesterday’s comments (which I think I also made here) about how it was an FBI put-up job.

    Stumbled across this earlier:

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1314237833276612609.html?fbclid=IwAR3XxEwEAN8nmCf09MovUk5a_f1zhgcZQ_jfhTHS-dP6wa4W4jInc4C2lj8

    Assuming that report is not faked (and the sheer amount of “You Can’t Make This Sh*t Up!”-Level Dumbassery these yo-yo’s allegedly displayed leads me to believe that it is indeed genuine), then it sounds like either the FBI or one of their CI’s stumbled across this group of Keystone Kommandos (seriously, they were all but announcing their plans intentions on Facebook fer cryin’ outloud!), infiltrated them, let them do their thing, and then arrested them when they finally did something illegal. If the Feebies did actually pressure or persuade them to do something illegal, I’d put good odds on it being so they could hurry up and wrap up the case so they could get on with their lives and start going after actual semi-competent ner-do-wells.

    Seriously, their “ops” read like something I’d plan out back when I was in middle school! Hell, I was reading Fleming and Clancy in middle school, so my plan would almost certainly have been better!. It still would have been an abysmal failure, but even so….

    1. A middle school level plan would be very good for government work.

      What I want to know is why there were two GBI informants running around with a bunch of no hopers and they still can’t find out who’s paying for Antifa. *cough* Georgie boy.

      1. These yahoos were all but screaming their intentions all over social media (they were using a code, but one so obvious that an elementary schooler could decipher it without too much effort) so my guess is it didn’t take the Feebies much effort to uncover the plot.

        If the report analyzed in the link is even half-truthful, the CI’s and Undercover Agents didn’t do much besides listen to the “masterminds” spout off their plans.

      1. Apparently the clowns were posting their intent on Facebook (using a “code” that a fourth-grader could figure out) which was how the Feebies (or their CI) found them, so probably not much entrapment was necessary.

          1. I think the only think they’ve actually been charged with (probably the only thing they can make stick given the group’s sheer idiocy) is “Conspiracy to Kidnap.”

            And now that I’ve stepped back and thought about it (and stopped laughing at just how stupid these clowns were: seriously, Gilligan, Homer Simpson, and Colonel Klink could’ve come up with a more intelligent plan!), the timing does stink. That said, if the affidavit is true, that they were attempting to buy explosives from an undercover FBI agent to try and blow up Witmer’s vacation home and the bridge leading to the island where said home is located, I do think the threat could conceivably be considered immediate. Though that does beg the question as to why they weren’t charged with attempting to purchase said explosives.

            1. IF the affidavit is true. The FBIs credit is in the dirt with me.
              What this sounds like to me?
              They’ve been charged with saying stupid things on the internet. Based on that, I could be charged with planning to kill Polis.
              Truth is, I don’t want him dead. I want him IRRELEVANT.

              1. It’s basically the FBI yet again trying to manufacture a scandal that the Democratic Party media arm can then whip up in their perpetual effort to get rid of ‘orangeman bad”.

                I have gotten to the point where I think the entirety of the FBI needs to be disbanded (and frankly the CIA, etc., as well) and then utterly redone from scratch and a much smaller and narrower remit.

              2. I want him IRRELEVANT.

                THIS! I was annoyed with Bush for making it a Big Deal to “get” Osama bin Laden. The objective should have been to make his utterly irrelevant to the point that when he was taken out (irrelevancy doesn’t men don’t get the ratfink), most would go “Who?”

            2. If that’s not the dumbest plan I’ve ever heard, it’s got #1 running hard… that’s another point toward it being a false flag. Drunken frat boys might think up such a dopey plan; anyone even halfway serious would be like… why are we blowing up an empty house? It sounds like the plot for a bad movie.

        2. If social media posts are sufficient to arrest people for conspiracy, how come all the leftist Hollywood types haven’t been arrested for openly calling for the assassination of President Trump and other Republicans?

            1. Also:

              And: South Carolina Senate Candidate Suggests Amy Coney Barrett Would Roll Back Civil Rights: ‘I Don’t Look Good in Chains’
              –

              1. Didn’t the guy who shot up the Republican baseball game (whose name escapes me) visit the office of another Dem legislator shortly before the attack?

