Read this and Consider It

207 thoughts on “Read this and Consider It”

1. Two things – yes on motorvoter, in fact, every time I interact with the .gov here in the Gloriously Gavin Bear Flag Peoples Theoretical Republic I have to specifically opt-out to avoid getting shunted over to the voter registration site – every time I renew my auto reg, every time I go through the hell that is the “Covered California” web site: Every. Darn. Time.

   Second, “Yes, he sent federal troops to the cities, but ONLY to defend federal property” – to be specific he sent Sworn Federal Law Enforcement Officers to enforce Federal Law, which guess what, Federal Law Enforcement Officers don’t need the permission of local or state governments to do. that’s why you don;t see backups of US Marshalls sitting at state border posts waiting for clearance to pursue people wanted on Federal warrants. They can’t chase someone into Canada without Canada’s permission, but into Oregon? Not a probelm.

   The President could have declared insurrection and sent the 101st, or dropped in the 82d Airborne, or Nationalized the Oregon and Washington National Guard and had them roll their Abrams and Bradleys into town, but he did not do so (which Sarah correctly notes was the trap being laid by Burn Loot and Murder and Fa). He simply sent in duly sworn law enforcement to reinforce locally based duly sworn Federal Law Enforcement to enforce Federal Laws.

2. “I AM sure some Republican somewhere cheated.”

   Here in NC some Republican candidate hired a Democrat operative to do his ballot harvesting and got caught cheating. The US House seat (NC9th) decision got held up for some while before they determined the outcome.

   Multiple charges were filed against the contractor who’d effed up, because denying vote fraud is a privilege only accorded Democrats, who would never have had to cheat if only Republicans didn’t force them to by protecting the People’s liberty.
   –

3. Proposed for consideration;

   We aren’t the only ones who are feeling cornered.

   After the debacle of 2016, I think the Democrat Thrones and Powers told themselves that it would be easy to ‘correct’ the ‘mistake’. There was the Russian Collusion accusation, they had control of the media, and in any case Trump was a clown who wouldn’t be able to govern.

   But the Russian Collusion nonsense was a damp squib. In fact, a string of damp squibs; no matter how often they re-lit the fuse, no bang. And Trump called the Media ‘enemies of the people…and the people applauded. Oh, not the True Believer Democrats, but they didn’t need to be convinced that Trump was awful.

   And Trump COULD govern. Pretty damn well, in fact. And constituents the Democrats thought of as wholly owned were giving Trump a look.

   Hence the thrashing about we’ve seen over the last year.

   I think the Democrat Panjandrums are aware that their control of a lot of things is paper thin. Their city strongholds were drawing increasing criticism for resembling downtown Beirut. Further, their ability to fund said strongholds was evaporating. Unemployment among young blacks and Hispanics was at historic lows, and employed minorities tend to stop listening to poverty pimps as they climb up.

   And I also think the Panjandrums are uneasy about their ability to produce enough fraud. In 2016 and 2018 they were already pushing the bounds of caution. They HAVE to try it again this year – four more years of Trump’s economy and a lot of their base will evaporate – but if they get caught at it, the consequences could be dire (for them. I’d be chuffed).

   So, yes, they are trying to look as unstoppable as possible. I think they are hoping, not so much to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, but to persuade us to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

   1. So, yes, they are trying to look as unstoppable as possible.

      It would be more believable if they weren’t trying so hard at it.

      but to persuade us to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

      YES. THIS. ABSOLUTELY THIS.

      They know better than anyone how easy it is to demoralize heir enemies. They think they can do it again.

      1. And I think they seriously underestimate just how sick of them we are. The Left always looks to Europe, and not even Europe NOW (where The peasants are getting restive) but Europe from the latter half of the 20th Century, where the masses looked to their Betters a great deal more than Americans ever did. They’ve managed to forget that Americans don’t get cowed, they get PISSED.

         1. So much this.

         2. “They’ve managed to forget that Americans don’t get cowed, they get PISSED.”

            Preach, cspschofield. Preach!

            1. Sadly, these days Americans getting pissed seems to have less to do with gumption than with beer consumption.

               Else these masks would be getting shoved up where many politicians stash their heads.
               –

               1. That’s the genius in recruiting genuinely well-meaning people, and terrifying folks with half truths about the masks– the politicians aren’t anywhere NEAR when someone heads to pick up a loaf of bread and is told they can’t come in. Neither are the store managers making the orders. Just the poor kid stuck at the front to tell people.

                  1. Just the poor kid stuck at the front to tell people.

                     –
                     Nobody decent wants to kill/maim/berate the minimum wage messenger, be it the local HS or college kid, or grandma/grandpa supplementing SS … Those that do will get verbally dog piled on for doing so.

                     1. And because folks are so on edge, even just being upset and not doing more than saying “well, then I won’t be back” gets dogpiled on as berating, because the kid feels bad, and the folks putting him there know they did something wrong so they feel bad, and….

                        Gah, it’s a huge, manipulative mess.

                        *sad*

                        1. This. It’s EXTREMELY manipulative. Complete with “your mask protects other people.”
                           ANYONE who’s known/seen/lived with abusers recognizes the tactic.
                           It works for a while, but in otherwise independent people, like most Americans, it creates massive resentment.
                           I think we’ve held back, because the election is nigh.
                           But any shenanigans they attempt, ANY shenanigans are going to fire back like they can’t even imagine.
                           They don’t know what they’re playing with.

                     2. There are a lot of less than decent people out there.

               2. I think people are holding it in till the election. I’ve seen evidence of great, repressed rage.

   2. “they are trying to look as unstoppable as possible.”

      I cannot remember, in a single presidential election I’ve observed since Nixon beat Humphrey in 1968, the MSM ever reporting the Republican candidate with a significant lead in the polling. Not in 1972, when Nixon beat McGovern, 49 states to 1 (plus DC), pulling 60.7% of the vote. Not in 1984 when Reagan beat Mondale, 49 states to 1 (plus DC), pulling 58.8% of the vote.

      It isn’t that the MSM doesn’t report when candidates hold large leads in the polls — they do that even when those leads evaporate in the final days. But they never seem to perceive a Republican lead, no matter how great.

      This pattern, it is a puzzlement.
      –

4. c4c

5. I am going to try to go early partly to make sure I don’t miss it by going into labor at the wrong moment….

   1. Early Congratulations then!

      1. Thank you!

         He seems to be in good shape so far. Sometimes I feel like I accidentally hogged all the good luck for the year.

         1. Nah. And if you had, it would be in a good cause. HUGS to you and the sprout.
            I’m hoping for the 18th. it’s a good day to be born. Or at least, it has worked for me 😀

            1. *hugs back* Thank you!

               If he turns out to have the honor of sharing your birthday, I will let you know. 🙂

         2. Eh, the person carrying a child is the one who most needs an extra share of luck. Only a fool would begrudge them.

         3. Be not concerned. I have had some good luck this year, too.

            1. Glad to hear it!

   2. Praying it goes well– I can’t believe the Chief is already nearly 4, but dang, when Trump pulled that “wait what he won?” thing last time I was very preggers, too.

      1. May the election work out similarly…. 😀

         Thank you. ❤

         1. Good luck, God bless and an easy labor. It’s so nice to get good news.

            1. Thank you! 🙂

               The support and encouragement here are very warming.

