The Deep Breath

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

You know where you are. I know where we are.

The first week was …. rough, but now, among our side, a strange calm has set in, even as our press shrills ever more loudly that we MUST believe them, and idiots run around saying “if only we give in to them, they’ll be quiet.

The silence is eery and strange, even as our democrat governors not only implement new lockdowns, but social media bans us in batch lots, and we get a sense that there is no way we come out of this without some kind of butcher’s bill.

And people who even a month ago would have gone “uh, are you nuts” are now saying things like “not yet.”

But there is a feeling of something brewing, and people are reaching for whatever they can as a time line, a plot, a guide.

We crossed to unknown waters when we WATCHED the election stolen before our eyes, in real time. And that’s not a line we can uncross.

Sure, Europe has seen things like this, and apparently the software used for the steal was developed in Venezuela (I know you’re shocked, shocked, shocked.) But Americans, you see, have been raised to believe we were free. More importantly, we’ve been raised to believe we have a right to be free. It makes a difference.

It’s just that right now no one knows what the next step is.My favorite was the guy on FB yesterday saying we needed “committees of correspondence.” A) we’re not cosplaying the American revolution. B) why? What have blogs been then? But I don’t hold it against him.

Navigation is unpredictable, just now. The waters are strange indeed.

Everyone is watching and waiting. It’s like that moment when the sea water goes out, WAY out. And then the tsunami hits.

Oh, not everyone is just standing and waiting. The rally in DC should have been a warning. Particularly since attendance massively exceeded expectations, on such short notice. There are other rallies being planned. I need to sign up for a few lists. You do too. Find out what’s happening in your area. Make contacts. Make plans. However this plays, you’ll need that.

But the left doesn’t take warnings well, and to be fair, we have flipped the play book on them. Because the right never demonstrates or gets unruly.

Or do we?

ROFL. We get over 2016, b*tch? Really? Yeah that is the problem. You have no idea what you’ve unleashed or what’s coming for you if your skanky would-be-elite asses manage to impose their will on us. Or think you do. After the outrages of 2020 and the revelations of how deep the fraud is? You have no idea, Chelsea, baby. And I’m still sane enough to hope very much you never find out. I hope very much the courts rule justly and that you and your ilk throw a massive tantrum and fly off to some tropical resort to cosplay rightful-leaders-in-exhile.

I’d rather you develop lifestyles at la victime than we have to deploy tumbrils.

I’ve been more certain than now that we could escape this. The problem, you see, is that you won’t learn and we won’t submit. Seems like a hopeless case.

There are some — very faint — glimmers of hope.

Take this for instance:

And that’s where the situation is.

Where I am? Where you are? Where we are?

We’re the dog leashed, still, and growling and tensing. If the intruder who would rob us of our most precious liberty, and who has already most vilely trespassed upon it this year, should take fright…. Well, the dog will just chase him off the property.

But what if it’s an exceptionally stupid intruder?

At this point the dog doesn’t care. The dog knows its duty. Its reconciled to what must happen.

A strange calm pervades our country.

It is said that before the battle of Thermopylae, the warriors combed their hair and dressed in their best, since it might be the last.

We’re all combing our hair, changing our clothes, hugging our loved ones, having one more party for the way. Just in case.

But if it comes for us, it does. None of us are running and hiding. Which should be a warning to the left. If the left could process warnings.

In this moment, as the sea goes out, way out, and things lay uncovered that were never intended to be seen in the full light of day, take stock and make preparations.

Know who your nearby friends are.

Have a place to run to should you need it.

Lay by supplies, at least for a month (six is better, a year best.) Remember pet food and any medications for you and your pets. If you need dental or eye exams, get them done now. Get a spare pair of glasses with your prescription. Ugly frames are okay.

Keep your car filled up. Make sure it’s mechanically good.

Make a go bag, and perhaps one with the dried food, that you can carry.

Get a battery radio.

Get extra batteries for your laptops/other appliances.

Get a grill, in case you need to cook with no electricity/gas.

Water filter. Medical kits.

Keep in touch with our people, nearby and remote. Some are not handling this well at all, and you must do what you can. Between lockdowns and the grand theft elections, people are at risk. Help a fallen comrade. They will lift you when needed.

The time might come to unleash. Now is not — yet — the time.

Prepare. And keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.

469 thoughts on “The Deep Breath”

  2. One problem: The only method of communication or organization open to any of us now is this one — but every word said on social media or blogs or … well, really any electronic device goes directly to the feds. Secrecy is impossible. Yes, we can organize “peaceful” demonstrations, but how do we go beyond that, if and when it becomes necessary?

    Okay, two problems: for most of us, most of these preparations are impossible, especially right now. Look at me. I have a couple of guns, but virtually no ammo for them, and no way to buy any because I have no job. I can’t lay in your recommended “six months of supplies” because my rented townhouse has no available storage space. I have a water filter and some first aid kits, but nothing more, and no medical training because (again) that costs money and I have none.

    I want to believe we can still fight back, but I’m having a whole lot of trouble seeing how. Help me, please.

    1. Food banks and your friends’ cast offs from their pantries. Get the perfect office boxes or bookstore boxes to stack your larder. Local hospitals do free CPR and first aid classes, even now.

    2. Stupid as it sounds, you can still pray. That’s probably more important than my following ideas

      Prepare your mind, if that’s all you can do. A situation faced ahead, well, at least you won’t waste time figuring out what options you have. Prepare physically, if you can. What exercise you can do now, do a little more, and don’t give up. Hope that helps!

      1. Someone said that every time you do something nice, you hurt the left. Whether it’s baking cookies for your kids, or praying.
        They ain’t wrong. The left is DEEPLY unhappy….. other people being happy HURTS them.

    3. You have internet. Obviously.

      Pick a topic and start studying. Are you of sound body? Are you in good physical shape or do you hold down a chair 12 hours a day? Get in shape.

      Find yourself a volunteer opportunity. Salvation Army here can use people to pack food boxes. You’d have to wear a mask. I’d guess any food program would need folks. The volunteer fire department trains at their (your taxes) cost. They’ll train a few EMTs for their team after commitment is proven.

      And if you have no storage, I ask you what is under your furniture? You can place a flat of cans under your sofa.

    5. Lay in a few 5 lb cases of matzah – Passover unleavned bread. Comes in nice easily stored rectangular boxes, and as boxed keeps longer than the average civilization (literally). Its dry, and not particularly palatable, but it will provide a source of carbs. Some sacks of beans, and some fruit preserves and you have a minimum sustain life reserve that will fit in a few cubic feet under a stairwell, or even under a bed.

      1. LASTS FOREVER. When we could eat carbs, we used to buy matzoh after Passover, on sale for 1/4 the price, and it would last through next year’s Passover.
        (Look, I LIKE it with tea, okay. So, I’m weird.)

        1. Have been recommending stockpiling Matzoh as an emergency supply for storage for years (since Obama got elected).

          1. In its normal packaging, if intact, the estimated shelf life is “in excess of a thousand years”. It is good with tea. The whole grain versions have a little more flavor.

              1. Whole grain matzoh? sacrilege!!

                I like it, but can’t find it in my usual haunts. And didn’t like the price in unusual haunts. It can’t be that hard to make… [goes off, looks it up]

                Mix flour, salt, olive oil, and water to make a dough you can roll out. Bake in hot oven just until blisters are browned.

                Flour is cheap.

                1. The recipe is remarkably similar to Civil War era hardtack, which was likewise unleavened so that it would last for an extended period. Of course hardtack could also be considered “petrified” in a way that even stale Matzoh is not, and I have actually had hardtack that was made in accordance with the way it was made in the 1860s, way…way..back in the early to mid 1990s when my health still allowed me to go to Civil War reenactments.

                  1. So what you’re saying is that the sufficiently geeky could relabel it “cram”, from ‘The Lord of the Rings’?

                    2. Given Gimli’s response to the lembas which he mistook for cram I would say that Civil war era hardtack (recent or original vintage) might be superior to cram in taste… There used to be crackers (Nabisco Pilot Crackers were one example, Royal Lunch Milk Crackers another) sold that were of similar nature but in 2000 Nabisco stopped selling them other than in New England, and by 2006 or so they stopped making them totally. They had shelf life similar to matzoh but some additional fat so they were a little more palatable. And Yes dear hostess Matzoh are a favorite food at our home. Also good is decent dried sausage (pepperoni or similar) It has shelf life in the several months range in the real (Margarhita) variants. Dried fruit also excellent.

                  2. One of my absolute favorite scenes from “The 20th Maine” was a description of an experiment tried with hardtack on an Army mule. After 15 minutes of effort failed to yield so much as a toothmark, it “dropped it on the ground and refused to try again.”

        2. With … tea? Most people I know prefer a little butter, maybe a sprinkle of salt, although I’m partial to my mother’s charoset* with a healthy quantity of horseradish, a la Hillel Sandwich style.

          So, how do you spread the tea on your matzoh?

          *She made an apple/nut/wine recipe. I’ve never cared for dates but there are some date chutney’s which would likely be delish!
          –

    6. Find some friends in your area. Your town, county, or state GOP office/website is a place to start.

      NOTE: They will try to inundate you with requests for monetary donations. You can ignore most of those, especially if you’ve already donated. I get a dozen a day from GOP and various Trump organizations. I made my post-election donation already, the rest is going for my preparations.

    7. How…if and when it becomes necessary
      Short answer: Step one is shut up.

      Longer answer: Shut up is very important for two of three possible modes. Also, not starting so soon that the media gets a free situation that they can portray as excuse for their purge and coup.

      Lone wolf, shut up, have no communication with anyone, and expect to be caught and killed sooner or later.

      Mode two, trustworthy people known in real life.

      Mode three, preference cascade first, join an ad hoc bottom up organization. Preferably one not set up by FBI plants.

        1. Isn’t the rule of thumb “the person advocating for action is probably the FBI agent”?

          Glenn Beck was talking about how, when you go marching, you have to take the beatings, otherwise the Media will make you out to be the agitating bad guys. This is the approach used by Martin Luther King, Jr.

          Of course, if you’re practicing self defense, then that’s another matter.

          Also, “Molon Labe” by Boston T. Party has some thoughts on approaches. So does “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”.

          I have always assumed we have only four boxes at our disposal. With Sarah’s “Let the Joker Run Wild” post, it became clear we also have Pandora’s Box to play with, too!

          2. >> “I have always assumed we have only four boxes at our disposal. With Sarah’s “Let the Joker Run Wild” post, it became clear we also have Pandora’s Box to play with, too!”

            Going wasp as a fifth box, you mean? Heh. I like that thought. Between the jury box and the ammo box lies the toy box… [evil grin]

              1. >> “Yes, there are Eric Frank Russell fans here…”

                Oh, I know. I first heard Wasp referenced years ago when I read an anti-walkthrough of Morrowind, but I didn’t actually read it until about a week ago after someone here (Ian, I think?) recommended it.

            3. “Between the jury box and the ammo box lies the toy box… [evil grin]”

              And it is filled with many wonderful toys!

              –

          3. Matthew Bracken’s “What I saw at the Coup” is a wonderful and realistic short story that deals with this exact issue. The American people can destroy it’s leftist parasites in a heartbeat if we wanted. It would be bloody and messy but quick. They want us feeling alone and isolated and helpless because in reality they would be the ones alone and helpless if we turned completely on them. The reason why we don’t is because A) we’re still largely unaware of our power but that won’t last forever and B) we are still civilized and have some hope that this can be solved without violence (still in the awkward phase).

          1. Likewise “Coexist,” bumper stickers. If the people carrying those thought for a instant it could get their tires slashed (or worse) they wouldn’t have them.

            1. Ya know, it seems to me that this unapproved representation of the Islamic Crescent

              is an insult to the Faith, expressing gross disrespect for a Faith that is highly sensitive to representations of beliefs.
              –

      3. I thought “shut up” was the third “sh” step. (Not sure how to think of this, as , dark humor, or, Himself forfend, prophecy)

      4. It occurs to me, perhaps a day late and a dollar short, that at least HALF the country agrees with us in general on politics. Which means that while the finding of like minds online is lovely, and desirable, and all good things, we have seriously missed the chance to network locally.
        Yes, even those trapped in the deep blue of the bluest parts of NYC and LA. Look at how many votes Trump pulled there. All anti-socialism, at a minimum.

        And local networking in person, the shutdowns are excellent at preventing.

        I *know* for a fact that two of my kids’ ballet teachers are us. It’s probably safe to assume most of the others if not all are: the one in ownership has given up on any political speech restraints (Eastern European origin, has all the hatred for socialism). I expect one of the bosses saying things like “The vote fraud is murdering America” is probably considered a very hostile working environment and would be an attack point if in fact everyone wasn’t on board. (Yes. He did. Loudly. In front of all his top students, one partner, front desk . . . )

        Not geeks, not sf/f, but us as in Usaians.