      1. The group’s allegedly been under surveillance since June, and the yo-yo’s public social media posts indicate that they’ve been plotting this for a long while.

        Maybe the Feebies decided to make the bust now to try to make Trump bad and score points for Obergruppenfuhrer Wretched, but I very much doubt this was whipped up on a spur of the moment by the Feebies’ Obama Holdovers.

  20. I’ve got a couple of concerns about this election. The first is the standard “unleash the floodgates of ballot fraud!” electoral strategy. It’s discussed often enough around here.

    The second concern is that the above strategy is not being used; or rather, it won’t be used to the extent that all signs indicate it will. Instead, all of the work we’ve seen toward preparing toward it is a distraction from the real plot. There’s been a lot of Dem weirdness this election cycle above and beyond the usual stuff, and it has me wondering, “Why these specific actions?” If the vote fraud shenanigans were just a distraction for something else, then those actions might make sense.

    Can’t figure out what that something else might be, though.

    I’m probably overthinking things. Our hostess has noted that the Left likes to recycle the same old playbook. And yet…

    2. I think you might be overthinking. Never ascribe to conspiracy what can be more easily explained by sheer desperate stupidity. I think the Dems and their allies are getting desperate and they’re doing stupid things. That’s not to say they won’t steal this election, but it will be blindingly obvious and it will roil the country even more. But, I’m hopeful that they fail in their fraud attempt.

  21. When the story broke of the “kidnapping conspiracy”, my internal news translator reported “resident hotheads fantasize about gathering a mob, and visiting the wannabe petty tyrant, introducing her to tar, feathers, and a ride out of town on a rail”.
    .
    And I have to say, it sounded like a capital idea.
    .
    Of course, that turned out not to be the case.
    And now I’m stuck wondering…
    If they’d have succeeded to taking her hostage, and then all involved were killed I’m the ensuing standoff…
    Who would the media have chosen to frame as the martyr?

  22. …

    Pelosi trying to get Trump pulled from power by the 25th Amendment.

    Yes, I know it’s Nancy Pelosi, who is like Theodora without the charm, tact, or red hair. But, this is not what confident people do.

    If they’re this desperate to get rid of Trump, one way or another, are they seeing different numbers on their internal polling? Are they afraid that any attempts to game or cheat on the election will result in Democrats being dragged up against a nearest wall and shot (and that’s not a metaphor)? Why do you think they’re trying to so much? The Democratic Party, the media, the press-they’re all looking for something that sticks.

    Or, maybe it’s just time to take Pelosi to the river and talk to her about the rabbits.

    I don’t think I’ll sleep well past 11/3 until the election is over.

    I will sleep like a baby on a bed of $100 bills when Trump wins and Biden realizes that he can’t win.

    Or he gets distracted sniffing a girl’s hair.

    1. “Or, maybe it’s just time to take Pelosi to the river and talk to her about the rabbits.”

      I had to think about this one for a moment. Kudos for appropriate use of American Literature metaphor.

    2. It isn’t about Trump; its about removing Biden for Harris after a Biden win, while at the same time rallying the base by screaming “Trump”. It also helps try to hide from voters the Democratic Party plan to replace Biden with Harris as soon as possible after the election, as he has been a Trojan horse the entire time.

      1. I think everyone over here on the sane side of the world thinks that’s the case. Biden will be “kept on” until the right time, then he’ll resign or have a medical issue or a “act of conscience” or a mysterious 9mm heart attack, then Harris takes over. Especially if they can make Biden’s departure from the Presidency something they can hang on the Republicans and conservatives in general.

    3. So… how does Pelosi plan to get Pence and cabinet to cooperate?

      ===
      https://www.kmbc.com/article/how-it-works-what-the-25th-amendment-says-about-transfer-of-power/34254255

      The next section of the amendment, Section 4, lays out what happens if the president becomes unable to discharge his duties but doesn’t transfer power. In that case, the vice president and majority of the Cabinet can declare the president unfit. They’d then send a letter to the Speaker and President Pro Tempore saying so. The vice president then becomes acting president.
      ===

      Also, how do they then plan to get rid of Pence??