6. Utterly, completely, ridiculously off-topic and possibly the product of a deranged mind:

   Does the line “I sold my glass spear.” have some meaning beyond someone having, for whatever reason, a spear of glass that that someone then sold? The line has been bugging me of late, as if it was presented to my (semi?)conscious mind with the idea some sense could be made of it. I have had no insight on this.

   Thank you.

   {AnnouncerVoice} We now return to our regular scheduled disaster, ‘2020’ already in progress…

   1. No worse than a couple that jumped into my head many moons ago, close enough together that I’m sure they’re related:

      “I bury my dead in my left wrist.”
      “The day the little men called Axe.”

      WTF??

      1. Damn. I could work with the first one.
         With the second one, too, but it would take more work.

         1. Pam Uphoff’s dimensional bags would work….

         2. If you want ’em, help yourself! Been 30 years or so… not likely I’ll ever do a thing with ’em.

      2. The Wee Free Men can break into any place. I assume the speaker had whisky on the premises…

         1. Hmm. I know I wasn’t drunk, but perhaps they had the wrong address.

   2. Orvan you have me beat on the glass spear front. Larry Niven has a story called “What Good is a Glass Dagger” in the Warlock/The Magic Goes Away universe, but nothing about glass spears pops into my head which is often full of useless trivia.

      1. Glass dagger

         Glass, like flint and obsidian, and be knapped into useful sharp pointy things, including daggers.

         1. And this week has been such that I am picturing the Aztec type sword-saw-ax-thingies…and smiling.

            in my defense, it’s from this:

            Anime is a Fate series. Basically, famous fighters/figures of myth, legend and history are incarnated and fight for plot reason. A lot of them are turned into very bouncy girls, and it’s often very lightly explained, inspired by, or justified.

            1. Hey, any storytelling and eyecandy that gets people interested in digging up the original myths and stories is a good thing. 🙂 Plus – superhero story inspiration!

               (And when you need a laugh, that vid is just funny. *G*)

               1. Amen! There’s just enough of the inspiration to GET that burst of “ahaha, I know this!” for the various characters, and their handwavium of deliberate obfuscation for tactical reasons is outstanding.

                  I’m still gonna giggle over thinking about maquahuitl and having a “that’s delightful!” reaction. Even if feathery snake is relatively nice for an Aztec.

                  1. I still say her getting Kingu with a hurricanrana is totally worth it.

                  2. Speaking of you liking strange anime…

                     I don’t know if you’ve seen it before, but a few days ago I came across something that made me think “Fox might appreciate this.” A rather weird band called TWRP (Tupper Ware Remix Party) made a music video that was basically an entire anime compressed into four minutes and zero dialogue. It’s not a fan vid of an existing anime, either; the music and animation are both original. Check it out:

                     1. That is awesome!

                        1. Figured you’d like it. Here’s another one I found, although this one is more Scooby Doo than high fantasy in space:

                           This one got so much love that the band (Mystery Skulls) decided to continue the story with several more videos. They’re up to 3 now, I think.

                           1. Here’s the second one:

                           2. And the third:

                              Oh yeah, forgot to mention that one of the main characters in this series is a kitsune.

                           3. *grins* I caught that in the first video, although I wasn’t sure if it was more of a funhouse mirror thing.

                           4. Dang it is awesome to live in the future.

                              …see, if the Star Trek guys were willing to print money, this is the kind of thing that Lower Decks would have as a hobby. I would TOTALLY use the heck out of holodecks for stuff like this.

                           5. [Raised eyebrow]

                              You want a holodeck so you can live out fantasies of being hunted by powerful, murderous spirits? Your tastes are even stranger than I thought, but to each their own.

                           6. We’re always being hunted by powerful, murderous spirits. Some of them even wear bodies!
                              The fun of a holodeck would be that you can win, decisively.
                              And with a cool sound track!

                           7. Powerful, murderous head-bopping spirits, no less. A rather specific fetish, but I’ll bet someone out there has it.

                     2. Beautiful!

         2. Go to eBay and search “glass knife.” They were a thing during the Depression, and quite popular. Most of them were “fruit knives” or “cake knives” in shades of pink, but there are occasional ones that are basically Bowie knives, also in pink.

            Prices are usually under $20, even for a knife almost a century old that still has its original cardboard box… they’re ridiculously sharp and invisible to magnetic detectors. Glass shows up on X-rays, but quite faintly compared to steel.

            The glass knives went away after WWII, but there are still plenty out there.

            And as I’ve mentioned before, there are knappers who sell their services on eBay, who’ll knap any shape you want for what seems like a ridiculously small sum of money, particularly if you’ve ever priced a custom steel knife.

            1. If I recall The Four Musketeers correctly, Milady de Winter, had a glass dagger (acid-filled) with which she threatened D’Artagnan.

               Happily, his blade proved longer than hers.
               –

            2. I once made a knife from a beef leg bone… sharpened it by grinding it on the sidewalk and eventually achieved a razor edge. (Unfortunately it was eventually lost.) Dunno how it would look to a metal detector, tho.

      2. I believe a glass spear is what you use when hunting glass beasts. You’ll want a glass dagger for field-cleaning the beast and cutting it into portions to carry home.
         –

   3. It’s been a long time since I read Julian May, but I thought the Tanu used glass weapons. The phrase doesn’t ring a bell, however.

      1. Their weapons and armor are made out of glass and crystal, because iron is horribly toxic to them, and also to the Firvulag because they are a different race of the same species.

         I just checked my copy of The Adversary and it was published in 1984. The Many-Colored Land was 1981. Wow, four big novels in 3 years. None of them could get published today.

         1. I remember a cigar cutter as a lethal weapon in that. Novels 1 & 2 were paperback, long gone. I have the rest; picked up Intervention through Magnificat as soon as they were released. I spent a lot of time (and money) at Printer’s Inc in Palo Alto (R.I.P.).

            1. Yep, Aiken Drum took down the Firvulag champion Sharn The Atrocious with a sling and a steel cigar cutter right through his big red eye. The one he shot laser beams out of.

               The series was published by Del Rey. After Lester left us, I think Del Rey got assimilated by The Borg Tor.

   4. I would presume there was some foe that could be struck down only by glass, except now this foe is no longer an issue.

   5. My original thought was the later Ultima games, which had glass swords. They would hit for a ridiculous amount of damage (usually an instant kill), but then shatter after the first hit. There were no glass spears, though.

      I’ve now also remembered that some of the Elder Scrolls games have “glass” weapons and armor. They’re not made out of real glass. Instead, it’s some odd alloy that’s quite high up the usual video game trope of making better equipment by using increasingly outlandish materials. Usually those materials are things like adamantium or unusual local ores. The Elder Scrolls do some of that. But they also take names for other materials and use those names on arbitrarily tough ores and alloys. Ebony is another example of this in those games.

      1. Now the thing here is, I am not a gamer. The ONLY ‘console’ I ever played was the original Pong – and that was on the store demo.

         This peculiar line came from a VERY strange dream. I had read a tiny fictional work about a rather binary virility/mating ritual – the successful would try to start a family… and the unsuccessful.. there were no second tries. This reappeared in the dream, distorted some, but recognizable. The gal who ‘selected’ me to try gave me a card (greeting card sort…) that was meant to indicate that I was willingly taking this risk. I was to sign it and maybe add a bit, and it’d be mailed off to family to let them know it was my choice. The card had that line on the inside of it, and mentioned a particular price (a dollar amount) obtained for the glass spear. That the line was off and the price pre-printed struck me as odd even in the dream. I woke up before anything of the actual trial/ritual started.