        At least half the people we meet at the grocery at least agree that socialism is bad. Half the people we meet are wondering quietly if voting can ever work again. Half the people we meet are wondering if America exists anymore.

        As always, the individualists fail to organize.

        I wonder if this wasn’t one of the purposes for all the old lodge organizations that have been dwindling and dying: teaching Americans how to organize. I know we learn parlementary procedure. Are we supposed to be learning more? Now most of our members are old and we can’t meet because our leadership is rightly nervy since we generally have more over-eighty members present than under-sixty. Most of the time I’m the youngest person in the room by two decades. (There are other young members-forty is young?!-but they rarely attend.)

        1. It’s small, but I’ve started a specific household initiative to have someone to dinner every other day. It was with the intent to keep both us and any guests grounded and somewhat saner, but… it’s not bad for keeping networks alive, either. And after the first week or two we’ll probably have to start reaching beyond the people we see that often, even assuming frequent repeats.

          (Tonight should be the first night. Burritos! Should be fun.)

          2. Day one was fantastic and needful (for both us and the guest, but especially the children); do recommend. I hope all others’ joy-making plans are going as well.

    8. Yes, I think the communications thingy is quite important.

      If ‘they’ control all lines of communication, ‘they’ can, have done, are doing and will be shutting us up when they want.

      I’ve been exploring mesh networks, peer to and through peer networks without bottle necks nor central control. The soft and hard ware is available to do that today, 3 friends and a few dollars spent and you have a 4 node network, if they each recruit 3 friends 16 nodes, etc. Like compound interest, it wouldn’t take long to have millions in a mesh network.

      The only problem, for me, up here on top of the world, is the links have to be pretty much line of sight & maybe 200 yards max twix links. I’ve got 3 friends/family within the line of sight range, but if we wanted to extend the net we’d need a link that could reach more than 10 miles. I’m exploring ham radio and/or meteor burst packet transmission as possible avenues connecting distant mesh networks. Such wouldn’t necessarily, support live, peer to peer(s) talk but copious amounts of data could be exchanged in short bursts.

      Folks far more tech savey than me are working on this.

      1. Ham radio maybe. CB radio might be another option as I seem to recall they use different wavelengths.

        1. Hmm, secure, reliable and clandestine comms network. Why do I think it’s pick 2 out of 3?

          The big problem with CB is the power limitation. Legally, you are (still, I think) limited to 5 watts. 10 meter ham band (30 MHz vs 27 for CB) lets you get up to 1000 watts in. Going to be easily found if that’s an issue, though. OTOH, on 10 or the other HF bands, you can get ranges of thousands of miles on a good day.

          In the mid ’70s, several friends put together a repeater setup on 2 meters. The repeater had to be at a fixed location (might be able to make one mobile, though you want a high location for line of sight range), but the end points could be elsewhere. More complicated, it was possible to have repeater units linked via phone lines in a hybrid setup. Didn’t hurt that most of these guys worked for Ma Bell.

          1. We shouldn’t rule out steganography, either, the art of hiding data in pictures and movies, by cramming data into the “least significant digits” of color and other channels.. It’s usually used to “watermark” photos, but it would work fine hiding cryptographic data as well.

            I’ve been wanting to take a photograph, and make a series of pictures called things like “The Complete Works of Shakespeare” or “Blackstone’s Commentaries”.

            1. funny story about stego- many years ago, stills from VFX shots for a motion picture were being leaked and the production company kept accusing the artists at the vfx facility. Said facility got sick of the accusations (several of which included the intimation of ‘if this keeps happening we’ll go somewhere else’) and took every image they gave to the production company and stego’d data into it saying who sent it, who received it, which email it was being sent from, and which email it was being sent to…

              yeah, ends up it was interns at the production company…

      2. Heck if some old 56K modems can be found one could use the good old protocols from the early point to point networking with PGP public key encryption superimposed. Most LINUX systems still have the old stuff on them.

          1. Draven looks like the one jiminalaska mentions is USB based. USB to 9 port serial is pretty easy to find, $11.35 for a modem dang 🙂 . Yeah and I was thinking PCI plug in ones but USB is far superior for this purpose. I doubt anyone ever made a pci-x modem.I think there were some 100Mbit 10BaseT cards the used 2 lanes.

            1. one jiminalaska mentions is USB based. USB to 9 port serial is pretty easy to find, $11.35 for a modem dang 🙂 . Yeah and I was thinking PCI plug in ones but USB is far superior for this purpose.

              –
              Outgoing modems may work okay with USB to Serial Adapters. I guaranty they were a PIA to work with Symbol/Intermec Handheld computers to transfer data from the handheld, or even programming the handhelds. I don’t think even ONE county IT got it working when they had to deal with it. Even having to rewrite C program with C++ embedded programs to work on early Intermec embedded Windows, rewrite the data file transfer process using USB, and document the process, was a whole lot easier, than dealing constantly with their IT departments. (Rewriting the program in C# for the handheld win10 version was even easier, & I hadn’t written anything in C# before. Took a seminar 8 years prior, but not written anything that got used.)

    9. Storage space can be manipulated. I keep a few cases of bottled water in the corner of my bedroom. My bed is a bit too low to the ground to accomodate the #10 cans that I have. But I could fit smaller containers under there if I wanted to. You’re not going to squirrel away a year’s worth of food like that. But you can probably still get some set aside if you get creative with how you store the containers.

      And, of course, it helps if you live alone.

      1. > You’re not going to squirrel away a year’s worth

        *Any* supplies when you need them are better than no supplies.

        Do what you can; you’ll be ahead of 99.44% of the rest of the population.

        1. Exactly. A woman living in the Tri-Cities area in Washington once related to me how the volcanic ash from the Mt. St. Helens eruption shut down all traffic in and out of the area for a while – including the regular trucks to the local supermarket. It wasn’t long before store shelves started getting emptied. Having enough supplies for a long-term event is preferable. But having just enough to get you through a short, critical spell is good, too.

          1. Maybe it’s just Mondays, but Despicable Kate’s shutdown hits Oregon this Wednesday, and the grocery shelves were not good for a lot of staples. Kroger brand peanut butter was out, and the Smuckers Adams Old Fashioned PB seems to be MIA for now. They have some “Natural” crap with sugar (didn’t look at the ingredients once I hit sugar), but plain-old PB is scarce right now.

            1. Honestly the biggest reason for expecting an earth-shattering kaboom is that people were shopping, a week ago, on a Wednesday, like it was the day before Thanksgiving.

            2. Locally, both Costco & Fred Meyers, parking lots have been parking-stalking full … almost like there is a holiday or two coming up soon. Food staples are disappearing/or already disappeared out of both.

              1. Point on the holidays. Fred’s was interesting. Not so many cars at the back lot, medium quantity of people there, but the stockers were going nuts. Still, lots of the “temporarily unavailable” tags on staples.

                Hmm, I forgot the Cornish Game Hens. The traditional Thanksgiving meal has enough flour ingredients in it to put both of us in the hospital, so we usually roll our own. OTOH, we have a new neighbor who has more severe gluten issues than we do, and she’s a former chef.

                At the big independent grocery, (3-4 store chain) they’re back to one pack of TP per trip. No restrictions on paper towels yet.

    10. From a strictly do-you-wanna-eat? perspective: Got meatspace friends of similar minds? Can you reach them by car or foot? Mooch off of their storage space if possible. (This being the internet, I will stress that I’m not intending any sort of “gotcha” tone. Most of my friends are physically remote.) I am the “place to hide” for a few people if things get financially/food-related ugly.

      Closeout stores in your area? Look for phrases like, well, closeout, bargain grocery, stuff like that. Remember that expiration dates are a *suggestion*, and if your can is neither broken nor swollen, you’re likely just fine. 🙂 And yeah, take classes and make yourself valuable Just In Case. (Again, no gotcha. Most of my Bad Times value comes from knowing what to do to maximize food availability, and I need to increase my medical skills, such as they are.)

      2. Ah the stone soup solution from Footfall. Unfortunately no Orion based Archangel Michael to solve the issue.

    11. I cannot help you on the ammo front but some stackable plastic tubs from Home Depot will let you lay in a months worth of food on a relatively small footprint. I recommend you stock up on canned goods that can be eaten right out of the can with littel to no preparation. Water is bit more problematic but, if you have a good filter you are way ahead of the competition.

      1. For shelter in place, grab a WaterBOB or some such, basically a bag you fill in your bathtub. I normally keep about fifteen gallons of water in rotation anyway, but living in central Florida, having the ability to have a month’s water available with about fifteen minutes of warning is almost literally priceless.

    12. In college and living in a tiny apartment with roommates, I couldn’t do as much food storage as I’d have liked–but storing stuff in bins under the bed still allowed me to stock up a bit (though then it was more “I took advantage of a huge sale, and now I don’t have to spend money on certain things for a good while than “prepping for emergency.”) So store as much as you can in odd places. Under your bed. Under end tables (or in lieu of end tables–tablecloths can disguise an amazing number of things). In floor space in the closets, even–at least until things calm down–stacked up against a wall. Wherever you can make it (people tend to forget that there’s a surprising amount of space if you go vertical). Just, y’know, if it’s not in cans or something, I do recommend a bin to put the cartons in because mice are horrid little bastards.

      As to medical training–my recommendation is do some online research, and print off how-to’s for basic things. How to bandage properly or suture a wound. How to set a bone. How to recognize and treat symptoms of shock, etc. Sure, it’s not “training” but–it’s a to-hand reference, and that’s better than nothing. And let me tell you, coming from a job where we do the “training” every three years or so…that training, unless you are an EMT or something as your JOB, isn’t going to mean a lot in a pinch. Yeah, you might remember some stuff (I’ve done enough CPR training over the years that it will probably stick) but generally speaking the other first aid stuff…eh. Having a handy guide of some kind to hand would help a lot more than trying to remember something I learned in a class.

  3. I am suspicious about this rush by Biden the pretender president elect to organize his shadow government.
    I believe he is trying to present the nation with a fait accompli. Therefore you most accept.

      1. “Media Select” Biden. I refuse to use the words “elect” or “anointed” with his name.

        1. History says that once before, in 1876, a man reached the Oval Office by massive electoral fraud. Everyone knew it, but politics ruled over the law then, as now. He served only one term in office and the opposition always referred to him as “His Fraudulency.” Should this theft stand, I will refer to the thief by that same term.

          Well, I’ll call him that when I’m not calling him “that purulent mass of sludge befouling the Oval Office”, or other words to that effect.

            1. THAT is a base canard! Commie La Whorish never once gave it away. I don’t think she’s capable of doing anything without figuring out what’s in it for her.

            2. Dopey Joe and the Stoat (ala Tunnel in the Sky). Though I may be deeply insulting stoats by comairing to the Dem VP candidate, they probably have better morals.

      2. On the plus side, consider every one of Gropin’ Joe’s proposed appointments outed as Especially Traitorous but Due A Favor, because otherwise he wouldn’t be appointing ’em.

    3. I despise Biden, and that goes twice for Harris. That said, IF he had been legitimately elected and WASN’T assembling his team, he would be derelict in his responsibility.

      Who knows? Maybe he believes he won fairly. His isn’t tracking well on much else.

      1. IF he’d been legitimately elected, we’d grumble and plan for the worst, but hope that he’d do a better job than we expect.

        But… he wasn’t, and we won’t abet thieves.

      2. All indications right now are that Joe constantly slips in and out of even the most basic awareness of what’s going on around him. The only shots he’s calling in his organization involve alcohol.

    4. Yep – he (or whoever has their nasty little hands on his puppet strings) are trying to rush/gaslight us all into accepting Joe and Ho as a done deal. They might yet get away with it … and then – that is when we get out into uncharted waters.

  4. I had thought there would be widespread unrest immediately following election day – fortunately the whole week was too confusing so the rioters lost momentum.
    The legal process is underway and the aftermath of this farce of an election *shouldn’t* come to having to bring out the civil disobedience and the apocalypse supplies… but if it does, we can do that. We should know one way or another by mid-December.

      1. Wasn’t it Tariq Nasheed who went off on white liberals for setting up black people to be blamed for election fraud, because most of the poll workers in the contested districts were black?
        They’ve been getting sloppy and it’s becoming obvious to the people they’ve used as shields, too.

        1. Yes, it was Tariq Nasheed. He also called BS on Biden getting more popular votes than Obama. You know they’ve messed up when one of President Trump’s biggest haters is calling shenanigans on them.

          1. The lies they demand we believe are an insult to our credulity.

            They should at least lie to us with respect.
            –

            1. They haven’t respected us since long before Hildabeast called us the deplorables. Not going to get finest quality lies from those creeps.

              Did BJ Clinton lie well or did he simply get a massive pass from the media, at a point when people more-or-less accepted it? OTOH, when he went into the “it all depends on what is is” weeds, a fair number of people stopped buying the hype.

  6. American Patriots have a history of being willing to cross the Delaware on Christmas Eve.

    General Winter has come out to play, too.
    Check your winter preps. Boots. Gloves. Scarves. Hats. Get them in fabrics that stay warm even when soaked.