          1. I’ve heard there are multiple crazies stopped every day… but check out Tim Pool’s vid today: he speculates that it’s not about Trump; it’s about laying the groundwork for ditching Biden..

            1. That’s my suspicion as well. Because the Constitution does make a provision for “what if the president-elect dies before he is sworn in,” as well as “what if the president becomes incapacitated.”

  26. I note with distaste the Biden ad blitz has begun, at least on the Science Channel. They seem very fond of an ad featuring a black physician and “ICU manager,” (they don’t ID the hospital) talking about a young woman with WuFlu, worried about her kids, as in, “Doc, am I gonna make it?” I turned off the sound at that point, but you get a photo montage of Biden, masked, looking concerned, talking to people, etc. Ending with a link to his plan to beat Covid-19. Ad put out by “ForwardAmerica,” I think. A PAC of some sort. Also, “Trump is lying again! Joe Biden will not raise your taxes!” on to talking about corporations paying their fair share, etc.
    Gonna be hard to watch “How It’s Made,” if this keeps up.

    1. “Indivisible Amarillo” now has a billboard up showing Biden embracing someone who appears to be a stubby-haired Hispanic/black male. The billboard says something like “Accepted, not rejected” or whatever. “Vote Biden” I’m not certain if the person is supposed to be gay, a criminal, black, Hispanic, a drug user, or just what’s up.

  27. ““The country dies and I die with it.””

    Why I’m too American to ever make a good Euro.

    For one thing the US cannot actually die, even if every piece of it is physically occupied, so long as enough keep true to the Constitution. And plan…. I’m old enough that my major contribution to eventual victory is build a samadh to rival that built by the First Shikaris before I go down.

  28. On a tangent, we are square in the middle of the projected path of what will then be either Tropical Storm Delta or Glorified Rainstorm Delta. So we may actually have a Delta dawn. 2020. Sheesh. Now I need to hear that song.

  29. Tonight Laura Ingrahm noted in passing that the Democrats haven’t forgiven the American people for electing Trump.

    I said, “Hell, they haven’t forgiven us for winning the Civil War!”

  30. Uncertainty is nerve-wracking and can be even worse than certain knowledge of being Doomed.

    1. Amen to that. I’ll take “the tornado is two blocks west, inbound,” over “there’s something out there, maybe, the air feels right, but you know, and the radar’s out, and there’s only an 80% chance . . .”

  31. Biden showed the utter contempt that Democrats have for voters and in particular anyone who is not in full lockstep with leftist ideology yesterday:

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-voters-deserve-packing-supreme-court

    Biden says voters don’t deserve to know his stance on a crucial issue, indeed perhaps the single most crucial issue of the election. In a sane world this causes him to lose all 50 states: If they win, expect a true reign of terror.

      1. I agree, they certainly are. And long past time, from the looks of this snake’s nest.

        I think what really changed it all was the 2000 election. They really needed Gore to win, and those pesky voters didn’t come through for them. Since then the media have all stopped pretending not to be in the tank for the Dems and started making a virtue of hating Republicans.

        This year they desperately need Mr. Sniffer to win, or they’ll maybe be going to jail. Some of the smaller fish will certainly be netted, that’s sure. Now we find that hating Republicans isn’t enough anymore, now they’re hating White people and Western civilization.

        Which is stupid, they’re just pushing the margin of fraud so high that even the Normies won’t buy it.

        Normies aren’t buying Corona anymore either. You didn’t hear about it probably, but there was a -big- demonstration in Toronto last week of people against the lockdown. Not 200 rent-a-mob agitators either, couple thousand actual humans that live in Toronto. Previous to that we’ve seen a couple of instant car shows staged by the street-racer crowd. Hundreds of cars, not dozens. Almost a thousand kids at each. One in Scarborough where the Metro Toronto cops tried to get tough with the boy racers and got their asses beat. The other in Hamilton, where the Hamilton cops very wisely did -not- try to issue tickets or arrest anyone.