         Upon waking, I recalled the strange line, and later that I had read the line in the card. This struck me as someone on one of the blogs I read regularly stated that it was said one does not or could not read in dreams. I know I had at least one dream (in the mid-late 1980’s…) where I was reading. I recall it from so long ago as it defined or attempted to define a word that I have never encountered before or since, at least not in waking memory. This would them be the second dream, that I can now recall, wherein I read something, if only a line or so.

         I had figured I might have be picking up an old memory of some work I’d read or it was something from a game that I had read of. While I do not play video games myself, I used to follow a few online comics that had game-derived themes. So I suppose that is possible, but nothing makes sense. Yeah, I know, dreamland.

         It does concern me some. I do NOT claim to be clairvoyant or psychic or such. But I once had a dream about a truck flying near Jupiter, and then things went horribly wrong. Not much later, Challenger blew up. Shuttle was described as ‘space truck’ and the Galileo mission (to Jupiter) was originally supposed to be launched by Shuttle. Coincidence and ‘reading in’ meaning? Most likely. That’s the most rational explanation. But things this weird still bug me.

         1. Reading in dreams is totally a thing. There is some research to indicate otherwise; but that research assumes that people read in only one way, from one part of the brain. And they’re wrong; and their sample size of dreamers wasn’t nearly big enough.

            I’ve read in dreams too, so yeah, it’s an annoying factoid.

            1. Thank you. I kinda figured, since I also do NOT dream in monochrome, but in full color – despite the claims of some about such. It seems strange to me. Why WOULDN’T one dream in their normal visual spectrum?

         2. I have read in dreams… I’ve had anagrams show up in dreams.

            But no glass spears that I recall.

      2. *pushes glasses up nose*

         https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Glass_Weapons_(Skyrim)

         Physical appearance
         Despite their name, “glass” weapons are not made of actual glass, but of Refined Malachite, a strong, glass-like green stone which can be sharpened to a fine edge, and strengthened further with Moonstone. Glass weapons have a design similar to Elven Weapons, highly ornate with avian motifs.

         Mostly because I wanted to link the pictures, honestly.

         1. Skyrim that brings back memories. Never saw any of those, but no surprise as I don’t think I got to 27th level with even my most intensely used character. There’s a game that was like video crack. That and the original Animal Crossing would eat time.

   6. Even more off topic: For the last week or so I’ve been thinking of writing a paste it and putting it in the middle of my computer screen; ‘Calm down, you’re not 28 your 82, if they make a mess they’re the ones that have to lie in it!’

      OK, maybe close to topic. 😉

      1. the last week or so I’ve been thinking of writing a paste it and putting it in the middle of my computer screen; ‘Calm down, you’re not 28 your 82,

         –
         When things were a PIA at work because of ONE persons mental crisis (sure bosses son violent paranoid due to drugs, lets call it that), wasn’t directly aimed at me. My mantra was two weeks notice … eventually converted to yearly bonus, notice, & 18 days vacation & holidays … okay the first was shorter.
         –

         if they make a mess they’re the ones that have to lie in it!’

         –
         I’m 64 (one week so …). Mom is 86 in a month. She has another decade (following her parents), so I have another 3 decades & change. But if everything goes to heck in a hand basket, with lead flying, not one of us will last. My hope then is to give our son a chance to survive.

         2020 is reading like where Norton’s “The Stars are Ours” ultimately have to escape in 2500 into space (okay what is hated is different, but then you know, with their moving goal posts, who knows?)

         I’m sure there are other examples …
         –

7. In fact there seems to have been vote fraud some years ago by some guy running for the equivalent of dog catcher in some backwater place. I know, because it is the instance brought out every time we say the left has committed fraud.

   Amazing how often that’s the case, isn’t it?

   Given the whole “satanic trans Republican candidate” thing, I’m starting to wonder about that example, too.

8. (I took two years beyond the point at which I was eligible, because I took it seriously)

   I did not register this year (BEFORE THE KNIVES COME OUT I’M IN ILLINOIS). Because aside from a personal issue, I’m still trying to work that out and registering is the line in the sand to fully commit as an American rather than someone that happens to have been born in America.

   1. You’re allowed to keep working on it until you’re ready.

      Hugs. You’re joining us as soon as you could.

      1. That’s because this is an Odd/Libertarian forum.

         In full-Conservative forums admitting to not voting, or even admitting that you just registered (if you are older than early-20s or so) is enough to get half the inhabitants to spit on you.

         1. Well, if somebody is a normal US citizen with a normal upbringing and life, I think they’re idiots if they don’t vote. It’s like having a check and never cashing it in. But I usually wouldn’t say it to their face.

            You’ve got trauma, it doesn’t apply.

            OTOH, more power for me!

            1. I’m not sure there are many people in this country who count as “normal” by that standard.

               Too much indoctrination.

            2. I think they’re idiots if they don’t vote. It’s like having a check and never cashing it in.

               I understand the reason and need for the quasi-religious attitude to it, particularly if shown in a fictional context. But it doesn’t change the ick reaction.

               Also the idea that one’s country / civilization could ever provide anything good or valuable is like super double plus unkosher maaaan.

               1. * good or valuable or have a claim on

      2. After that decision there is a much harder one immediately after it: move to a free state? or stand and fight in Illinois?

         The current upheavals — and more importantly the trend-line from them — make changing slave states seem not quite as crazy as it once did. Depending on how lopsided this election is might even make it look downright plausible.

         1. Stand a fight is, and for the short term / foreseeable future, always my recommendation. Unfortunately not many people see to have the idea that if you draw your line in the sand now, it’s easier to be consistent than if you draw it later against more egregious forms of tyranny.

            Also – the knives are always “out”. Except for that one, that’s actually a NeoMag. And that one is technically a multitool…. 😉

            1. Unfortunately not many people see to have the idea that if you draw your line in the sand now, it’s easier to be consistent than if you draw it later against more egregious forms of tyranny.

               One of the early decisions when I delurked from the internet a few years ago is that I wasn’t going to wear the woke mask, even on my real name.

               Hiding is like the (original version of) the Dark Side; quicker, easier, more seductive.

               1. And this is why I came out of the political closet, even if I endured it for 10 years.

                  1. There is a closely related problem of how to deal with the possibility that someone will randomly target you some day for destruction by the legal system, Three Felonies A Day style.

                     The correct answer is “stop caring about what you can’t change”, and then to live your life.

                     I’ve seen people come up with a different answer: “do nothing, draw no attention”. Which first leaves them without a life, and then gets them in trouble anyway when the demands for loyalty signals are issued. Except when that happens their ability to say No will have completely atrophied…

            2. Also present is the blade helpfully engraved “Not a Knife” on the hilt.

            3. IL is rather annoying in this:

               On the one hand, the homeschooling laws are good. (I guess all those Amish and Mennonites are good for something)

               On the other hand less equal animals don’t get to have ANY of the NFA goodies.

               On the gripping hand I don’t think the NFA will exist in 25 years.

9. Now that you’ve read that, read this:

   Where We’re Going, We Won’t Need Roads—or Collectivists
   By Sarah Hoyt
   One of the obsessions of the left is roads. If you tell them that you’re for minimal government intervention, or against socialism they ask, “what about roads?”

   Forget about the fact that roads were built by every regime in history; they have decided anything the government is responsible for is “socialism.” And regardless of the fact that the U.S. had many miles of roads built and paved by private citizens, the one common-purse expense they obsess over is… roads.