      1. Somehow, in my mental map the time around Christmas is throbbing like a migraine.
        I am not a prophet, but my subconscious does these calculations without telling me. You’ve been warned.

        1. Now that you mention it… my expectation would be major planned lootings on Black Friday and Christmas eve.

          Noting that some retailers do +80% of their total annual business between those dates, and can’t do without it.

        2. How likely is it that you think they’d try to enforce a “No Christmas celebrations!” thing?

          Dr. Osterholm’s suggestion of a four to six week shutdown got a pretty prompt “I never actually mentioned that semi-detailed plan to anyone important!” response from the doctor himself, and a “We don’t have any plans to do that!” response from the Biden campaign. That would suggest that there’s an awareness that they can’t just go invoking shutdowns willy-nilly.

          But if some of the states were to make the usual “No holiday gatherings!” noise right before Christmas, and then try to give that edict some teeth…

          2. Well, the Left coast and other blue state lockdowns seem to be targeted to keep people from getting together and discussing matters of import at Thanksgiving (beyond “Are you going to pass the gravy soon?”).

            I talked to a few worker bees when shopping today. The statewide lockdown is *not* going over well, especially since the last “2 week to flatten the curve” lockdown in March didn’t start getting relaxed until 2 months passed. And this time, Kate (may her name be associated with nuclear waste*) Brown wants the Oregon State Police to work with local LEOs to enforce private party and business violations. Seems she thinks she can mandate jail terms for violating executive orders.

            So, Black Friday is hosed, sort of; stores at 75% of capacity, but zero sit down restaurants and her usual draconian restrictions on churches. (25 people, no matter what the size of the church is.) Bars and food joints takeout only. That’s going to do wonders for the Christmas parties and entertainment place owners to have any hope of surviving 2020 without bankruptcy. (Wonders if she has some cronies who plan to hoover up BK places (pennies on the dollar, natch) after this is over. Sounds like something she’d do…)

            (*) My favorite punk-rock song “Your love is like a nuclear waste”. No idea who did it, but the evening DJ on KSAN played it a lot when my commute was pure hell.

          3. Given that Fauci has ALREADY started making noises about “cancelling Christmas” and he should get all the middle fingers for it. They are acting like ‘no Thanksgiving’ is a fait accompli, and so going out and partying in full view–which is gonna make for a lot of people saying “Screw you” about Thanksgiving plans as well.

        3. And the Democratic/Communazi Party tyrants have made it clear that they have no qualms about “cancelling Christmas” in service of using their boots to stomp on the populace :for our own good”.

  7. I’ve been on high alert since Trump replaced Christopher Miller the acting Secretary of Defense, with Anthony Tata as his under secretary. Basically, two fellows whose specialty is in counterterrorism. The same day I found that out, I also saw that my gov., Ron DeSantis (thank GOD), bolstered FL’s Stand Your Ground Laws. Rioters come to my neighborhood or city? I’m allowed to defend myself. On one hand, seeing that President Trump is making hires shows his confidence that he will be rolling easily into a second term. On the other hand, I’m connecting the dots between his new hires and the emphasis on the Stand Your Ground Laws.

    The scariest thing about this situation is how many ostriches there are – my parents included. I’ve been warning them for a few months now that this could get ugly and they need to be stocking up. They had a taste of it during lockdown, and while they amended their menus to suit what they could find at the grocery store, they never bothered to pick up extra non-perishables. Their mentality right now is “we lived through the 60’s and all of this will just come out in the wash”. It’s driving me crazy out of concern and anger.

    1. The Dept of Defense shake up was directly due to the people who were fired having actively obstructed and disobeyed Trump’s orders to have our troops leave places like Iraq and Afghanistan, and he replaced them with people committed to following through on those orders.

      1. I understand that part of it. Esper needed to go. It was who President Trump replaced him with that struck home with me.

      2. I understand that part. Esper needed to go. It’s who President Trump replaced him with that struck home with me.

    2. Lived through the ’60s? Useless.
      Lived through the Great Depression and WWII rationing? Okay, now you’re getting the picture.

    4. I’ve been hearing “oh, the 60s were much worse” from older relatives and family friends as well.

      1. Heh. Whereas my mother–who was a child during the 60s riots and saw them on tv (she lived in nowhere Wyoming then, too, so at least avoided the actual riots) is growing increasingly more anxious.

        1. I lived in the Chicago suburbs while the 1968 Democratic convention was going on, and on campus at [redacted] University for festivities over Hanoi bombing. Modulo broken windows at the armory and the corporate bookstore losing its plate glass windows multiple times, ordinary people were never threatened and businesses were not burnt to the ground.

          The 60s were preschool tantrums compared to what we have now. (Thinking fondly of the Rooftop Koreans during the Rodney King riots. Also thinking fondly of helicopter rides for commies.)

  8. “In this moment, as the sea goes out, way out, …”

    There, off in the distance! Is that … the Kraken?
    –

  9. The big thing, the really big thing is just how hard it is to disagree with The Narrative.

    I’ve got friends-people I’ve known for years-and family decrying “right-wing violence” at the protests. Show them video of ANTIFA riot-cosplayers attacking people and they’ll say it’s Trump and white supremacist provocateurs. Show people screaming BLM mantras tossing live fireworks at people? The people are somehow at fault for being there. Give them reports on people who HAD to attack the ANTIFA lines-people coming with shields and clubs-because they had no way out? They’re all Proud Boys and the cops should arrest them now for attacking a peaceful protest.

    Explaining the latest election is even more difficult to them. Sudden, massive influxes of ballots in a few counties that are Democrat strongholds, where even poll workers and vote counters are swearing affidavits that they were given instructions against State and Federal law on elections? Trump’s backers must be really paying them well to lie. That Trump would like to win these lawsuits now-but his endgame is the Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Roberts that probably looks at a portrait of Roger Taney (the Chief Justice of the Dread Scott case that most historians agree was the match that lit the fuse for the American Civil War) and says to him, “I won’t be you, not today, motherf(YAY!)ker?” Clearly Trump is losing all of these cases and they won’t be appealed and they won’t make it to the Supreme Court.

    (Don’t even ask about “we’re a democracy!” “No, we’re a constitutional republic.” “Those are the same things and you’re being pedantic!”)

    What’s worse is my growing inability to care, along with my growing insomnia.

    I don’t know how many of these people have to repeat these things because they’re afraid of any disagreement with The Narrative will get them in trouble.
    I don’t know how many of them have invested so many years in the structures that have built The Narrative and that trust is bone-deep in them.
    I don’t know how many of these people truly believe The Narrative.

    And, I’m starting to not care why, beyond a tactical and operational sense. They believe. And, they are making it more clear to not believe is to be the worst criminal possible.

    I’m still remaining hopeful, but I do have everything organized to make a bolt if I have to. Physical maps. A go bag packed. Truck fuel tank is always half full and usually three-quarters full. Hoping to have a job soon that I can make sure to get additional preparation done and looking as new jobs outside of California.

    1. They have been conditioned to believe 2+2=5 and whatever else Big Brother demands they believe at any particular moment.

      1. Based Yuri warned about this: that the demorialized refuse to take in conflicting data no matter how clear cut.

        One need only look at our own doomers to see that he was correct.

    2. “Show them video of ANTIFA riot-cosplayers attacking people and they’ll say it’s Trump…”

      There’s really no point in talking to people who are that devoted to lying to themselves about all this. Just remember who they are and take note that they’re not much use for anything beyond polite conversation about the weather.

      Eventually all this will become unfashionable, and you’ll find them spouting whatever the new line is as if none of this Wokeness(tm) ever existed.

      I concluded a long time ago that most people’s company is just not worth the trouble. I treasure the exceptions.

      1. I would, but when it’s family…

        Depressing. Wishing I could drop some kind of bomb that would upgrade everybody’s common sense-or at least keep the worst offenders from ever breeding.

        2. When it’s family, you just have to get more ruthless and be willing to take more pain. It can help to understand that sometimes and specifically in times like this looks like being, family is not always those related to you by birth or bloodline.

      1. I’m tempted, I’m so very tempted. But, I hate long-term cold weather and I suspect Internet speeds there sucks like a cheap Bangcok hooker.

        What I’d like? A good sized island. Not quite Madagascar-sized, but close enough. Big enough to have a few good large town/small cities on it. Has a deep water port that can handle containers. Good weather, very Mediterranean. Only accessible by ship or air.

        And, to get access to the island, you need to pass an IQ and common sense test, even as a tourist.

        1. SpaceX’s new Starlink system is supposed to do wonders for high-speed internet connections in rural areas. Latency is still a problem, though.

            1. I can live with Hughesnet (mine is Dish branded) latency. Noscript and Adblock makes it better. They keep offering higher bandwidth options, but so far, I’m happy with limited video.

        3. I dunno about Alaska, but I can say from my ghost-town in Wyoming that our internet speeds are better than what I encountered the brief time I lived just outside of Silicon Valley a few years ago…They’re actually quite good here. (True, it’s probably because of the rich people’s play-ranches in our area, but…eh, we’ll take it.)

          You still get the long-term cold, though. But at least we don’t have giant mosquitoes, and the bears and moose aren’t QUITE as pissy 😀

        4. Where I am, in the interior of Alaska, the temperature’s -18°F. as we speak. However in SE, a maritime climate, the Inland Passage, Ketchikan, AK, for example it’s +39°F. right now.

          Yep however, internet speeds are slow unless you hook your router to a star,-or at least a HughesNet satellite.

          1. The COVID-Quarantine camps (enacted after the “universal” gun ban) make that a non-starter for a lot of people.

    4. People don’t want to believe that the system – and the authority that comes from the system – failed. It suggests that the center’s not going to hold for much longer.

        1. It’s not just handling problems. It’s uncertainty. People do better when there’s less uncertainty. It’s easier to plan ahead and figure out what you’re going to be doing in the future. Uncertainty means that your ability to forecast is limited, which makes it more difficult to do anything other than live day to day.

  10. The latest in Democratic Party operative social media censorship is their effort to silence Nikki Haley for pointing out that ballot harvesting makes elections susceptible to fraud:

    https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/11/15/nikki-haley-slams-twitter-flagging-election-fraud-tweet-wonder-why-conservatives-dont-trust-big-tech/

    As she points out, the same Twitter that censors her, has no problem with Iran’s Ayatollahs and others openly tweeting claims that the Holocaust never happened. Meanwhile Haley’s assertions were not too long ago something that the BBC (in 2016) and NY Times (in 2010) raised concern about, and Jimmy Carter’s election integrity commission decades ago warned that vote by mail was easily the most susceptible to election fraud. Who knew that Jimmy Carter is a “delusional right wing Trump supporter”.

      1. The funny thing is that ballot harvesting will – for the foreseeable future – remain a Democratic thing. The California State GOP found that Republicans don’t trust strangers sent to collect their ballots.

        Can’t imagine why…

        1. In fairness that is likely true of a lot of Democrats also. The ballots being “harvested” are those from people who are not mentally competent in nursing homes, are illegal aliens, or are simply outright fraudulent ballots.

  11. Just walked in from a run the GB for loading supplies if available. Nothing much, but I was surprised.
    Only the odd ammo some shotgun loads are available and Cabela’s had some Shotgun/pistol powder (lucky me, one bottle of WSF Ball and I was looking for anything for the .45) and if you want shotgun primers you will have to use Black Powder supplies (a ton of 209 there) and there is steel shot and turkey loads available but limits on amounts you can buy. (Fleet Farm is one box per person per day!)
    Fleet Farm had more shotgun loads (large boxes of bird shot/target- especially 20 or 16 gauge) and more of the common brass (30 ’06 and 7.62×39!) but no .308 though both had family brass (7mm08 and .243 could in a pinch be necked, especially 7mm08) If you Gotta get a rifle right now, 22-250 seems to be the main selection of rifle ammo out there for old cartridges, and some of the new stuff, but best police your brass and hope you got Primers already. Fleet Farm had 22 short, and Cabela’s had 22.WMR, a few boxes of .22Hornet, and the .17 Hornady rimfire, and both had .25 ACP. thazzit
    I’d be willing to bet this is one of the reasons the leftoids think they can get froggie. They think we are all as out as the shelves in the stores.

    1. Went into the local Cabela’s yesterday to pick up a cheek riser for the wifes’ 22, no handgun ammo in ANY caliber, and the last time I looked the only rifle ammo was oddball calibers.
      Unless you’ve got a Ma Deuce or a Barrett, .50BMG was readily available…

      I’m betting the firearm deer hunters have been PISSED about ammo!

      1. A guy in Cabela’s was buying a rifle in a calibre he could get ammo in so he could go hunting. He was picking up accessories for it while waiting on NICS Didn’t see if it was a .22-250 or .300 Rem Mag or one of the new Nosler loads ( iirc they had .26 Nos on the shelf) or what it was.
        Oh, and for Black Powder rifles Cabela’s has a TC in .45, and a CVA in .50.
        Fleet Farm had more and the Remington copy revolver iirc in .36 Lots of lead balls in .36, .45, and .50 at both. Bird shot and cut for Buck and Ball?