        This is -Canada.-

        You know, Canada. The place where people don’t make a fuss about things. Where they line up for things properly and don’t make a mess. Where they don’t fight with the cops except for hockey games and at the bar on weekends. Nice, peaceful, polite Canada is having Normie demonstrations and mass-scale law-breaking.

        Can’t wait to see the Americans decide they’re mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore.

      2. Also, speaking of masks coming off, it seems the jackasses arrested for conspiring to kidnap the Governor of Michigan are #Antifa-#BLM types after all.

        https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2020/10/10/blm-supporter-tied-to-michigan-gov-whitmer-kidnapping-plot-demands-grow-for-her-to-apologize-to-trump-n1034330

        There are some people (and a camel, and something that thinks it needs to look like Santa Claus) still trying to pretend this thing is alllllll Trumpie’s fault, because he got all those bazillion White supremacist rednecks stirred up.

        In other White supremacy news, it has been decided that the World Fantasy Con is run by racist/bigot/homophobe White supremacists (and is virtual this year), so all the Woke-ies are leaving. The charge is being led by K. Tempest Bradford, who is mad because the program of events was mean to somebody and because [mumblemumble]. And who was a planned Guest of Honor this year at WFC.

        One wonders at what point convention planners will stop inviting people like KTB who seem to have the destruction of conventions as their main business plan for getting free advertising.

          1. Right? Not satisfied with getting HP Lovecraft’s bust taken off the award, the Woke-ies want the whole thing burnt down.

            I wonder what would have happened if the WFC had answered “F- Off!” the first time, when they all whinged about Lovecraft and his racism?

        2. I’m pretty sure that I once argued a case that a puppy kicker or kickers was white supremacist. This totally vindicates that.

            1. My vague recollection is that I was quite a bit more aggressively obnoxious than that.

              1. No, say it ain’t so, Bob. ~:D

                There’s certainly plenty of material for a more aggressive argument in favor of White Lefties hating the Brown People and using them for cannon fodder. One need only look at any #BLM riot to see a horde of White college kids doing all the damage while random criminals loot the stores.

                I wonder if K. Tempest Bradford ever thinks about the tally of woe coming her way after she finishes destroying traditional nerdy Fan culture with her Marxism? There are an awful lot of nerds and nerdettes out there who are going to be very disappoint that there are no cons to go to and no books to read.

      3. Yeah, see the tweet from Bob Dole (!) expressing concern that he knows all the non-D debate commission members personally and none of them support DJT.

    2. Trump’s not too polite to point it out. Neither are his supporters. Of course, Twitter and FascistBook will block it because it’s “anti-Semitic”. Pfui.

  33. Hello Sarah – I’ve been reading your blog for several months. Your ending of “Wobbly” particularly impressed me. I am a Vietnam vet and never imagined as a young man our country would devolve to the point we’re at today. I’m beyond furious. I younger version of me would be on the front lines if/when the shooting starts. As it is, I’ll contribute however I can. With that in mind, I took your last three lines and made a meme with them, but before I sent it to anyone I am seeking your permission. For your review, it’s here: https://i.imgur.com/HlwF9QB.png. In my mind, you’re White House material.

    1. I have no problem with your disseminating the meme, but I recommend making the letters white for legibility.
      Alas, sir, I was born in Portugal, so I cannot ever be president. Nor would I want it. Trump seems to be a man of steel. I don’t think I could take a tenth of what he puts up with.
      I do thank you, though. I’m somewhat younger than you. My brother, were he American would have been I THINK in the last year of the draft. I’m just past my mid-fifties. Too old to fight. I’ve done my fighting when young. Now all I can do is support those who will have to fight.
      May G-d bless and preserve the United States of America. We’re going to need all the help we can get.

      1. “I cannot ever be president.”

        That was my first thought on reading his statement … but he said “you’re White House material”, not presidential material. I was thinking White House press secretary, although as they will not allow you to shoot people for stupid, tendentious, loaded questions the stress factor might make yours a short tenure.

        Have you given thought to being vice-presidential speechwriter?
        –

          1. Rubber Fish? I think this administration should be supportive of the American Fishing Industry and demand they use real fish!