   Somewhere on Facebook years ago, there was a meme that said, “When I say I don’t want socialism, socialists be like” and it showed a guy rolling up a thin, thin layer of asphalt off the road. (Must have been in some Third-World country.)

   In retrospect, I should have saved that, because it would have come in handy. But I was new to arguing with socialists on social media. (Yes, yes, in my free time I also wrestle pigs.) And, of course, I could never find it again.

   However, the truth is that the more socialist the government, the worse the roads. Why? Well, because socialists have pet causes, usually having to do with, oh, bringing in more homeless to vote for them, or making more people dependent on government handouts. Roads, no matter what they say, are usually at the bottom of the list, at least in my experience. For instance, as my state of Colorado turned increasingly left, our roads became a disgrace. Driving cross-country recently, I figured out when we were back on Colorado roads right away, because it was like one of those things that shake you to make you lose weight.

   Anyway, what I find interesting about the results of the lockdown is that if we avoid letting the socialists fraud themselves into power—or even if we do. I don’t think the Gang That Can’t Shoot Straight can possibly HOLD power for much longer than a decade if that—we are going to need roads less than ever. And, in fact, the future bids to be fairly hostile to socialism and collectivism in general.

   No?

   Well, if you think about it, what the lockdowns have done is accelerate some trends that were already underway. Take working from home.
   –

   1. The answer to their obsession with roads is, “If you would focus on building the damned roads, I wouldn’t mind. But you don’t. Somehow the money that’s supposed to go to roads always seems to end up spent on your hobbyhorse du jure, and the roads are left to rot.”

      1. “See California”
         Schools, too, Always whine about funding for schools, yet that source seems to never get to the target (Lottery monies especially are supposedly for the schools) leaving off whether even the well funded schools are worth it (they’re not)

      2. One answer that wild and wooly Ancaps (like me) have is: Of course government has to pave the roads – they’ve made it illegal for anyone else to do so. Even paving your own driveway requires a mother-may-I permit from the government.

         And that’s one of the tricks the government uses to create the illusion that it’s doing a “pretty good job”: Deny any real sort of comparison. It’s easy to cast your critics as wooly weirdos when you can restrict their arguments to theory, and their examples to outre cases that only occurred long ago or far away.

         It’s easy to show that government action has to be the right answer, when you have the power to outlaw all the other possible answers.

   2. > “what about roads?”

      The Left loves them some toll roads. Particularly with some “regulatory capture” to protect their monopoly.

10. Also, for no particular reason:

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EkOBzWJU8AED9ks?format=jpg&name=medium

11. I’m waiting until the day of.

    But I live in California. And if this state is in play, then it’s over for the Dems. I would, however, *love* to be able to broadcast to all and sundry the story of how I couldn’t vote because someone had already voted for me. I already get to tell people about how I was mysteriously “unregistered” before the primaries four years ago.

    Don’t get me wrong. I’d prefer that no one attempts to vote on my behalf. But having a “fraud is real!” story is likely to be more useful going forward than my vote will be in determining who ends up in the Whitehouse.

12. No the campaign couldn’t be that stupid……

    https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/So-I-signed-up-to-make-calls-for-Biden/5-2378406/

    …..they are that stupid

13. They do NOT want to tell me I’ve voted already and try turning me away from the polls.

    I will turn New Hampshire into a sea of molten granite if that happens.

    1. ain’t they more known for imported votes from Mass(hole)?

       1. Yep.

          https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/sep/7/voter-fraud-alert-over-5000-new-hampshire-presiden/

    2. Nah. They’ll fob you off with a “provisional” vote, which is the same thing.

       1. They counted them in 2016…. at least the Democrat ones. See my link above.

          1. yeah, but the one that already voted is already in. So AT BEST you counter it with your vote.

             1. Oh, the rule should be that all provisional ballots should be counted…. but not until they are verified.

                1. That IS the rule. But Steve, you’re missing the point.
                   The point is that someone ALREADY voted as you sometimes. So, then you do a provisional ballot. If the record shows you “already voted” it doesn’t get counted. And even if it does, someone else already put a vote in the system AS YOU.

                   1. And as my link showed, it isn’t followed. Rules that aren’t enforced aren’t rules; they’re window dressing to fool you into thinking we can resolve this “legally”.

                      1. Sigh. Still missing the point

                         1. Depends on what the point is, I guess. Mine is that no matter what the law SAYS, what it actually does is what matters. Just like actual data beats global warming theory.

                            1. What I was saying is that your vote is at risk of being diluted. If you vote earlier the risk is lesser and at least the asshole’s vote will be countered. That’s all.

    3. Here in racist, homophobic, redneck, hillbilly Arkansas, you are assigned a polling place when you register to vote, and you can only vote at that location. You have to show the poll worker a photo ID issued by the State of Arkansas (they won’t accept Federal ID) which has the same address as the one they have on file, or a list of documents justifying why they don’t match. Then the poll worker flips through the pile of fan-fold computer printout, finds your name, and crosses it out with a pen.

       Then you’re handed off to another poll worker, where you’d led to a Diebold machine, where your vote goes off into electronic limbo. Supposedly much better than the big cardboard ballots and laundry markers we used to have, but nobody can explain why.

       1. assigned a polling place when you register to vote, and you can only vote at that location

          –
          The way it used to be in both Oregon & Washington States.

          I know they have checked the envelope which we are required to sign, against the voter registration. This is the outer envelope, with your printed name and address on it. Not the interior secrecy envelope that is not required. How do I know? Hubby & son’s signatures are horribly illegible, and that is being generous. They’ve both been called in to verify their signatures, at least once each. OTOH, they probably should have been called in a lot more than that. So. Grain. Salt. etc.

          1. Same with younger son….

          2. I have been present in my local polling place when the polling workers were actually checking IDs at the checkin table – which is apparently not just not required, but very much not allowed here in the Glorious Gavin’s Bear Flag Peoples Republic of Unverified Peoples. Since they hand out DLs to anyone without regard to legal status it would actually not be that big of a deal, well, unless they look for the RealID markings that they added to use CA DL at the airport.

       2. I wonder what would be the result if a consortium of states brought suit, asserting that the elections of other states were so corrupt as to render them invalid (or, at the very least, lacking credibility) and demanding they be annulled. Standing to be based on distribution of government benefits/burdens (on particular, with Biden promising to reverse Trump’s tax cuts, eliminating the SALT cap, citizens of lower taxed states would be once again forced to subsidize the tax levies of high-tax states.
          –

       3. LA County ordinarily assigns a polling place. They might not be doing that this time, though. I got a booklet in the mail yesterday with a list of all of the ‘in-person’ polling places in the county.

          No ID required, of course.

14. Just like how Democrats have killed the institutions and now wear their skin, they want to do the same for elections themselves; they want to be able to hold elections but have the outcome predetermined. They ideally want to simply eliminate other political parties so that they can make their one party rule official, and any “elections” will be between two members of the same communist party, much as California has accomplished with jungle primaries (and expect things like jungle primaries to be added to the noxious rules Democrats will impose nationally if they win).

    The reason they don’t criticize the CCP is because they want to BE the CCP. It is why so many of the Democrats defend Maduro and defended Chavez and Fidel Castro. They think this communist dictators are the good guys.