    4. >> “I’d be willing to bet this is one of the reasons the leftoids think they can get froggie. They think we are all as out as the shelves in the stores.”

      Where do they think the stuff on the shelves went?

      ..Oh, right. I used the words “they think.” That’s where I went wrong.

      1. it’s like the shock and dismay when they pull stuff in a non-commie run state and get pushback or like that fool and Austin, get shot for their stupidity.
        There is no one so evil to them as those who will protect themselves from their nonsense.

    5. I haven’t been looking at the farm and ranch store, but Monday the mini club store had a reasonable amount of shotgun loads. Centerfire ammo looked pretty well drained, though something in .30 cal was still in stock. Didn’t see any rimfire, and the rest of the handgun ammo was out. I have to go into town today, and might look at the usual places for some rifle ammo.

      Range time has been a problem, but I’ve been told of another impromptu range not too far from here. Better access to paved roads, and it is defined as a shooting range. (National Forest, so few restrictions.)

      1. Just went and checked my hand loads and checking the new sights I have on the carbine. The Schmidt-Rubin loads are so mild for that long beast, a pleasure to shoot, the heaviest load was a quiet bang and still very accurate (more than I am). I was told Trail Boss and fill the brass to the neck was unable to over-pressure and went with a bit less (using the 2.8cc Lee scoop in most, and adding a scoop from the .7cc Lee provides with their .45acp dies to a few more and all that changed was a bit different sound, and hits a hair lower with the smaller load.
        The Mauser (1895 Chilean model converted to 7.62×51) also goes bangedy bang well (it is a Mauser after all), and I have more .308 that just arrived today (Lucky Gunner had Wolf FMJ, in .308. Beggars and all that) and I also have brass in both 7.65×55 and .308 coming soon (how bad is it? The Privi Swiss brass is cheaper and more plentiful than .308 as searching I find only Lapua .308 is available right now. I wish I still had my .32 Special, but it got stolen from the parent’s place some years back, and I hope to not get my dad’s .308 any time soon, (Dad has been diagnosed with cancer week before last), but it’s a Model 100. An Uncle had bought several when he got his FFL (and one model 88 for another Uncle) but Grandpa dies before collecting his, and one rifle shot fine for one shot, then wandered so it never got used. When the house was broke into and Dad was replacing things, Unc gave him “Pa’s” because it was good for a single shot at least. Dad checked it over and found the issue, and all he had to do was float the barrel again. The foreend was touching the barrel.

        Other than a box of 30 Rem Ultra Mag, the only other 30 cal ammo I saw was asingle 20rnd box of .30 Carbine (and brass was available too) but not much good for most folks.

        1. My only .30 Carbine firearm is an Automag III with a broken disconnector (major screwup on my part; I tried the 1911 disassembly procedure and got the delay pin sticking things. Trying to unstick it, I broke the disconnector, and Numrich doesn’t have any in stock. OTOH, I have the pieces and a stick of silver brazing rod. Maybeeee.)

          I have some .30-30 ammo, components for a hundred more rounds (missing cases for the next hundred) as well as *some* .30-06. Much of that was loaded for the M1 Garand that was long ago sold off. OTOH, it wouldn’t be deer that see the FMJ rounds if things go sideways. (.30-30 is pretty unusual in the West, but I have it, and it would be more-or-less as effective as an AR-15 if I had to use it…)

          1. the .32 special I had was at one time a .30-30. It had such a worn out barrel it was lapped and rifled to almost .32It was closer to .31 and a half and had a bit more snap to the sound, and a bit more kick, but was damned accurate for an old lever gun. Be fun to see how the FTX stuff would shoot through it. Speaking of which, the jacketed .30 I have on hand is FTX in 160 grain.
            I got full lead Laser-cast for the Schmidt in 170 grain, and lightly loaded in the .308 they’d work well too. but until the FMJ came today, all my .308 was soft point., I hadn’t dies for reloading it until getting them this week

  13. I remember reading a Larry Correia post that something along the lines of the left has a dial they can turn on violence and disruption. They can turn the knob up and down to various levels. What they risk is that they misunderstand that most of the right doesn’t have a dial. It’s an Off/On switch. Violence and Disruption from the right will take a LOOONG time, but when it goes it will be very violent.

    I pray we don’t get there.

    1. I saw someone recently point out that the right has found their dial, pointing to things like the Trump parades, and the Biden Bus Escort. And that we are having fun while being better at it.

      This is good; on/off was always a completely retarded position.

            1. What is it called when you have a protest and antifa shows up to play the bike lock game?

              Violence is not inherently bad. It is the initiation against innocents that is bad.

              1. I think the difference is we don’t see the “bike lock game” as a game.

                Signs and chants and slogans as normal parts of the process, but once someone starts beating on someone else, that’s out of bounds. The left seems to act like violence is a reasonable response to being disagreed with, and use burning and looting as a political tool.

                The problem he’s trying to point out is there is a point at which violence must, and will be met with force, and that that force will be overwhelming, but the left doesn’t understand that. They seem to still think that the bike lock game is just a game and that everyone will go home at the end of the day.

                2. I think the difference is we don’t see the “bike lock game” as a game.

                  That is called snark.

                  The point is that when they start beating people up the correct response *is* violence. Probably in the form of beating them to a pulp, not killing them. At least not immediately.

                  After all if violence truly is an on/off switch then police would not carry guns, only a target designator that would bring down a massive nuclear ortillery strike on the suspect’s position.

                  Fortunately we do not live in a world that insane.

                  1. To a large extent the Left views violence as business as usual. We tend to view it as crossing the Rubicon where the result is victory or death. This is because the Left has been allowed to get away with violence for a century or more.

                  2. Since more people are killed each year by blows of fist /feet than “assault rifles”, they are deadly force even without the bike lock.

                3. Seems? They are very open about it, and go on at length as to why they believe violence is justified to silence those they disagree with.

          2. They conclude that because they’re intimidated, that intimidation must have been the purpose of the display.

            And so they classify it as violence.

            Of course, these are the same idiots that think any passive or active opposition is violence.
            Because they feel their plan will help people (at least the *right* people), so any degree of opposition is practically the same as harming those people. And deliberately harming someone is very close to violence.

            I have (or had) a friend or two on the political Left who have completely flipped their lids that I don’t accept the narrative. It seems more like they’re trying to convince themselves than me. But the amount of vitriol… It’s nothing short of amazing. It’s like they despise themselves for having doubts.

            1. Because it’s a cult. And having doubts means they might get shunned–so naturally they despise themselves. It’s rather horrifying to see, really.

        2. Dan, please. Our very -speech- is violence! You even say “Hey, wait a second,” and that’s like a shotgun blast!

          Their violence isn’t violence. That punch in the face? That was a strongly worded letter.

        1. If you define the dial so that it *only* includes violence, and *only* includes aggressive initiation of violence, you drain the concept of its usefulness beyond a nice way to feel better than the other side.

          It’s also how you get (real) Nazis as the only one’s who are willing to stand up to the scum. I’m happy to note that we appear to be avoiding that one far better than I expected.

      3. They’re not still not violence, though.

        They are demonstrations of strength– which can be a threat, which can reach to imminent threat of violence and be just or unjust.

        A show of force– which, again, can be a threat of violence, or can simply let people know that they are not alone, or there is NOT unanimity.

        1. My family comes to harm. I’m after figuring that if the folks who were beaten in DC were back in their home state, there’d be a jury box being convened.

    3. I think the point is the left has an action-violence dial which, being totally arbitrary, goes both ways with equal ease at need and under complete control, while the right has a switch along the lines of the Jacksonian war switch – either “not yet” or “make it bounce harder”, and if the latter is achieved it takes a major underlying state change to revert to “not yet”.

      The “not yet” level includes warning pre-shocks of demonstrations, but those are misinterpreted by the left as “not turning the knob up, the wimps” – and that right there is a classical vocabulary mismatch communication failure in the making. When you get the stay-at-home populist side to show up to a zero-lead-time popup demonstration in hundreds of thousands, the Jacksonian threshold is being approached.

      1. And as I was typing this the Most Glorious Emperor Gavin has dictated that almost all of the Glorious Bear Flag Peoples Republic go back into purple-tier lockdown, supposedly to avoid overwhelming hospitals, and expanded the mask mandate to everyone outdoors.

        Oddly, the Santa Clara County hospital dashboard shows the current 145 people hospitalized for confirmed or suspected C19 are taking up only 4.8% of all hospital beds, breaking down to 6% of ICU beds and 4.2% of medsurg beds.

        I’m sure they will find a couple hundred new hospital records tonight at 4am to make this make more sense.

        Story: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-pulls-emergency-brake-on-15731362.php

        1. Per news this afternoon– oddly, the Des Moines Catholic station is more neutral than anything else I’m hearing right now– mentioned that for Iowa we’re at 20% occupancy.
          Which is supposed to be scary….

          1. “Which is supposed to be scary….”

            That IS scary – prolonged operation at such a low capacity would probably force the facility’s closure.
            –

        2. Digging around, it looks like one of the hospital chains in Des Moines proper– which, again, has been masked since the middle of summer– is saying they are at capacity for beds.

          Not ICU beds, over-all beds. A quarter to a third have diagnosis as a secondary diagnosis.

          I’d guess it has to do with all the surgeries that didn’t get done before now, plus a side-effect of the kids staying with grandma after all the healthy people didn’t get sick over the socially distanced summer.

          A full HALF of the hospitalized are over 70. Another fifth are sixty to seventy.

          https://coronavirus.iowa.gov/pages/hospitalization-analysis

        3. For those wondering what purple-tier restrictions look like:

          The County Health Officer urges residents to follow strict adherence to safety protocols, including: Refrain from all travel, including over the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday Stay home when possible Minimize interaction with people outside one’s household If choosing to gather with those outside one’s household, do so ONLY OUTDOORS Maintain social distance (6 feet minimum) Wear face coverings Move as many activities outdoors as possible GET TESTED regularly

          1. Hh, copy-pasting that worked awesomely. OK, here’s another try:

            The County Health Officer urges residents to follow strict adherence to safety protocols, including:
            – Refrain from all travel, including over the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday
            – Stay home when possible
            – Minimize interaction with people outside one’s household
            – If choosing to gather with those outside one’s household, do so ONLY OUTDOORS
            – Maintain social distance (6 feet minimum)
            – Wear face coverings
            – Move as many activities outdoors as possible
            – GET TESTED regularly

            2. Gav needs to be treated for rabies.
              Or act as a pendulum.

              Why the frack are Californians putting up with it?

                1. actively trying to get the cur out

                  –
                  Tried that with Brown. Didn’t take. Twice. Never got to voting stage.

                  1. If you have vote fraud by mail, and Portland counties report results last, what good does a recall do besides signal the natives are restless?

                    2. As you have every confidence that your vote doesn’t matter in Colorado …

                      When your “mail-in ballot” arrives carefully handle it with tweezers and surgical gloves (happily now quite common) in order to be sure neither prints nor DNA of yours is on the thing.

                      Return the ballot (with or without votes — although there is good cause to mark it for the least-desired candidates) in the envelope provided, with a small amount of white powder (of your choice – flour, talcum, chalk, crushed vitamin C, whatever).

                      When the gendarmes turn up at your door, deny ever having any contact with that ballot. INSIST it was fraudulently cast. Point out that this lack of any viable chain of custody is a major flaw in vote-by-mail schemes.
                      –

                  2. I was told that attempt 1 was a cluster, largely because the GOP chair in NW Oregon was out of state for the duration, and *nobody* picked up the slack. Attempt 2 came out 1% or so short, largely because they were expecting to use farmer’s markets and county fairs to collect signatures. Kate’s edicts killed both of those, and the Plan B backup (mail in petitions) weren’t sufficiently organized to do enough. Secondary issue was another recall effort that might have diluted the main petitions.

                    She leaves office after the ’22 election. From what I’m seeing, attempt 3 (if it’s tried) needs to be anti-fragile, with petitions available through multiple means. I don’t have a good feeling about mail-in because postal workers, but it might be the best chance. People are getting ticked off; Kate should start realizing that recall might be the least-worse alternative for her political and personal life.

                    1. I’m not saying a petition couldn’t get enough signatures to get on the ballot. My quibble is if getting the recall onto the ballot will make a change to the system when OR has vote by mail. And the entire country is getting an in-your-face demonstration of how manipulable that system is.

                    2. It sounds like the long-term goal of the Trump administration is to get rid of vote by mail. It’s going to be hard in Oregon, since it was bought off in the past, but perhaps a certain amount of sunlight can disinfect that particular bit of corruption. At least having voting systems that run supportable software would be nice. (MS Server 2000 is the current platform for the machines. I suspect end-of-life for it was around 2008 or so.)