            2. So, should I write Mr. President and tell him that while his current press secretary is more decorative, I’m way more amusing? Or I can fill in for her when she has PMS?

              2. One day of you and your fish flinging and they’d want her back, PMS and all!

                How is your aim at moderate distances, by the way? You wouldn’t want to fish-slap the wrong face in the crowd.

                  1. Carp are for puns, so what fish would be appropriate for various types of stupid questions? Flounder? Grouper?

                    For those ‘have-you-stopped-beating-your-wife’ entrapment questions, the only appropriate punishment would be a Barracuda!

                    The Electric Eel would be reserved for the very worst offenders.

          2. Portuguese people are famous fishers so any objections from the Press would be culturally insensitive.
            –

          3. If nothing else, the conspiracy theories about how your accent meant that you were really a Putin plant, and not really from Portugal, would be fun reading.

            You could open each press conference by saying, “Moose and squirrel!”

            1. I own three sets. I want to say right now the kids never suffered the soco (the open clog, with wooden soles. Actually my favorite for posture. I’ve become my grandmother.) But the chinelo, either flip flop or covered….
              The funny thing is the fear persisted well after the last time I used it on their behinds. So in their teens, when we had company and they were all mouthy, I could stop them cold by slowly and dramatically, slipping my slipper off my foot.
              If that didn’t work, I’d say “I have a slipper.” Confused hell out of visitors, but it was like an off button for bad behavior.

      2. Nor would I want it.

        Which makes you more qualified that anyone that has run for the job in at least the last 30 years.

        In a sane universe, the mere fact that anyone wants that much power should disqualify them from holding any public office.

  34. I occurs to me that this is ALSO not the time to get the jitters. If the Democrats try to steal the election, Trump will fight. And, based on the smoothness the Democrats have show over the last four years, enough of their fraud will get exposed to make their position shaky at best.

    Yes, we will see more riots. But opinion has been shifting against such all summer. Local Democrat panjandrums are going to be the ones most exposed by charges of fraud. The Feds are stepping up the prosecution of rioter who can be charged under federal statutes, which will make rioting as a pastime much less attractive. And the rioters don’t strike me as smart enough to confine themselves to places where they are protected, especially if that protection is shifting. I think they believe that their ‘victories’ are genuine, and that will give them a momentum that will override caution and planning.

    I don’t think a full on Civil War is in the cards. I think the forest-fire of the riots will start hitting areas where the local authorities aren’t predisposed to play nerf-ball with them, and will sputter out.

    I think in a year or two the Fascist Left is going to be sitting in the ruins of its own making, wondering what the hell happened, and the majority of the country – even the majority of the Democrat base – is going to have precious little time for them

    If Trump really pursues both vote fraud and the coup attempt, the Democrat power structure is going to have a lot of rebuilding to do.

    As I’ve written before, I may be whistling past the graveyard, but I don’t think so.

    With some luck, more moderate Democrats will be able to make a fight for the soul of their party. They still won’t be anyone I’D vote for, but they will be an improvement.

      1. a) I never thought as much of the allegations against the FBI would be validated as has been b) Trump’s older sister was a Federal judge, and Donald seems to have observed the people he is close to, not simply what he wanted them to be c) Before the election would be nice, but longer term is what is important d) some of those I follow at Redstate I suspect are conning me. However, shipwreckedcrew over there was brought in to cover legal stuff, and has recently argued that Durham’s before election plans have been reset to after, because of some very damaging material coming out in one of the other proceedings. shipwreckedcrew’s argument is that /competent/ prosecutors like to sit on things until they have them lined up, and that the new information pretty much requires broadening the criminal investigation.

        With the problems I’ve been struggling with, I’m probably about due for a mood change to blackpill/doomer. I’m at neutral to positive.

        My sense of the entrails is cautiously untrusting, but that you and I should not be pessimistic about the prosecution based on what information we have now. It is an area where expertise matters in forecasting and in gathering intelligence. I don’t have the knowledge, and I haven’t heard you talk about federal prosecutor friends, so I figure that our careful bet is waiting. Some of the ‘experienced federal prosecutor’ pundits are working on a short enough con that they will be changing their tune after the election.