15. One of the things I’ve done as cleanup in the wake of my mother’s death was get her taken off the voter registration rolls no less than a month after she died. So. Yeah.

    Planning to go vote in person next week.

    1. It’s been 17 years since I left California. I wonder who I voted for in the interim. It’s been over 45 years since I left Illinois. I don’t bother to wonder. I assume Grampa Pete is still voting for Dems in Chicago.

       Votefraud by mail is locked in legally in the Glorious State of Portland-Salem & sometimes Eugene Oregon, as well as The Deplorable Red Counties Salem would like to ignore, except we pay taxes. $SPOUSE and I take our ballots to the county clerk’s dropoff box right by the inside counter. I’ve been doing market trips solo because reasons, but in a couple of days I’ll check with our mail drop. If the ballots are in, we’ll either go in together, or I’ll take them home and drop off completed ballots ASAP.

       1. Votefraud by mail is locked in legally in the Glorious State of Portland-Salem & sometimes Eugene Oregon, as well as The Deplorable Red Counties Salem would like to ignore, except we pay taxes.

          –
          I’m in Lane County (Eugene address … they’ve been trying since ’65 but they haven’t gotten us yet). Haven’t seen our ballots yet. For that matter our property taxes (that they won’t screw up). Ballots are “suppose” to mail out tomorrow. We always drop our ballots at the county ballot box on N. Delta. Usually day of. But we can do it sooner.

          1. Yeah, the OR Sec State’s website says they should go out today (the 14th). I’ll check our mail drop (in the city because reasons), and if they show up, we’ll both go in. Drop off at the county clerk’s office, so the side-trip to Medford’s Post Office won’t happen.

             I went through the voter’s pamphlet. The propositions are interesting, with my take running from “um, no” and “hell no” to “WTF?! No way!”. Legalizing Psilocybin mushrooms? With big money behind the push? (Remembers the Medical MJ push that “mysteriously” shifted to recreational. No, nope, no way.)

16. …and Mayor DeBlasio’s latest attack on Orthodox Jews is to deprive them of the same voting rights as other citizens:

    https://nypost.com/2020/10/13/early-voting-in-nycs-covid-hot-spot-areas-may-be-curtailed/

    1. Dear Lord. They’re not even hiding it now.

       1. Take an anti-nausea pill and a bottle of elephant tranquilizers, then read their playbook:

          https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WtDZYQ7Q-PUhxhv8VuRVfeD7q3DSpthktlYD-nx4pSc/edit

          1. Note how many of these tactics were part of Podesta’s “election war game” strategy and how the social media monopolies are pushing the manuals talking points.

             Of course there is the usual leftist projection as THEY are the ones actively plotting and engaging in a coup, against the Constitution itself, and NOT Trump or indeed even the most RINO Republicans.

             1. I actually haven’t had time to read it yet. I’ve just seen a few choice quotes.

                But there is much to be gained by spreading it. Especially *here*.

       2. Nadler sits in the most gerrymandered district in the country (search for a map of NY 10). The Hasidim, who make up one of the largest groups in the district, hate him. For a change, the republicans are running someone against him. Cathy Bernstein, the republican, covers the observant Jewish vote in the other half of the district. She’s a good candidate.

          Nadless will almost certainly win but it won’t be the Stalinist margin he usually gets.

          All politics is local and Hizzoner mayor Warren Wilhelm is feeling heat.

          The real polls must be epic.

          1. Oh, they’re fixing that problem:

             https://nypost.com/2020/10/13/early-voting-in-nycs-covid-hot-spot-areas-may-be-curtailed/

             I’m sure it’s just a coinkydink that this covers the Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods.

             1. FYI, That is the article that I already posted at the start of this thread sequence.

             2. Still, how bad must it be if jerry no nads is feeling heat? That they should find this necessary is the most hopeful thing I’ve heard in ages.

                1. It’s also about trying to create and inflate the mythical “national vote” tally so that even if Trump has the majority of electoral votes, they can pursue their coup claiming that he is illegitimate because he once again lost the “popular vote”. That scenario is the exact one that Podesta war gamed where Democratic Party governors in states Trump won sent Democrats as electors anyway and California and Oregon threatened to succeed unless Republicans completely caved, while seeking to have the military to intervene on Democrats behalf.

                   1. They are stupid enough to not realize that switching to the popular vote will immediately make all of the demoralized slave state inhabitant’s votes relevant again.

                      1. No, in that case the President would be elected by the nine biggest cities and the votes of 90% of the country wouldn’t be worth a mouse turd.

                         1. Correct. And the people outside of those cities, especially in small states, will only tolerate oppression of the big city leftists for so long, at least one hopes.

    2. Huh. Trump should enforce the 14th Amendment then and take away Reps.

17. We’ve had nearly twenty plus years of having everything manipulated and teased and tricked and turned around and against us. Complain about the “they/them” pronoun as an act of massive narcissism? You’re called a narcissist because you care about that kind of thing.

    Complain about illegal immigration? You’re called racist, sexist, bigoted, and “nobody is illegal!” I do feel massively sympathetic to the kids involved who were here innocently. Not their fault. A lot of the people here because being poor in America is better than being poor at home? Sympathize as well, we need to make the process better for them to become legal.

    And, voting! Here’s my thing-I want you to have a photo ID when you go to vote. If there isn’t an easily available one? Go and make something like a California ID card, that kind of thing. We can at least get rid of the low hanging fruit! But, no…we can’t “bar people from voting!” or do anything sensible like that. (I also suspect you’ll have a lot of dumb crooks that will try and register to vote, get an ID, and get busted because they ran their photos through the database and they were even so stupid as to use their real name and address on the application.)

    I could go on and on and on…but, at the end of the day, I will have massive doubts about any Biden win. There’s too much smoke for there not to be fire. Especially how much the Democrats have despised Trump for the last four years, which also includes him not falling over dead on command when they wanted it.

    1. I am not impressed by those who condemn enforcement of illegal immigration laws against young children brought here by the equally illegal immigrant parents when they are the same people seeking to impose a “sins of the father” ideology that condemns all whites as inherent racists and demands that reparations be paid for by descendants of people who may have had nothing to do with slavery, but are of the “wrong” race or ethnic background.

       1. Once again, if our opponents didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all…

       2. The thing is, those kids are often not being dragged in by parents, but are being brought by random strangers, or worse, scum human traffickers.

          Making accommodations for any subgroup incentivizes that group being taken advantage of, and thus the accommodations are not actually to that group’s advantage.

       3. “… young children brought here by the equally illegal immigrant parents”

          I would like proof (or at least, evidence) that those are indeed those kids’ parents and not Agents of Epstein. Errr … Enablers of Epstein?
          –

    2. I’m not sure I agree with you on taking the poor of the world, and certainly not with giving legality to the ones already here.
       Here’s the thing: if we legalize the ones already here, we’re giving incentive to a lot more illegal immigration. That’s been hte problem since the first amnesty.
       Second, no, we don’t have to take the poor of the world. Yes, I do understand they’re better off here. But as a nation, are we better off for taking them? should we take them if all they do is swell the welfare rolls?
       Other nations screen people for all sorts of things — Australia does it for weight and general health! — and make all sorts of demands you have to meet to get in.
       I think it’s time we did that. There’s no point swelling the rolls of the unemployable.
       This doesn’t mean admitting only the rich. But it means admitting those with the aptitude to work and adapt to our ways.

       1. I wouldn’t have a problem with a “you have to work and you can only bring your kids and parents” restriction for immigration.