                      Hey, a guy can dream, eh?

            3. Unless you are the Governor in which case you go to dinners with lobbyists that violate your own decrees that are held at a place that charges for a “tasting course” $350 PER PERSON, and whose full dinners are anywhere from $500 to $850 PER PERSON.

              How has he not yet been dragged kicking and screaming by an angry citizenry is mind boggling. Where are the Antifa types protesting this blatant exercise of “privilege”.

            4. And then have the hospital refuse treatment for frostbite after being outdoors because “it is not related to the CCP Virus”. All those LA and San Franciso politicians don’t understand that parts of their state are brutally cold at this time of year and continuing through winter.

  14. I’ve directed a very smart but very left-leaning friend to Larry Correia’s analysis. She’s gone over is and is pretty sure Evil Fascist Narcissist Trump is pulling the wool over our eyes.

    Some copy-pasted responses:

    “Yes, again unsubstantiated statements are unsubstantiated. She has no verifyable data on backdated ballots. She can’t even say she saw it first hand. So where’s the whistleblowers? What did they see???
    Well, I didn’t find that but I did find the reason the poll observer was removed, exactly as expected: “A poll watcher who was inside the building,” she said. “Yelling racial epithets at people in that building.”
    I’m still not finding them, but I am finding more refutation:
    “Among the claims are those that have been debunked or already thrown out in court. One of the claims was that poll workers were told to backdate ballots. A similar claim was considered hearsay in the Michigan Court of Claims.
    “Another claim was workers were allowed to wear shirts supporting Biden. Under state law wearing campaign apparel or anything showing support for a particular campaign is illegal. McDaniel did not provide proof at the press conference of illegal electioneering.”
    [That’s like a super huge no-no. The election staff would skin one of their own in a heartbeat over that.]
    “She also brought up the now disproven theory a software error in Antrim County that made an error in reporting the results could have caused a statewide voting problem. The error was determined by the Secretary of State’s office to have been a failure to update the software in the county by a single clerk with no evidence similar things happened elsewhere in the state.”
    Even Fox pulled the plug on these affidavits. So I have to presume she didn’t have copies, just hearsay. Since they, again, demanded proof. I don’t know the average number of affidavits of wrongdoing per election cycle to make a reasonable comparison either. We’ll hafta wait to see what the courts say about them.
    So moving along…”

    “Red flag number 2: the late night spikes.
    Yet again, Trump created it himself.
    He (well, the Republicans) refused to let the mail-in count begin early, forced the slow process to wait to start on election day, ensuring the count went long into the night. Hell some areas didn’t even start counting the massive influx of mail-in ballots until Wednesday.
    Those could have been a lead by Biden eroded by Trump until the races were close, would have been if Trump thought he’d win. Instead it was engineered to look like a fraud.
    Again, I’m saying engineered. Specifically so he could say, “I was winning by 500,000 votes and now look! They are finding ballots.”
    We all knew going into the race that the mail-in ballots were opening voting to people who couldn’t afford to get to the polls, which means they’d lean left.
    So he ensured they’d create those late night spikes so he could point and yell fraud.
    Literally at the cost of people working overnight in many areas to count a ~10x increase in mail-in ballots, far above the overall increase in voting because people who take Covid seriously tried very hard to avoid in-person voting.
    The people who agree with him that Covid is overblown were the primary people who voted in person on election day. Which means they were heavily overrepresented until counties could count the mail-in votes. Which were indeed added as a series of spikes to the state totals.
    Exactly as intended. To create that exact impression of fraud.
    We again KNEW these spikes would happen going into the election. Particularly in Michgan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin:
    Richard Hasen: “In those three states, election officials begged for extra time” to process ballots and largely were thwarted by [Rep] state legislators.
    An illusion created on purpose.
    To make you feel like shit.”

    1. Also (paraphrasing) “Of course people were mad as hell and voted against Trump: they gave him a chance to drain the swamp and he failed, then voting was made easier during COVID through mail-in, and he tried to disenfranchise people by destroying the postal system, so of course they all came out in record numbers to vote him out!”

        1. Her responses, not mine.

          It’s tough dealing with a good friend who I care about, knowing that she cares about me just as much and is convinced I’m being sucked into a fascist cult.

          It’s also tough when 1) I think she’s wrong but 2) I know she’s smarter than I am.

          2. Maybe try asking her why the US Congress just released a statement that the electors have not been selected yet, and therefore the Presidency has not been decided. Because that happened today or yesterday.

            Lawsuits are in motion. The courts will decide if there was cheating or not, as they are supposed to. Meanwhile, the media is trying to pervert the course of legal justice. Maybe ask her if she’s okay with that.

            1. At this point, we’ve agreed to disagree and have gone back to sharing weird dog memes and talking about Baby Yoda.

                2. I wish we could agree across the post-imperial universe that eating sentients is always a bad thing, but sometimes you come across half-century-old beings who obviously think tastiness outweighs any moral obligations.

                  1. Babys are gonna baby.

                    Besides, I’d think it would be appreciated as a rebuke to Rousseau’s theories about people being born good and taught to be bad, when it can tend to be the opposite. Or maybe I’m just overthinking things.

                    1. Things with tentacles and I have a mutual non-consumption agreement, even if either one of us is presented battered and deep-fried.

                    5. Ah, back to intelligent octopi again. Still trying to score “kraken rises from the deep” on your 2020 bingo card?

                    8. Aliens invade? Have you got them landing from space, coming in through interdimensional portal(s), or revealing they’ve been here manipulating our development all along?

                      Or have you got “All of the above”?

                      I’ve been sitting on the Fredric Brown option: “little green men invade holographically and make snide hyper-critical observations on our behaviour” but that’s a long shot.
                      –

                3. Unfertilized eggs cannot be genocided.

                  You can’t even argue malice, when they’ve got less protection than I use for chicken eggs simply because I don’t want to buy another 12 pack.

                  1. With all the flashy lights on that thing (and why is it transparent?) I wondered why it didn’t have a lock.

                    1. It had a child-proof lock.

                      Which, of course, means that only a child could open it without any difficulty.

                  2. The argument revolves around “endangered race” and that the eggs were the last batch she’ll ever produce. So while they’re not fertilized, she’s not going to be replacing them.

                    Of course, regardless of those arguments, the fact that it’s a baby we’re talking about trumps everything else. The first thing any baby does upon finding something new is to stick the new thing into its mouth. And we’ve already seen plenty of examples of that with this baby.

                    1. Argument is still wrong, because genocide requires the deliberate killing of a large group of people. The idea that it leads to extinction is a very different one… Which utterly fails in the face of they didn’t act like the important thing is important.

                      In universe, suggests they’re endangered because they are literally too stupid to live.

                      In reality, the writers really, really wanted to do the whole involuntary/accidental cannibal thing. Because it would be seriously easy to have the baby accidentally deactivate some sort of power something or other.

                    2. honey….. if the liberals understood “doesn’t act like it’s important” they wouldn’t believe the Earth is “literally baking” because we live in sme comfort.

                    3. Heh, point!

                      But it still annoys me, since the abuse of English is the same that holds my existence is genocide. (Indian ancestors.)

                    4. Yep. Mouths are the primary way to figure out what something is for babies and Havelock cat, who is developmentally disable. If I had a cent for every time we scream “DROP IT DROP IT”
                      Then again he might have iron plated intestines. As a baby he routinely ate screws and coins, and we’d only find out about it when cleaning the box….

                    5. RASTAFARALSLFKEAJ;LFNAW;ELYI5PQ2UI3JRFASlfJ/

                      I just thought of something…
                      WHAT WAS THE NAME OF THE GINORMOUS WAR THEY HAD LIKE 100 YEARS BEFORE THIS SHOW?
                      Oh, yeah, that’s right– the CLONE WARS.

                      *flips table*

                    6. “the abuse of English is the same that holds my existence is genocide. (Indian ancestors.)”

                      I don’t follow.

                    9. ”
                      They declare anything that results in a smaller number of the endangered group is genocide.

                      Explicitly including intermarriage.”

                      If you assume that any time a Leftist says anything involving words of longer than two syllables they are misusing those words, you won’t be wrong often enough to matter. At no more than two syllables, your odds are 50/50.

                    10. quote: genetically swamping Amerindian tribes is called “genocide.”

                      So they really *don’t* like humans. Or they have never heard of hybrid vigor.

                      I suppose we could really waste a lot of time listing things they apparently have never heard of?

                  3. They declare anything that results in a smaller number of the endangered group is genocide.

                    Soooooooo……. about that.

                    Not being barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen with the largest number of kids it is possible to support is genocide.

                    1. So by logical* extension for minority aggrieved groups, any group female of child bearing age not currently pregnant with a group pure blood clump of zygote cells is genocide.

                      But actually killing actual minority unborn babies for anything up to convenience is …(wait for it)… choice.

                      Because unquestioning faith in science, you h8er.

                      *I know, I know, I used the L word.

                    2. “The only position for women in the Movement is on their backs.” — H Rap Brown(IIRC), Black Panthers

                    3. /scratches head
                      So if a whole bunch of us guys and gals went down to a reservation, courted and won over all the guys and gals there, married and had kids, we’d be engaging in genocide, even though the tribe now had double the number of descendants that it had before? Or are we engaging in a reversed 1 drop concept now?

                    5. As best I can tell, if the racist– I mean, these wonderful, helpful people who just love people and are fighting genocide, you h8ter– anyways, if they can’t identify that the Chosen Minority is not pure blood, then it’s OK.

                      So my cousins (almost definitely different tribal ancestry) are only bad because they’ve been intellectually colonized– the ones still alive left the rez and live like normal people*– not because they have a great-great-grandfather that was Scottish.

                      But if the kids live off of the Reservation, or reproduce with someone so their kids don’t look Indian enough, then it’s genocide. Especially if they have decedents in large part because they left the rez to live with crazy white-man imperialisms like “sanitation” and “medical care.”

                      * the rest died of alcohol soaked despair, without reproducing this generation

                    6. Only for Endangered Groups.

                      Remember it has to be pregnant by an approved male, as well.

                      And no, I don’t think they’d be bothered by the dehumanization of the folks they’re “helping.”
                      The idea of intentional killing of an endangered group being automatically worse than the otherwise identical intentional killing of a non-endangered group is quite dehumanizing.
                      (Which nearly broke my brain when I figured it out. Scifi, not always teaching you the lessons it means to… the guy being the last of his species was supposed to make it worse to kill him in self defense than for him to kill several other people because he wanted to.)

          3. All of this handwaving … and each little piece in isolation sounds sort of plausible.

            But honest vote-counting operations would have been planned for as much transparency and granularity-of-records as could be managed. Like making sure that plenty of observers from “the other side” were always around as witnesses.

            I hope someone who knows how is already started on a carefully footnoted book to document all this.

            1. If every step is not open for public inspection in realtime, the election is crooked.

              There’s no presumption of honesty any more.

          4. She may be more intelligent then you, BUT that does’t make her smarter then you. My wife’s father was a renowned internal-surgeon, but the only light-switch he ever changed in his house was installed upside down.
            See the difference?

            1. She can install light switches with the best of them.

              Another source of frustration, since I was sure Correia’s analysis would convince her.

              On the plus side, she mentioned she liked Correia a lot once I alerted her to his existence and writing, even if she thought he was wrong, so maybe I’ve made a new Monster Hunter/Grimnoir/Black Sword reader?

              Silver lining…

          5. Sadly, it seems clear that she applies a higher standard one direction than the other, asserting that Trump “engineered” this without eve as much evidence as she has to supporting her claim Trump tried to destroy the postal system.

            “Destroy”? Those were necessary improvements t enhance service and efficiency while reducing costs — efforts the postal clerks’ union obstructed in order for their members t maintain excessive overtime.

            We, of course, are also highly susceptible to bias, excusing behaviour for which we would denounce the Democrats and assuming malice from them when stupidity is sufficient cause.
            –

            2. As Obama proved, a sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice. (I suspect advanced maliciousness tends to lead to incompetence, too.)

              1. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make a human think. If a human already has decided that she knows the answer because it is an Approved Group Answer and Consensus, every other piece of evidence will be discarded.

                Meanwhile, on the Right, most of us are secretly thinking, “Dude, all my rightist friends are nice folks, and they make some good points about Z, but they just don’t really understand X or Y. I’m going to have to point this out.” The Approved Group Answer doesn’t really exist. At best, we have a range of Not Totally Ludicrous Answers And Guesses, and the only Consensus is stuff like “The Declaration of Independence is pretty much good stuff.”

                1. Of we on the Right accepted the principle of “Approved Group Answer” there would be NO arguments over optimal ammo loads.
                  –

          6. I hear you. *Believe me* I hear you… That is my wife right there. Smarter than me, but badly informed on a number of issues.

      2. This is being accepted at church, and having social status to them. Grooming and hygiene.

        They aren’t going to retriangulate until after it collapses around them.