        1. After November 3rd there will be about seventy-eight days when Durham can be dropping major legal bombs of a magnitude akin to MOABs, absolutely blistering the Democrats, the Bidens, the Clintons and the Obamas. Sure, there won’t be time to prosecute them — there already isn’t time for that, absent Trump getting re-elected (from my keyboard to His eyes!) but the damage done to Democrats, the Media and the Washington Swamp could make governance afterward impossible absent a Trump victory.

          All those Democrat & Never-Trump efforts to suborn electors might pay off in the event of a Biden Electoral College victory as the electors unanimously vote Trump back into office.

          No, I would never bet on a Washington apparatchik rediscovering a conscience. As much as I adore Mr. Smith Goes To Washington even as a Wallababy I never bought Senator Joseph Paine’s turn at the end. Not even an actor as great as Claude Rains could persuade me any senator could find moral courage.

          –

        2. With the problems I’ve been struggling with, I’m probably about due for a mood change to blackpill/doomer. I’m at neutral to positive.

          Don’t do that. It isn’t pleasant for anyone; least of all the doomer.

          1. I spent exactly half of 2016 (5/3 to election day) so depressed that I found Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans season one, light hearted and fluffy.

            I know what I’m trying to avoid.

            And I think I have season two ready to try again if things get too bad.

      2. I’m looking at the ‘no report until after the election’ and wondering if that might be a deliberate bit of Trump timing. Let the Democrats start fussing about the election, and coming up with ‘found’ ballots, and then hit them with proof that they are traitorous toads.

        *shrug*

        I don’t insist on it.

        1. I’ll have you know, that is highly offensive to toads! Other than the Cane Toads overrunning Australia, most toads are inoffensive creatures that mind their own business, eat insect pests and serenade other toads.

          As a character in one of my stories says:

          “Calling you a slimy little worm would be an insult to worms! And— slimy…things.”

    1. That one is shaping weird – from reports it looks like an altercation between a hired-gun-security fellow for a TV news crew and a protester escalated to the protester deploying pepper spray and the hired-gun shooting in reply, which implies a loose understanding of the use of force continuum on the part of the security contractor.

      1. Notes:

        https://www.redstate.com/shipwreckedcrew/2020/10/11/shooter-at-pro-trump-rally-in-denver-has-longstanding-ties-to-left-wing-protest-groups-such-as-antifa-and/

        Scroll down to the bottom, and note who are linked together.

        For those with less time

        A reporter following an Antifa group on Twitter isn’t that big an issue — they make news, and any reporter would want to know what such a group is saying on social media. But the second screen grab is interesting where the account “Saytheirnames6” says “Kyle would be 100% safe. Because we protect us and Kyle is one of us.”

        That exchange is just 3 days prior to the shooting. A reporter from the same station, who normally leads the news crew in the field is “one of us” according to “Saytheirnames6”, which is a locked Twitter account clearly associated with Black Lives Matter, and with a link to Antifa.org on its Twitter homepage. And the station’s news crew is following around a BLM agitator as he creates video for them.

        So the station’s news crew on Saturday is following around a BLM agitator as he creates video for them. The news station hires Pinkerton security, and it’s just a coincidence that the guy they get has long-time associations with left-wing protest movements in the Denver area?

        Also, heavily related, according to Denver DEPT of Excise and Licenses, via AMCON, a Michael Dolloff/Doloff has never been licensed as a security guard.

        Huh.

        Pinkertons.

  36. So I have various parts for a rifle build that I decided isn’t going to work for me. Now starting to divest them on ar15.com’s Equipment Exchange…..

    WOAH American culture is sky high on the trust and assumption of good faith scale.

    It is one thing to hear of it and “know”. It is another to see it and be on the receiving end.

    1. I repeatedly hear stories that Americans are uniquely generous.

      But I’m somewhat leery because of the self-aggrandizement issues. And I also remember things like $SOMEWHERE gifting a bunch of goats after 9/11.

      1. It’s partly a degrees thing, partly a good enough description for something hard to describe, and partly a consequence of low levels of familial amoralism.