          I just know that immigration policy has been kicked down the road so many times that we might have to give an amnesty so that we can clear the docket for a much more restrictive policy.

          1. I could see myself supporting an amnesty if, and only if, we have demonstrated effective control over the border and visa holders for a sustained period. And even then they should be barred from citizenship. Make them permanent residents so they can come out of the shadows and let them watch those who did it the right way become part of America.

          2. What docket? It doesn’t take a court hearing for every case; that’s a Left delaying tactic protecting their illegals.

             If we can figure out where they came from, we put them in concentration camps and bill their home governments for their upkeep until they cough up money to repatriate their citizens.

             If we can’t figure out where they came from, we find some country that we can pay a reasonable sum to take them, and dump them there. If nobody will take them, dump them on Baker Island and tell the bleeding-heart organizations they need to contribute food and water, because letting them exist on US territory is the extent of our charity.

             Any born-in-USA dependent children can either be given a passport and sent with their parent(s), or they can be abandoned in here and put up for adoption or orphanages.

             It’s not rocket surgery.

             1. Set up asylum courts outside the US. Ask asylum seekers what country they would like to stay in pending the resolution of their claim. Build livable, but by no means luxurious, housing for the claimants near the courts but don’t worry about keeping them in. If they don’t show up for their hearing their claim is denied and they’re barred from claiming asylum in the US for 5 years.

                Even if we have to pay well over market price to rent the land for the courts and the housing it will be a bargain.

                1. What illegal “immigrants” are costing us in medical and educational expenses alone….

                   1. Especially since we’re not allowed to teach them in English…

                      1. THIS.

             2. It isn’t, but there would be so many sad puppy in snow articles on the news and on TV that it might cause weaker minds to break down completely.

       2. I always find it amusing when various liberals start screaming about “emigrating to Canada” when a conservative gets into the Presidency…

          I looked at Canadas immigration restrictions. I, as an educated IT professional, DO NOT qualify to immigrate to Canada! So some airhead Hollyweird actor/actress thinks they can get citizenship? Or some useless degreed StarSchmucks CoffeHouse barista?

          I’m with our hostess on the “taking in the poor of the world” thing. You have to have a cutoff point, below which you put the wannabe immigrant back on the boat and send them home (or heave them back across the land border or whatever border they crossed.) Popped out a kid while you were here waiting? Tough, kid goes with you but can apply for citizenship when they reach the US age of consent (18.)

          Let everyone and their brother in when they might have the equivalent of a 5th grade education? All they’ll end up being is a drain on the economy and you’ll get more of the REALLY whacko anti-immigration folks coming out of the woodwork (or going from the general stance of myself TO said whackos.)

          The ONLY (maybe) viable way to allow wholesale-doesn’t matter what skills or education you have immigration is to go nearly full-on libertarian. Sure, you’re welcome to come here and try to make your way on your own, but there’s no social programs to feed you or your kids, education for your kids is all private and want payment, and while there are places that will let you live in a space even though you have nothing beyond the clothes on your back they’re also perfectly capable of kicking you out if you don’t START paying them in a timely fashion that was spelled out in the contract you signed.
          (The contract bit is where the nearly full-on libertarian comes in. Just enough gov to adjudicate contract disputes. Enforcement of contracts / eviction of tenants is entirely on the individual / landlord)
          [OK, yes, to some extent the above is more-or-less (and probably more) a take on the Freehold of Michael Z. Williamson]

          1. Popped out a kid while you were here waiting? Tough, kid goes with you but can apply for citizenship when they reach the US age of consent (18.)

             –
             Heck. I’m even willing for the parent to sign away rights & leave the kid behind.

             Regarding the ones yelling, last time, that they were moving to Canada, Australia, etc., aren’t yelling this time. Suspect they got told “Don’t want you!” I suspect even those these countries had to take, because the individual had dual citizenship, it was “Really! Do you have to?”

    3. I want the purple finger. If you come in with a purple finger, you voted already.

       1. Expect a huge spike in finger injuries on election day.

          1. So dye ALL their fingers, and if they can’t produce at least one that can be dyed then they don’t get to vote.

       2. That’s discriminatory against the fingerless.

          H8er!!
          –

    4. “And, voting! Here’s my thing-I want you to have a photo ID when you go to vote. If there isn’t an easily available one? Go and make something like a California ID card, that kind of thing. We can at least get rid of the low hanging fruit! But, no…we can’t “bar people from voting!” or do anything sensible like that”

       But, but, but if we required that the poor people who can’t afford the TIME to wait in line to get a state ID wouldn’t be able to VOTE!!!
       (But, hey, they CAN afford the time to wait in line 1-2-3 hours to vote for us!)

18. Find out your precinct’s voting rules. If they issued you a mail-in ballot, and you can vote in person, destroy it and vote in person ASAP.

    Which makes sense for “mail them all out” States, but not in Florida which has better than average election laws. If you have requested a mail-in ballot but go to the polling place instead, you bring the mail-in ballot there so they can mark it invalid in their system so only your in-person vote can count. If you requested a ballot and never received it you tell them that and they do something similar.

19. Pingback: Gun Bits and Ridiculous … – Freedom Is Just Another Word…

20. “I actually heard some idiot saying we can’t put barriers in the way of people becoming citizens as soon as they land here, because “it used to be you came off the boat in NYC and voted the next day.”

    People didn’t just “come off the boat in NYC”…immigrants were processed at Ellis Island and reviewed for absence of infectious diseases, ability to support themselves, etc. Some were detailed for a period of time, and some were sent back. There was a reason why Ellis Island was called The Isle of Tears as well as The Isle of Hope.

    1. There’s a bit of truth in it. Ellis island came in later and for a long time the Tammany Hall rep would meet you at the dock and ask “do we have your vote?” Answer yes and they’d find you a place to stay and a job. Everyone back in Ireland knew how it worked and the Tammany man was usually from back home. Only the stupid said no.

       Of course, those were civilized days when people could go where they wanted, when they wanted without very much interference from government bureaucrats. On the other hand, there was no social welfare so you wouldn’t leave home lightly if you were poor.

       I suspect that I am not in step with the majority here, but I think that immigration is a good thing, I’m an immigrants kid, and what the republicans need to do is stop d-cking around, build a ground game, and stop leaving it to the dems. Bit more Trump and a lot less country club. The country clubs are all social lefties now anyway and they know the economic hit won’t hit them. Republicanism in the eastern cities is a white working class phenomena and the Hispanics, in particular, tend to fit quite well with their attitudes. Socially somewhat conservative and economically somewhat liberal but in all cases not much for being told what to do by a bunch of rich, bossy women.

       1. immigration is a good thing. Doesn’t mean we can’t be choosy. We can.

          1. Yep. Being against ILLEGAL immigration is NOT being against immigration, no matter how loudly leftists try to slander opponents of ILLEGAL immigration as bigots.

       2. And with welfare in place, we need to AT LEAST have people not take welfare for the first, oh, ten years here. As a minimum “cut”

       3. There is a difference between legal immigration (“oh, look! I’m following the rules of the people I want to join!”) and illegal immigration.

          Most Lefties appear unable to grasp that non-Lefties recognize a difference.

          1. A difference between legal and illegal immigration?

             Balderdash! Next you’ll be telling us there’s a difference between consensual sex and rape.
             –

       4. “do we have your vote?” Answer yes and they’d find you a place to stay and a job. Everyone back in Ireland knew how it worked and the Tammany man was usually from back home. Only the stupid said no.