        The people who are pulling out the crazy rationalizations are the people who would meekly fall into line should conservatives convince them that conservatives are both dominant, and sending whomever to death camps.

      3. Oh, found the exact quote about the postal system:

        “The mfer attacked and tried to dismantle the postal system — at a time when people were using it to survive — because he knew the added voters would be normally disenfranchised leftists.
        As far as I’m concerned it’s treason. But it rightly doesn’t matter what I think.
        So anyway, we ALL expected much higher voter turnout, and much higher turnout from a poorer portion of the population.”

        1. Actually, H-1B, J-1, F-1, etc. holders are extremely excited, because they know how excellent Jinping Xi thought is at managing technical problems, and want only to better the world by having Jinping Xi thought integrated into the administration of all of the most advanced technological areas.

    2. The strange thing is, most of those responses don’t work with what Larry actually said.

      They’re close, but they don’t actually answer the question– and fly off into appeal to authority.

      Which I keep seeing happen.

      1. “The strange thing is, most of those responses don’t work with what Larry actually said.”

        Larry laid out the 47 thousand big fat red flags that are flying, and this individual has picked a few and said “That’s not a red flag! The New York Times says it’s not a red flag! What is WRONG with you people?!!!”

        I’m familiar with the type from the gun control “debate.” There was never any debate there, the facts were never at issue. I spent from 1992 to about 1998 assembling the facts, examining the arguments, looking at the evidence.

        I noticed, eventually, that none of the facts were ever referenced or even mentioned by the anti-gun side. Their whole thing boils down to falsehoods piled higher/faster/deeper. That and persistence. They never, ever, ever stop.

        The -truth- is that no gun control law ever prevented a crime, as far as anyone can tell. OTOH, guns prevent crimes and tragedies every single say. To conceal that, gun control cultists resort to the chicanery we see them using all sorts of places these days. Nothing is evidence unless it supports their claim. But if it supports their claim, ANYTHING is evidence.

        Liberal: “Guns cause crime!”

        Conservative: “What? How do you know that?”

        Liberal: “RAAAAAACIST!!!! REEEEEEEE!!!!”

        Conservative: “Here now, is that any way to behave?”

        Liberal: “REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE….” and then they run out and steal an election, so they can use the government to beat up the evil Conservatives.

        Conservatives, philosophically, are concerned with the Truth. We want to know the best way, the best policy, the Real Numbers. Example, Conservatives do not favor gun control because it self-evidently does not work.

        Anti-gunners don’t care about that. They hate guns and they hate Conservatives. They will say -anything- if it hurts a Conservative. Anything. If there’s nothing to back up their hate, they’ll just make something up.

        We’ve seen this with countless trolls on countless subjects. That’s why people like China Mike and the camel flop are banned here. Constant, unrelenting bad faith, brazen partisanship and etc. (We can see you, assholes.)

        That’s what we’re seeing now on the wide scale of the media. Conservatives pointing to the obvious signs of corruption, and the Left drowning them out with incoherent screeching, lying and bad-faith arguments.

        What to do about it? Nothing. Fruitbats are gonna fruit. Try not to get any on ya.

        1. And the lesson from the gun wars is: Never, ever, ever give an inch – never make good faith offers of compromise, never yield on any point, never stop fighting, attack and then attack again, never retreat and never surrender.

          When faced with that mode of opposition, This is the Way.

          1. Yep. The NRA tried compromise a couple of times (or more), and it doesn’t work. You lose an inch, you never get it back.

            1. The saying here for a long time about our state organization, the CA Rifle and Pistol Association or CRPA, was that the first C actually stood for Compromise – for many years their tune was a very Fudd “Look! We are reasonable! What do we give up next to prove it?”

              That and the CRPA’s “top men” buddy-buddy relationship with opposition legislators, where CRPA “helped” to draft anti-gun legislation and then claimed credit for only retreating fifty miles instead of 100, were major contributors leading to the stupid pile of steaming law that we now have here.

              The old guard is now gone and new-CRPA is making better mouth noises, but they burned a lot of credit with golden state gun owners helping normal stuff get banned, and it will take more than just using the right words going forward before they are treated as honest advocates again.

                    1. Being a denizen of the Demented Dominion of course, shooting advice is completely wasted on me. We never ever have guns. Nope. So many boating accidents, you know. So tragic. ~:(

                      For us Kanuckistanians it’s boots, baseball bats, and big flashlights. Knees first, then head. Rinse and repeat as required.

                    2. Yeah, that’s what I’ve always been told is good advice when it comes to shooting too! 😀

                      (In the infinity war case, though, he didn’t have a gun, he had a big honkin’ axe, so…)

        2. What stuck out for me was that to counter this ‘conspiracy theory’ that Biden stole the election, you’ve got to posit…a conspiracy theory.

          I haven’t had time to look too closely into the claim that it was the Republicans who set up the situation by delaying early voting – I’ve been pretty busy – but let’s grant that’s true. Let’s grant that Trump masterminded the whole apparent late-spike of Biden voters, with just this situation in mind.

          Trump did it all…to rile up his base? In order to maybe…get four more years? Four more years of being attacked by the establishment and obstructed at every turn? Four more years of continuing to fight an uphill battle where the hill is covered in ice?

          And what’s more likely, Trump engineered all this when he’s surrounded by people seemingly eager to blab or else make up stuff about him? Or that the entrenched establishment fixed the election to get Trump out?

          But I’m still going to try and look a little more into this business about early counting not being allowed, and why.

          2. Your analysis is leaving out the little “Trumo is literally Hitler” thing. Once they accept that premise, all else falls into place.

        3. Larry laid out the 47 thousand big fat red flags that are flying, and this individual has picked a few and said “That’s not a red flag! The New York Times says it’s not a red flag! What is WRONG with you people?!!!”

          Thing is, if the responses had been in order– I usually go with “three,” for example, find three big wrongs without points big enough to balance it out and and I’m done– doing a partial refutation would be fine. The assumption being that folks will put their best foot forward, or if doing a slow build will reach a payoff in three steps.

          But even then, you need stuff that refutes the specific claim, as close to a primary source as possible.

          Which Face Book Flags ain’t, even if you weren’t already familiar with the questionable accuracy of the reports (yes, I am still steamed about the “clerk error” when the actual excuse was “software not updated”) and bad aim of the algorithm.

          1. If there is an algorithm in a voting computer that can, under ANY circumstances, cause such ‘errors’ it is by intent. Adding up votes accurately is an exercise any first-year programmer should be able to do correctly in half an hour.

            The computer security folks who analyzed those Dominion voting machines uncovered a few interesting facts: Votes are stored as floating-point numbers, and there is a hidden ‘weighting’ option.

            Votes are Boolean values. You voted for a candidate, or a ballot proposition, or you did not. Yes or No. A competent, honest programmer would NEVER use floating-point numbers to represent Boolean values. The ONLY reason to spend the extra storage space and processing load is to change the results in a way that is not obvious to those running the system. By, say, ‘weighting’ the votes, so that a vote for Candidate A is registered as 0.9 vote, and for Candidate B as 1.1 vote. They still round to 1 when individual votes are displayed, but when the votes are added up, you get the wrong answer. (Or the ‘right’ answer, for those fixing the election)

            The candidate coefficients have to be adjusted, depending on the actual ratio of votes for Candidate A vs. Candidate B, or the total number of votes will not match the number of ballots fed in. Which side was obsessed with poll numbers in the months leading up to the election, again?

            1. Rather like the “no, those screen shots are reversed” explanation for one of things showing a massive change in Biden’s numbers and no change in anyone else’s– an “oops, someone hit a couple of zeroes” answer for bad data input would make sense. Call the bad number N.
              It does not work for “Biden accidentally had a bad input and they were removing it,” because that would be N-truecount, which cannot be “oops how’d those zeroes get there?” explained.

              One or the other would work, but NOT both.

            2. Tallying votes accurately is a trivial programming exercise. To add the votes up INACCURATELY, for just two candidates, without making it obvious to everybody using the system, or causing the results to be suspiciously OFF, is a much more complex and difficult operation.

              Pretending that such an ‘error’ could ‘just happen’ by accident as the result of a random ‘computer glitch’ betrays either an astounding level of computer incompetence, or an assumption that the people you’re lying to are complete idiots. Pretending that multiple computers could have similar ‘glitches’ is…beyond stupid.
              ———————————
              Talia Winters: “I hadn’t sensed so many lies since I worked for the political bureau.”

            3. Any reasonably intelligent and honest person involved with using these machines would run batches of hand counted ballots and make sure the tabulations are accurate several times during the process. What really bothers me are the “Hey we found some more votes on a thumb drive” instances.

        4. Regarding the Gun Control argument, I have had SOME success (at least in getting them to stop bain smug at me) by pointing out that we KNOW why the Second Amendment was written and passed; it was the expressed intention of the Founders to ensure that the common man had easy, legal, unfettered aces to military grade weapons. We know this because a great deal of primary documentation of the debates on the Constitution has been preserved, and it tells us this. Therefore, anybody who wants to bad any sort of firearm commonly used by a foot soldier needs to propose a Constitutional Amendment (or admit that he its a scofflaw). The ‘Living Constitution’ argument is so much earwax, intended to weasel around the simple fact that if you want to change what the Constitution says, you must follow the established Constitutional process for Amendment.

          Some of them still argue with me, but they aren’t smug anymore.

          1. I have heard a lot less crap from American Lefties this year about guns, I must say. All those fedora wearers and single mothers freaking the hell out over Corona have made this another record year for gun sales.

            In Canada of course the federal government is going for the Great Reset, wherein they make everything in the world that goes bang illegal. It is funny though how even the media response to these proposals is quite tepid this year. Almost as if the reporters and editors had looked into the maw of the pandemic and saw their mortality looking back.

    3. Here you go, and I hope it helps:

      “Where is your proof that poll workers were ‘yelling racial epithets”? Isn’t that just heresay?”

      “Cui bono: Aren’t claims that software ” glitches” caused massive 6k is not peanuts rather than fraud a copout from the people who benefit from that mistake? Isn’t that claim an illusion designed to escape getting caught?”

      “Even if more people who support Biden use mail in ballots because Trump said they were safer, this would not change all the elderly, diabetic, or other Trump voters who HAD to vote mail in. 100% Biden votes = fraud.”

      “With this much smoke, there has to fire. Maybe it’s a small blaze, maybe a big one. Either way, why would people be censoring, deplatforming, and threatening anyone who try to talk about it if they aren’t covering something up.

      1. “Where is your proof that poll workers were ‘yelling racial epithets”? Isn’t that just heresay?”

        Hey now! You’re not insinuating that they would…fib???

        Much less make – gasp! – a false accusation!!!!!

        Next thing you know, you’ll be saying they don’t really care about justice at all, and all their concern for others is just cover for bullying and getting powerful for themselves, and that’s just unthinkable!

        1. But that’s a -good- thing, Sarah. Ever fake vote disenfranchises a bad person who should never have been allowed to vote in the first place.

          [./sarc/.]

      3. Anyway, I’m done debating with her, and she with me, and that’s all for the best. I’ve lost too many friends in the last four years, I’m not willing to lose her too. She’s been there for me when I was in a bad place, and arguing with her is almost physically painful for me. Pointing out Correia’s analysis was as far as I’m willing to go.

        1. I get that. I’ve got a friend like that. I’ve unfollowed her on FB because of her neverending TDS the last 4 years, but we still interact elsewhere.

          Though I do wonder…your friend is assigning an ASTONISHING amount of competence to Trump. I mean, I’ll grant you the guy is smart, and competent, but these levels? It’s amazing how only the people who really hate him ascribe THAT level of competence to him, that he engineered such a vast conspiracy to…check the votes?

          (It comes up a lot. That whole “TRUMP ENGINEERED THIS” from the left that has me going “Um…” especially when 2 breaths later they’re talking about how stupid he and his “followers” are. Then again…logic seems to be anathema to the left…)

  15. Make sure that you keep some food and water in your vehicles, too. There’s always the possibility that you’ll get stranded somewhere with your vehicle (where I live, the prinary reason for those concerns is earthquakes). The food should be something that’ll stay safely sealed for a long time while not being eaten, and can ward off hunger for a short while. A box of granola bars is my usual pick for this.

    2. Yeah. THough it’s winter weather where I live (and I need to stock up both vehicles I use for work, come to think of it…). Granola bars are great. Honestly, though, canned stew or similar would work too–it’s not fun to eat cold, but when you’re stuck and hungry…

      1. Cans do have a (very rare) issue, though. I had a can of canned fruit – which I’m confident was *not* expired – burst in my cupboard. And when it did, it punched a hole in an adjacent can. Both emptied all over my cupboard, and made a huge mess. Something like that in your car could be bad…

        1. That’s true. I wouldn’t do it here in the dead of winter, because freezing can cause problems (though moreso with soda, heh). Dried fruit, granola, nuts, jerky… 😀

          1. Progresso– the non-low-salt versions, not sure about low sodium– are good down to negative double digits without bursting, for weeks at a time.