        If you grow up around familial amoralists, not screwing over strangers is a bad choice where the game theory is concerned. Anyone you are lax in screwing over is going to get more resources which will help them when they try to screw you over in the future. If the early colonists had been familial amoralists, historical and current qualities of American culture could never have developed.

        More broadly than familial amoralist cultures, many populations, as far as oral history goes back, recall that these other neighboring populations have been their enemies. They have a deep expectation that those neighboring populations will be their neighbors in the future, probably enemies, and hurting your own for the sake of someone in the other population is probably a bad idea. This is probably where the guy in esr’s Rittenhouse thread was coming from with the “why would you celebrate the death of your fellow citizens?” He was likely foreign, and doesn’t grok how Americans sense inside and outside.

        I’ve pointed out before how American meta culture could have come from mixing very different cultures, and negotiating common denominator mores to handle the resulting problems.

        1. By any reasonable definition I’m not an American. Being born inside a certain border doesn’t count for much if you grew up learning that it is The Village crossed with Fahrenheit 451…

          1. I hope you have since figured out that neither culture is stable, or could be. Both good enough for entertainment, mind, but not workable.

            I have a broad capacity for accepting the absurd if the story is good (hell, I can accept Discworld!), but push it too far, and I lose the ability to give a rat’s arse. Cyberpunk struck me that way; with rare exceptions (GHOST IN THE SHELL, STAND ALONE COMPLEX anyone?) I simply never bought that the Big Bads could create and sustain the degree of awfulness shown.

            1. I hope you have since figured out that neither culture is stable, or could be. Both good enough for entertainment, mind, but not workable.

              Um….. fiction? …allegory? What does stability have to do with that?

              I didn’t think they actually drugged or had a hypo-lamp above candidates beds. But I still think/thought the episode Free For All was by far a more accurate depiction of what elections actually are than the civics class drek. To be fair, anything would be a more accurate picture than civics class.

              And stability on what timescale?

              1. MONTHS. Tops.
                1984? maybe a decade. Farenheit? Months. Seriously.
                The problem is the left buys into these fantasies as accurate representations of how people act. (rolls eyes.)

                1. You are making the same mistake as cspschofield. Think “allegory”, not “clinical analysis”.

                  Though the Everything is Horrible / Everything is Maximally Corrupt And Evil outlook obviously has something wrong with it, given the fact that over and over again I am shocked (read: mispredicted) the level of niceness of people in general.

  39. Great list of bad organizations in Colorado today, all associated with a Trump hating murderer: “Black Lives Matter Anti-Fascist Soup Drive,” the latter of which included Denver Communists, Colorado Socialist Revolution, Anon Resistance Movement, W.I.T.C.H. Denver, H.O.E.S (Help on Every Street) and Front Range Mutual Aid Network.

  41. Pingback: It’s A Sign – Head Noises

  42. Would be nice if Darvon N-100 was still available. It was an opiate, chemically bonded with Niacin in a way that made it impossible to use it to make heroin. Not that anyone ever did that with the original Darvon because it would have been far easier to do other methods.

    Anyway. That was good stuff for a tweaked back that was being kept in pain by our stupid human negative feedback loops. Muscle spasm causes pain which makes the muscle spasm which causes pain… I could take ONE Darvon N-100 which would ‘smack the stupid muscle upside the head’ and *make it quit having a spasm* would would have the pain ended in short order. Darvon was ended because it supposedly could cause heart damage, eventually, perhaps after taking it daily for a few decades. IMHO the real reason was because it was cheap.

    These days I’m taking three different blood pressure meds, two different than I started with. Those I had issues with. Also with a generic Allegra each day. Of course all the BP meds are compromised by any NSAID pain pills so I take a couple of Acetaminophen when needed, mostly for whatever once in a while causes the right rear of my neck to feel like it’s attempting to rip free and fly away with my scalp. Totally random, that. But I can nearly always feel it slowly starting and popping a couple will fend it off, most of the time. Codeine is right out. I am very allergic or whatever to that. My father was, so was his mother.

    I’ll be turning 50 in May. Bleah. Neck and knees sound like a bowl of Rice Crispies right after having milk poured on.

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