          –
          Back then immigrants also had the choice/chance?/opportunity? to get out of NY area. TPTB may not have helped or encouraged it. But they sure weren’t going to drag them back when they made it west.

          As stated yesterday. There is no place to run (yet).

    2. AND you bet your beepy they didn’t vote the next day.

       1. Next day, probably not. The official wait time for naturalization was 5 years with a declaration three years in advance according to the naturalization act of 1802. Next legislation was in 1870 and the restrictions didn’t start till later still.

          Did they vote before. Umm yeah. A lot of them did. At least in NYC. Tammany ran the elections, which is why they seldom lost

          1. As I said, it was fairly crooked. BUT they didn’t have the legal right to vote the next day.

    3. Isle of Tears … where families were split up. If a child was ill and not allowed to land? Returned or went into the infection wards, which weren’t exactly guaranty of survival. Mostly given the infections and the time VS active intent or even apathy.

    4. “Some were detailed for a period of time, and some were sent back.”

       In some instances families were broken up as a child deemed insufficiently healthy to enter was denied entry.

       That was when the Democrats (FDspitR) ran things, so it wasn’t newsworthy.
       –

21. FWIW, early voting started in TX today and the two places I drove past between 1500 and 1530 CDT had out-the-door lines and full parking lots. It was sunny, light breeze, temps in the upper 70s probably helped.

    1. Same here in suburban San Antonio. The line on Tuesday at the library early-voting polling place went all the way from the front door, along the walkway out to the sidewalk, down the sidewalk, and looped in and out of the employee parking lot. Today the line went out from the front door, along the walkway out to the sidewalk, and down the street all the way to the major cross-town avenue and along the avenue for another thirty yards or so.
       I’ve never seen the line go farther than from the front door to the sidewalk. Never, in the 25 years we’ve lived here.

       1. I’m trying to keep in mind that if the people in line are spaced farther apart, that’s going to affect it, but even so… I’m starting to wonder how well going first thing in the morning is actually going to work!

22. Actually, the USA does allow dual citizenship in a number of different ways. And yes, you have renounce allegiance to your former country when naturalized, but oddly enough, that doesn’t necessarily mean you renounce citizenship there.

    1. Don’t ask, don’t tell. Don’t enter or leave the US on a foreign passport. You can even serve in certain foreign armies.

    2. That makes no sense. And when I went through the process the “allow” is more a “turn a blind eye to.”

    3. Right some countries assume you still have their citizenship even IF you have become a Naturalized US Citizen. Taiwan seems to be one of these. I know at least two folks
       who were originally from Taiwan and naturalized (often in their college years). When they went for clearances they ran into difficulties as the Taiwanese citizenship was found even though they didn’t realize they still had it. I think they had to go to a local consulate to officially renounce their citizenship before several witnesses before they could continue on the clearance process.

23. c4c

    1. What she said.

24. I had a short story that I ‘shopped quite a bit. It was a ‘side quest’ to a bigger world. The concept of citizenship was integral to it. I was horrified at how many people were completely confused about the simple difference between citizen and resident. I’d have to go into longer civics lessons just to get to the point across and yet, the confusion still remained even with concrete real-world examples. And some, just out right refused that there was a difference as it upset their world view too much.

    1. > difference between citizen and resident

       The US educational system and society in general puts considerable effort into obscuring the difference. For example, you’re a US citizen, but only a “resident” of your state. Yet I had to swear an oath to the Constitution of the State of Arkansas, and have my signature on the document witnessed. Pretty stout stuff for a “resident.” And Governor Diaperface is still a chief of state, with his own army, navy, air force, constitution, police, courts, legislature… sort of like a real country, isn’t it?

       Some of the obscurity was probably deliberate after the Late Unpleasantness, when the Fed felt the states should do as they were told as STFU.

       1. Actually, a lot of older state law did assume that you were a citizen of your individual state first, and of the United States second.

          1. The whole US citizen thing is a lot like entering into a covenant, or at least a compact. So you can be born into it; or you can join, but it’s not automatic or easy..

25. I think 2024 is going to be much easier than this year, as long as we can keep the terrorists from the controls. Whoever wins the GOP primary will be able to run on a platform of “All the Trump policies you love and none of the tweets you don’t.” The Democrats who could have reasonably passed as moderates will all be far too old and the ones young enough to run will be far too radical. Gabbard might pose a threat, but I doubt she’ll have had time to build enough support in the party for her to go anywhere. Take “Not Trump,” “Good Ol’ Joe has a history of working with everyone,” and voter fraud off the table and the Democrats are in the low 20’s. Plus there will be another 4 years for the media to lose more credibility and Americans to escape the Democrat plantation.

    All we have to do is make it through the next three weeks. All.

26. “… the year I got here asked me if I’d registered to vote, since ‘you’re an American now.’”

    At a guess, I’m thinking many people advocating that position would be outraged if such “new-born” “Americans” were immediately inducted into the Army and sent to scrub pots on a military base in Afghanistan.
    –

    1. My brother married a foreign woman who already had a child. Both became “permanent residents.” In due course the daughter enlisted in the Army and got sent to Afghanistan. Possibly due to her crossing her 18th birthday, Immigration started sending her nasty letters demanding she present herself in person in some office in a Federal building in Louisiana. None of her explanations as to why she couldn’t get there were acknowledged. She finally got a letter saying she was being deported. She took it to her first sergeant, who somehow made the trouble go away, and she was sworn in as a US citizen shortly before re-enlisting in the Army. In Afghanistan, where she spent almost all of her first hitch.

       Turns out there were half a dozen others at the ceremony with similar stories.

       Still not as strange as the guy who served in Afghanistan with the Soviet Army as a Soviet citizen, then was crazy enough to go back decades later to do it with the US Army as a US citizen. Well, we didn’t win either, but we didn’t have Afghan vets begging on street corners after being turned out of the army…

27. “you need to be bound up with the destiny of the US, you need to have skin in the game, you need to know that what you vote for you will most surely experience.”

    Unsurprisingly, those entities advocating such instant granting of voting rights also tend to be advocates of Socialist policies in which significant financial and political decisions are made by people without skin in the game (also known as “spending other people’s money.”)

    They’re also know to extend that attitude toward other nations, such as opining on Brexit and how Israel should engage with blood-thirsty kleptocrats stoking hatred against them Palestinians.
    –

28. Nancy Pelosi flipped out on CNN’s Wolf Blitzer because he dared to ask her why she doesn’t compromise on CCP Virus relief when even members of her own party have called for such compromise. She called him “an apologist for the Republican posiition”.

    https://www.foxnews.com/media/pelosi-lashes-out-cnn-wolf-blitzer

    Nancy, like all tyrants, will not tolerate disagreement.

    1. I think Nancy’s shoulder blades are starting to itch. It’s obvious that she’s well past her prime and I think that even she realizes it. She’s not long for the Speaker’s chair.

    2. And just like that; SHAZAM! Trump made the Democrats start tearing each other to pieces again.

       It’s like he has a 6th sense for what is going to be the highest stress chink in his enemies armor.

       1. They do eat their own, after all.

       2. Go easy on Nancy; she’s a sufferer from unrequited love, after all. (As noted in yesterday’s post: https://accordingtohoyt.com/2020/10/12/say-goodbye-to-hollywood/#comment-709192)
          –

29. I took your advice and early voted today. I had no problems (though i was a little concerned, as there had been some odd goings-on around my mailbox at the end of July).