            My mom tested it in their super freezer before putting them in the pickup’s emergency bags.

    1. She mentioned in the previous thread that she owns the domain, and is going to start making back-ups of the data.

      1. I have no idea how it differs from being hosted BY WordPress, or if it then proceeds to nag you for money, but my hosting has WordPress available to install at no charge. I feel no urge to blog, so haven’t bothered.

  17. Speaking of China Joe Biden and the rest of the CCP loving Democrats:

    https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/11/16/report-china-using-eugenic-abortions-to-improve-the-quality-of-the-population/

    Funny how this sounds a lot like Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger. Of course Democrats routinely praise the CCP and have clearly indicated that they want to become the US equivalent of the CCP. The CCP has openly declared its intention to commit genocide and the Democrats support them.

    1. Nah, this is just the Chinese version of the March of Dimes. Abort any child with any abnormalities or birth defects; including post birth abortions.

  19. Some days are major actions, some days are minor. Some days are new book releases, and buying a gun. Some days are the minor maintenance, like finally taking that unloved can of pledge from under the kitchen sink and wiping down all the cupboards.

    Today I paid my property taxes. And I felt a lot calmer afterward, despite the significant chunk of change that just went out the door. And I realized… it’s not only no longer stressing about the money (because it’s spent, there’s no calling it back, and no use worrying about not having it now.) It’s also the back brain perking up and saying “You really think this will blow over, and the USA will still be here next year. You do! You believe it strongly enough to pay your taxes!”

    If I’m oiling squeaky hinges, I’m investing in a future where I’ll still have this house. If I’m taking the time to chat with a neighbor, I’m investing in a future where we’re still friendly. The left is deeply neurotic, and utterly unhappy; I am tending my house and garden, my town, and making sure I am sane and grounded.

    But I’m also hitting the range, inventorying my pantry, and making sure if trouble comes, it’s going to get planted under the azaleas.

    1. I’m with you Dorothy. It’s just that right now we’re going into another lockdown on Friday in Philly. Makes me sick. If we can stop this foolishness, I’m more inclined to the slightly optimistic mode you just described. I’m just gonna put my head down and write.

      1. Same in OR.

        The See You Next Tuesday in Salem has decreed a “freeze”. Right when I go to see my folks for the Thanksgivings. If anyone attempts to stop me, I will grease my bearings with them.

        1. Sis & her kids will stay in Vancouver WA. Nieces may make it back to their folks, at least the unmarried ones, with or without their significant others. The other sis lives a mile north. It might be just good exercise to walk to mom’s (mile south) and exercise our way north to sis’s house 😉 Nah, we’ll drive. I’ll have to head home at least once to let the dog out.

          Mom got a message from her cousin in Montana. Their 60 year old son died today of Covid-19. Worked on the family ranch, near Choteau. Do not know if there were any co-conditions complicating the virus attack. Mom said we would have played with him on our various (two?) trips to Montana in ’60s. He’s slightly older than my youngest sister (she’ll turn 60 before I turn 65), next year.

        2. I wonder if the annual town T-day dinner will have to be rebranded as a BLM (beer lovers matter, of course) peaceful protest with refreshments. Unless LEO shows up to enforce Kate’s edicts.

          1. Knowing your area of the state, local LEO is likely to drop in to participate in that protest, off duty naturally. Won’t happen in Eugene, or anywhere in the I-5 corridor. But SE Oregon? Hope they go for it.

            1. $SPOUSE told me it got replaced by a church-only affair (not the church we belonged to, either) when the person who organized the all-town dinner passed away. Quite a lovable scoundrel, when people weren’t fuming mad at him.

    2. I’ve been planning next year’s garden, and feeding the compost pile with all our scraps. It’s one thing I can do to try to make my hindbrain believe that yes, there will be a next year, when part of me just keeps saying let’s just get this doom thing over and done with.

      2. Burpee seeds showed up yesterday. Got the darg-green zucchini seeds and some yellow zuke variants. We have two of the three types of tomato seeds on hand already.

  20. There is ONE overwhelming Question down here in Texas – do you use typical bulls eye targets. zombies, just steel swinging or nock down or even ones that reset themselves (center chest sets head, head sets center chest). You need to practice. So, how do you decide what target to use. It matters because what you are using / what the target is either, goes together or causes problems. For training it must be effective or you are just plinking for fun. I am having a real problem thinking about this. The decision is not really clear. Other people/places don’t seem to have this problem. I have some swinging steel but they are small really for 22. I guess I will need to look at some longer range reset types for rifles. It is just so confusing picking out the correct target type.

    1. You mostly save your ammo and train your trigger by dryfire. (Or get laser ammo…) And don’t waste ammo going to 3-gun matches all year long like some idiots I know that are down to their last box or two.

      And definitely don’t lose everything in a boating accident like I did…

        1. Yep. What happened to ours. Had no idea the little aluminum boat was going to test us on the tipsy canoe test (a scouting boating test or at least it was for GSA about 55 years ago).

      2. I did notice that this fall lacked the continuous weekend boom-boom of deer rifles being sighted in down at the range (half a mile up the road)…

        1. Our area did as well, but that was in large part because two enormous fires occupied most of the local preferred hunting areas. There were more than a few disgruntled hunters getting booted out the first couple of days, and then after that they willingly left, because the fire was THAT bad.

      3. Actually, air pistols, pellet guns and rifles are good for shooting practice. Cheap, available ammo, able to be used indoors, very little noise.

        1. not really. they make minimally effective practice and you can learn lots of bad habits that don’t work well when you switch up to a gun that actually has recoil.

  21. I’m as ready as I can be in my circumstances. We out away for the pandemic and still have most of it. I’m as armed as I can be in my situation. I know who I can trust, both in the family and in life. I have more experience living in hard circumstances than everyone else in my immediate family combined. I know where I can go short- and long-term. I should be able to Land on my feet.

    One recommendation for you all. Buy a copy of _Where There is No Doctor._ It’s about the best self-help medical book out there. We had a copy overseas years ago, then it was recommended by an SF medic I worked with a few years back.

  22. So, Philadelphia is going into another lockdown starting Friday. Kenney the Loser says it’s because we need to keep people safe. No indoor dining (we were up to 50% capacity), some outdoor, no gyms, but hair salons and barber shops okay. No in-person schools. It’s a giant clusterf*&k again. We have got to get the HELL outta here! And we’re working on it.

    1. Insanely poor at basic math: reduce hours and usable space so those who do use whatever facility have to be packed in tighter. *headdesk*

        1. And conveniently the restrictions will provide a ready made excuse to not conduct any audits or recounts that a court might direct, or might even provide pretext for a court to reject conducting them entirely, because ‘public health needs”.

          Yes, I am that suspicious of everything Democrats do.

    2. Or, just maybe it’s to keep people from getting together and talking over the goat rodeo that is voting in Philadelphia?

      1. That’s my guess for the Oregon version. Started today for “two weeks”. I have a road trip planned the day after it’s supposed to expire. I’ll be packing groceries…

        I don’t believe any of the races came close, though I’m not eliminating massive fraud. Did (looks it up) 56% of the voters really approve of “medical psilocybin mushrooms, and 58% approve of decriminalizing heroin, or did we get yet another gaslight?

        Considering that the current (now lame duck) Sec of State was appointed by Despicable Kate, I’d not be surprised at any amount of treachery. Firing the elections director after he complained about security issues was a nice touch. Not.

    1. In other shenanigans, heard somewhere that the Georgia recount is not allowing observers, at least not close enough to see anything. Didn’t we just leave this party??

      1. Yes, that is the Gov and SoS at work. Though I think it is only Fulton county doing it that way.

        Also Kraken-Mage Powell just warned the states that they had better not go certifying things they don’t want to get sued over.

          1. Yeah, paid by the tax payers, and we’re pissed as hell that you’re giving us a defective service.

            YOU”RE FIRED!

  24. I hate the lamestream media, twitter, and fakebook with the heat of 10,000 suns. If they thought the previous “fake news” rhetoric was uncomfortable before, just wait til they see what’s coming now. What can we do to stop them? This censorship cannot continue. But I’m not sure what to do.

          1. Well, that is how the Marines are able to convert being caught in a flanked ambush into a pincer manuver.

            The head of the column, went, “Wait, there’s fighting behind us? Ok we’re fighting this way now.” and the tail of the column did pretty much the same thing, just the other direction, and the center of the column said “Wait, we’re being ambushed? Welp, dig in until we can push them back.”

            Object lesson 101 of why you never mess with the Marines…

            1. I can’t recall the quote, but didn’t some non-American general during WW2 have something amusing to say about WHY it was the Americans were so terrifying in battle, and it had something to do with making it up as we went along…?

              1. Would not surprise me at all. I mean, an American Admiral at Midway would have told the bombers to go with what they had, rather than having them unload everything and reload ‘appropriate’ ordinance.

              2. “The reason the American Army does so well in war is because war is chaos and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.” — attributed to a German general

                My favorite is:

                “A serious problem in planning against American doctrine is that the Americans do not read their manuals, nor do they feel any obligation to follow their doctrine.” — attributed to the Soviets

                1. Heh. We seem to be thinking along similar lines (see my 12:56 comment today in different thread.)

                  I recommend you immediately seek psychiatric help.
                  –

              3. So, basically, America’s superpower is just confusing the hell out of our enemies?

                I find I’m okay with that, actually.

          2. To quote some very wise folks: Be Like Water.

            Also: Don’t trust China – China is a–hole.

        2. I’m reminded of a famous quote about the airborne divisions…

          “After the demise of the best Airborne plan, a most terrifying effect occurs on the battlefield. This effect is known as the rule of the LGOPs (Little Groups of Paratroopers). This is, in its purest form, small groups of pissed-off 19 year old American paratroopers. They are well trained. They are armed to the teeth and lack serious adult supervision. They collectively remember the Commander’s intent as “March to the sound of the guns and kill anyone who is not dressed like you” — or something like that. Happily they go about the day’s work…”

          Most sources list the source as anonymous, though I’ve also seen it attributed to Gen. Gavin.

        3. “A serious problem in planning against American doctrine is that the Americans do not read their manuals, nor do they feel any obligation to follow their doctrine.”
          – Soviet observation during the Cold War

          1. NOpe. It was this quote I was thinking of. THIS. Yes. We don’t read the manuals, and we don’t follow “the rules” as such. We make it up as we go!

            1. I’ve two quotes sort of to that effect, both somewhat apocryphal or, at least, attributed without proof:

              “The reason Americans do so well in war, is war is chaos, and Americans practice chaos on a daily basis.”
              — General Erwin Rommel

              “The difficulty in planning against American doctrine is that Americans neither see fit to follow their doctrine nor even read their manuals.”
              — KGB Document
              –

      1. It’s hilarious. That God Emperor Trump float was created to mock Trump. And then the American Right adopted it…

        1. He was being called the God Emperor before that. There is no reason the ahhtist shouldn’t have known it would be adopted.

          It doesn’t help that the other side are doing their best impression of a combined Slannesh / Nurgle cult. With a bit of Tzeentch mixed in, but incompetently.

              1. To be sure, it must be frightening when the most powerful nation on the planet is inhabited by people you don’t understand at all.

                (I mean, the neighbors of China, Rome, all the historical big dogs, pretty much understood what they were up to and why. I don’t get the feeling that non-Americans have any idea what motivates us.)

                2. Ca you imagine the howling if America slapped them with a 20% tariff on grounds of stupidity?

                  Just another entry in the “If you really believed that you’d not dare say it” file. I somehow suspect there were no insults toward Islam nor the Chinese.
                  –

                  1. Daaayum, if we could tax stupidity, we could pay off the national debt in five years. 😛

                3. We’re the most powerful nation on Earth because we don’t do all the things they understand about those other powers. Why, it is almost as if America is (gasp) exceptional. But that cannot be, as Obama was at such great pains to repeatedly remind us for over eight years.

                  It is as if this nation was conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
                  –

            2. If I was Trump that thing would have been at every rally of the campaign. Just put some big buckets near the feet for all the cash donations. The left simply does not understand Trump’s appeal. They don’t understand that we have been served so poorly by politicians for generations that simply demonstrating a liking of America and Americans is enough for a lot of support. Trying to actually follow through on campaign promises kicks that support up several levels. Trump’s opposition made a big mistake in making the fight against him so personnel. I think Trump would have been willing to make compromise deals that would have damaged his credibility with his base much more that four years of the Russia Hoax. Especially gun control a few times in the first couple of years he seemed soft on gun control.

              1. THIS.
                Which incidentally is why I was much happier with Trump than I expected to be. He is/was way to liberal for my tastes. But typically the Liberals attacked and rather than knuckling under to them like so many spineless Republicans do, he stood up to them. And because he stood up to them, the Right’s base had his back, and if the Liberals drove him to the right, or he simply stepped right and stood with those who supported him is immaterial. He supported those who supported him gave Liberals a big raspberry (or finger, depending on how polite you’re being; I think we all know how polite and politically correct Trump is). This is the secret to his popularity.