30. I think the left may HOPE to steal the election, but they are persistent and play for constant gains. Even if they don’t manage to wrestle the White House away from Trump, they will wreak so much havoc and cast such a shadow over the results that we’ll probably spend the next two years with the ill-informed still thinking Trump is illegitimate. They may even impeach him again before the inauguration.
    This will never be over until the perpetrators suffer severe circumstances and we get back to a blind and equal RULE OF LAW.

    1. I think we have a chance of turning it around.

31. “if you think Orange Man Bad is ‘trampling the constitution’”

    Let’s be clear here: in more than fifty years of watching political battles in this country I’ve yet to see evidence that Progressives give a [expletive] about the Constitution and its being trampled (any more than they are offended by the American flag being trampled.) If they cared about the Constitution they wouldn’t proclaim it a “living” document (their version lives the way a cancerous tumor lives) and they wouldn’t scream bloody horror whenever the literal letter of that document is upheld.

    They only ever decry trampling of the Constitution when they are trying to stampede Republicans and the Public. Like any domestic abuser, their intent is to compel compliance with their desires. In the same way, they denounce Trump as divisive because he does not grant their demands — they blame him for their turning blue* because he wouldn’t bribe them to stop holding their collective breath.

    *Suddenly I understand how the Democrat states became designated as “Blue States.”
    –

32. “Airlines, deprived of the ability to fly anywhere have already started scraping airplanes.”

    I haven’t seen any stories about airlines, but consider all of the people who have had jobs on the cruise lines:

    Luxury cruise ships being scrapped for metal amid ongoing pandemic
    These ships are currently worth more for their parts than they are as luxury voyages.

    As the cruise ship industry continues to be battered by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, boats once considered to be opulent, top-of-the-line vessels are now being sold for scraps.

    This month, a drone captured aerial photos of five decommissioned ocean liners being broken down for scrap metal in Izmir, Turkey. The images, taken on Oct. 2 at the Aliaga ship recycling port, are a visual illustration of the desecration caused to the once-profitable, multibillion-dollar cruise industry as a result of the coronavirus. …
    –

    1. Well. They’re basically floating hotels. A friend of my daughter has worked on cruise ships. She reported that the ships need a large roster of crew, as illnesses spread so quickly in those ships in normal times. In our family, we call them both, “floating petri dishes,” and “floating death traps.” In normal times, there are constant norovirus outbreaks, which are very hard to stop.

       Would you get on a cruise ship right now? What measures would be necessary to persuade you to pay for a cruise?

       It’s really expensive to keep any ship shipshape over years, in a moist environment. (Again, think of them as floating hotels. Without daily housekeeping from a full staff, an abandoned seaside hotel goes downhill very quickly.) I predict the cruise ships of the future will have entirely different layouts, HVAC systems, and hygiene systems. It’s much less expensive to build a totally new design from scratch, than to try to retro-fit anything.

       The ships of the future will probably be ultra-luxury vessels, serving a much smaller number of clients. The days of mass tourism may be done for a time. So, a chartered trip with 50 close friends might be attractive, but a trip with a thousand strangers, so cheap that you wonder if they can afford to pay to wipe down the elevator banks, maybe not?

       1. So, figure we’re looking at “poor people deserve luxuries so the government must arrange cruises for them,” “cruises are wasteful and environmentally damaging so nobody should have them when we could spend the money on pet project Z (pay no attention to the politicians in the, uh, floating office),” or my favorite, both at once?

          1. Wait, what? Are you suggesting putting government offices on cruise ships (in cruise ships)? That’s a GREAT idea.

             Anybody know the going rate for naval surplus torpedoes? Asking for a friend.
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             1. Norinco will sell anything to anybody with cash. I’m sure torpedoes would be available, and probably a torpedo boat to go with them. A submarine might involve a LOT of negotiation, and a long lead time…

             2. The UN. The UN needs to go on these ships.

          2. Cruise ships should not get bailouts, as most of them are not US flagged ships. That means they pay taxes to other countries. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cruise-ships-foreign-flags/

             Quote from the Snopes piece: On the other hand, an academic paper by Caitlin E. Burke of the University of Florida about “Legal Issues Relevant to Cruise Ships” made no bones of observing that reflagging of ships had long been used as a means of avoiding U.S. federal taxes, labor and safety laws, environmental laws, lawsuits, criminal investigations, and other regulations:

             In my opinion, national airlines are essential. Cruise ships are not. That’s not to say that there won’t be cruise lines in the future. The people who invested in the current cruise lines may lose their money, but the concept of how to run a cruise line exists. There are many people who know how to do this.

             If you want to work on or travel on a cruise ship, caveat emptor applies. You are leaving the protection of US laws when you do.

             Banning anyone with any preexisting condition, including age, will change the customer base dramatically.

       2. In our family, we call them both, “floating petri dishes,” and “floating death traps.” In normal times, there are constant norovirus outbreaks, which are very hard to stop.

          –
          Mom is off the cruise lists. She was scheduled to go on an Asian sea one in 2020, which got scraped. NOW to go on a cruise she has to have a written letter from her primary physician that she has no, none, zip, medical issues. She’s in good health. But she has essentially been banned from Cruise ships due to her age. As well as all her traveling cohorts.

33. I hope Trump wins decisively. My life has fallen apart lately and I need a breathing space to put it back together.

34. Having watched Democrat senators haranguing grilling Justice-designate Amy Coney Barrett, only one thing comes to mind:

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35. I gather Obama is going to soon be hitting the campaign trail for Biden — that suggests Joe needs help shoring up the base, as I’m confident Barry wouldn’t bestir himself if Harris-Biden actually had a double-digit lead. Nor would Joe want his ex-boss stealing credit for the win.

    Black Gen Z voters question longstanding Democratic loyalties
    Scrutinizing policy, America’s Black youth are increasingly skeptical of support for the Democratic Party
    A growing number of America’s Black youth are questioning longstanding loyalties to the Democratic Party.

    It’s a stance that reflects a broader willingness to scrutinize the status quo among members of Gen Z, the segment of the U.S. population born from the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s that’s quickly becoming a generation of activists. Its members have joined nationwide demonstrations over racial injustice, the debilitating economic and public health fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 presidential election.

    Among other things, they’re asking why conditions in communities led by Democratic officials aren’t improving, according to a report in Politico. That question, admittedly, sets them apart from the mainstream of Gen Z, reportedly more liberal than any previous group. …
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    1. On one hand, good news. On the other, I recall hearing within the last couple years that Gen Z were tending conservative, or at least less liberal than Millenials. College meat grinder taking effect?

36. Occasional lurker, first time poster.

    I was a Trump skeptic in 2016 and abstained from voting. Not this time. Trump has been a pleasant surprise and the Dems are a temper tantrum masquerading as a political party. They need to be beaten.

    I’ve lost some friends to leftism over the last few years, which makes me despise leftism even more.

    1. I also was a Trump skeptic, until, of all people — both the late Jerry Pournelle and L. Neil Smith sat me down, one day after the other and a week before the election and convinced me to vote for him — but much to my surprise, I’ve been generally pleased by his work.
       The Dems are not just a temper tantrum. They’re also communists. Not even crypto communists anymore.

    2. the Dems are a temper tantrum masquerading as a political party. They need to be beaten.

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       With a very big stick!

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