        2. The one in Italy?

          I sent a message to the White House account, recommending DJT purchase the float before it was destroyed and warehouse it until it could be installed in the atrium of the Trump Presidential Library.

          I knew it would be extremely unlikely, but it would have been awesome…

          Well, the Secret Service probably was wondering why they hadn’t had anything new for my file lately…

          1. I’m always faintly astonished at the levels of power, etc the left ascribes to Trump. I mean…I think there might be just a handful of slavish devotees on the right (maybe), but most of us it’s “Yeah, I voted for him and he seems to be doing a better job than most, but he’s not the God-Emperor” while the left is screeching about such things and how much POWER he has. It’s…both amusing and disturbing…

            1. Because that is how they promote their own ‘leaders’. Look at their blind fanatical worship of 0bama, and Queen Hillary, even though the one is an empty suit, and the other is a sociopathic narcissist. Hell, they’re worshiping ‘What state is this, and what am I running for?’ China Joe, and they’ll worship Kamala Harris, with those creepy empty possessed-by-Cthulhu eyes.

              I take that back. Cthulhu would have better sense. Possessed by Dagon, maybe?

              They can see in others only twisted reflections of themselves, because any trace of self-awareness or individuality has been indoctrinated out of them.
              ———————————
              Nobody has so little that some asshole doesn’t want to take it.

              1. Are there any candid non-MSM shots of Kamala close up enough that we can check for luminous worms?

            2. He is living rent free in their heads: he MUST be almost all-powerful.

              Other points:
              1 – As they imagine the power of the presidency nearly omnipotent, it stands to reason the only thing preventing “their” presidents from immanentizing the eschaton is lack of will.

              2 – their perception of Republican presidents as would-be Hitlers justifies their hysteria.

              3 – facing down an unbeatable foe enhances their already inflated feelings of significance. One essential element of paranoia is narcissism: the worst blow to their egos would be evidence that they just don’t much matter. They cannot abide the idea that they could march past the White House in the millions wearing nothing but their knitted hats and six-inch heels and the only reaction of most Americans would be, “What a bunch of stupid twats.”
              –

              1. And, they are so OFFENDED by our very existence, they imagine we must be even more offended by theirs. When, for the most part, we just want them to bugger off and stop screeching at us.

                “We get it, you’re different. Go be different. Just don’t shove it in my face.”
                ———————————
                It takes a LOT of education to make somebody that stupid.

  26. Hmmmmm … it is if it is registering that while they’ve been voting for gold mines all they’ve gotten is the shaft.

    BET Founder Issues a Warning to Black Voters about Voting for the Democratic Party
    BET founder Robert Johnson doled out some election advice after the 2020 race. Well, we still have ballots to count and legal challenges to play out, but he was quite adamant about one thing. If you’re black and thinking about voting for a Democrat in an election…don’t. Johnson was on CNBC last week …

    “I think Black Americans are getting a little bit tired of delivering huge votes for the Democrats, and seeing minimal return in terms of economic wealth and closing the wealth gap, the job creation and job opportunities,” Johnson, the millionaire entertainment magnate and philanthropist, told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble via video call.

    “And Joe Biden was not an inspiring candidate for many Black Americans. And some of them stay at home. Some of them voted for Trump.”

    [SNIP]

    “Black people do not embrace Biden as he never articulated a policy that went directly to the concerns of Black Americans,” the businessman said. “I don’t think Biden has that leadership quotient that’s going to allow him to do what is critical to bring the economy back, due to the trade-off between restoring the economy and fighting the pandemic.”

    …
    –

    1. Biden won’t even try. They’ll get more rhetoric about “compassion,” and “caring,” plus the shaft.

      1. Hell, given his history in pushing bills that actually deliberately HURT black people (not to mention Kamala’s record), they’ll be lucky if they get even the rhetoric…

  27. Curiouser and curiouser …

    –

  28. Pingback: The Deep Breath — According To Hoyt | The zombie apocalypse survival homestead

  29. Another indication a lot of Covid theater is class-based: I headed today to a yarn shop in Nashville in an upper-middle class neighborhood. It had been a pleasant place to shop with a good selection of yarns. Today I was greeted by signs explaining, “no masks, no social distancing, no politeness, no service,” and “We welcome people of all races, all religions, all countries of origin, all sexual orientations, all genders. We stand with YOU. You are SAFE here.”

    I had meant to buy something there, but I couldn’t do it. The owner doesn’t seem to realize people knit as a respite from politics.

    There’s a Trader Joe’s near the yarn shop. Their windows were full of signs with slogans like, “My mask protects you. Your mask protects me,” and they had a mask enforcer outside the store. I told him, “You know this us nonsense,” as I passed inside. ( For the record, I didn’t buy anything there either. How does that store stay open?)

    But it occurred to me that the most childish, simplistic slogans can be found in upper-middle class areas. Over-sheltered people? Compulsive virtue-signalling?

    2. Trader Joes in Medford (OR) was doing that in late August. There’s a lot less pushback on mask theater on the West side, but then they always have a higher case count (or any definition of “case”) because of I-5 and population density. Still, lots of sheep behavior. Mask enforcement is a bit more casual around here, and the health Stasi are despised.

      There’s one restaurant that won’t let people open the doors–you have to go up to them and they’ll open the doors. They were my favorite breakfast place if I had to be in town at that hour; lunches we not a great fit, but I refuse to go there until they knock off the theater. They might survive.

      The Chinese/Japanese/American buffet closed at the start of the lockdowns and never reopened. Place is now for sale. The better Chinese place never opened the dining room; in retrospect a wise move. It’s like he never trusted Kate. Hmm.

    3. Yeah, the yarn shop in Laramie tried to force me to wear a mask last time I was there (and granted, Laramie is THE hotbed of lefties in Wyoming, other than maybe Jackson Hole). I’m not sure they’re going to get my business again…

      POsting a sign requesting it is one thing. I might or might not do it. But telling me I can’t be there unless I comply? Well I guess you don’t need my money, in that case, and I’ll order my yarn online.

      1. And it’s deeply dumb, because pretty much all the mask statutes say, “This doesn’t count if you’ve got health problems, mental or physical or developmental. This doesn’t count if you’re a little kid. Nobody can keep you out. Nobody can demand to know your health problems.” And a lot of older folks are knitters, and a lot of older folks have health problems.

        Amusingly, our local paper printed its story about the new mask law with the exceptions to the rule in the very first sidebar paragraph.

        Not so amusingly, we now have both state mask police and every store supposed to have a “Compliance Officer” appointed for every shift. And if there is one “justified” complaint, the store gets fined, and if there’s two, the store gets closed. But also, the store personnel who aren’t Compliance Officers are not allowed to say a darned thing to anyone about anything.

        At this point, I’m just like, “Whatever.” And I keep telling the under-ten kids that they don’t legally have to wear masks in public if they don’t want to, if the kids look in any way distressed.

        1. Oh, and we’ve got a curfew so stores can’t be open after ten PM! And of course people are grabbing the toilet paper and staples, because DeWine has given nobody any confidence in anything being open for the foreseeable future, even though he keeps saying he’s being super-lenient. Nobody believes this junk, and a lot of people are getting even more sarcastic.

          2. At some point last year, I bought the do-you-run-a-cheap-hotel sized pack of toilet paper. It was too big to fit in the cart, although just barely– it sat across the top of the car for checkout.

            Back in July, I noticed we were running out I could see the back of the bathroom closet… and I can’t go to Walmart or Costco, because they are going the idiot route for masking in our area. (No mask, go use the website.)
            Anyways, I ordered the box of Scotts For Businesses TP off of Amazon, 80 rolls. Laughing at myself, but oh well we have a HUGE area for storage anyways. $40, eh, that’s not far off of what I paid in-store. (turns out to be much better quality than the “safe for septic tanks!” Scotts we previously used, and fits the rollers better, too. Win!)

            Anyways.

            The one I ordered– under “industrial and scientific”– has jumped to $55, from $40.
            The one under “household goods” is now $80.

            Which may explain the friend that was complaining about being unable to find Amazon cards for Christmas gifts.

        3. The trend here is that businesses won’t let you in the store if maskless, but they’ll do some kind of curside service. It’s not universal, and I suspect portions of the area will be surprisingly noncompliant, but I’m seeing more of those signs. The bias tends to be places that cater to an older clientele. Sigh, I’m older and hate the damned masks.

          OTOH, there are people who get in the store with a mask, then carefully (or “carelessly” get the mask off or out of the way). Irish democracy in action.

            1. I spotted a woman at a market last month who was wearing a diaphanous, sequined belly-dancer’s veil over her nose and mouth. I gave her a big thumbs-up.

      2. My wife just ordered her years worth of yarn off the big Knit Picks sale online. I suspect they are leftists, I know the knitting site Ravelry that she used to be on all the time went so hard left that she isn’t on there much any more.

  30. We’re pretty good on our food storage and medical supplies. My worry is that I’m going to spend the month of December with my sister in Arizona; I’m hoping things will stay peaceful.

  31. Read “Divided We Fall”, with story by our gracious host/madwoman.

    Several fade into the woodwork ideas contained therein.

      1. Much apologies. I mean to type “mad woman”.

        Mad as in angry.

        (Yes, I think I pulled that one off…)

      4. Is there something wrong with that?

        You’re not working as a volunteer Mask Enforcer and you don’t seem very welcoming to your wannabee Socialist overlords, it’s quite obvious you’re mad.

        Recruiter: Everyone wants a free education. It’s our incentive to enlist. Now, pick three from this pamphlet.

        Ed Gruberman: “Introduction to International Politics”? “Computers 101”? “Antique Restoration”?

        Recruiter: Yes, that qualifies you to work on our helicopters.

        Ed Gruberman: Look! Don’t you have any courses with guns?

        Recruiter: Well, yes. Last page.

        Ed Gruberman: “Intro to Ammo”? “Advanced Wounding”? “Creative Bazookas”?! Ooh, ooh! I’ll take all these!

        Recruiter: Fine. Uh, any mental diseases or physical deformities?

        Ed Gruberman: Okay, I’ll take paranoia, three nipples, and uh–

        Recruiter: No no no no. I mean–

        – The Frantics, “Army Careers”

        1. I recently introduced a friend to “Boot to the Head”, so she could understand why I laughed after saying “patience, yeah, yeah, how long’s that take?” She found it utterly hilarious.

          Although I listened, and realized, I never noticed the line “people voting Republican – boot to the head!” in there when I was younger. Now, I’m shaking my head and going “How far back has this cultural rot been there?”

          1. Hell, I’ve got Barbara Michaels novels from the late 60s/early 70s that have requisite snide remarks about Republicans. (And I love most of her stuff, and I still read it. But it’s THERE. It’s treated as “of course all right thinking people feel this way about republicans.”)

            Hell, I found it in a Dorothy Gilman novel (not one of the Mrs. Pollifax ones) from the 60s.

  32. We get through this with the right result. Or we don’t.
    All depends on having enough people with spines in the right positions as the legalities play out. Either way, the Dems have succeeded in casting a cloud over whoever wins. Best outcome we can hope for now is for Trump to become the REAL President Elect, and then he’ll be subjected to another four years of being illegitimate.
    I would really like to see people start getting frog-marched to jail for this, Russia-Gate, and the rest of the treachery that’s occured – Trump might fire the right people to get it done. We shall see…

  33. I’m just spitballing here, just talking offa the top of my head, but …

    If Trump ends up pulling this election out of the dumpster before it’s all burnt up and returns for four more years …

    Wouldn’t that make the “president-elect” and his transitioneers guilty of violating the Logan Act? Oh, probably not all of them, but enough. As we have learned since the end of the Obama presidency, violating the Logan Act is about the worstest thing an incoming administration can do, so ain’t it worser for a group of hacks to proclaim themselves an incoming administration without ever waiting for the Electoral College to meet, much less the states to certify the voting?

    Sounds like conspiracy to commit fraud, when it’s put that way, don’t it?
    –

    2. It’s a violation of the Logan Act regardless of whether he WILL take office.

      However, there’s a reason it’s never been used: it probably won’t stand.

      1. Whether it would stand is not the issue. Biden endorsed its use against Michael Flynn and therefore it would be hypocritical for him to deny it applies to him and his team.
        –

  34. Pingback: My observations as well | Dio's Workshop

  35. Good, GOOD post!! There are always ways to prepare for unpleasantness. I’ve followed you for a good long while but recently facistbook booted me totally from their playground around the start of big game season. Glad to see you and the others holding the line. Stay well. (Bud Abl3man)

  36. My favorite was the guy on FB yesterday saying we needed “committees of correspondence.” A) we’re not cosplaying the American revolution. B) why?

    1. To establish secure and redundant communication channels that can route around Big Tech and Big Government (including all attempts to keep us from even maintain blogs on colo services we pay for…see the intimidation of Trump lawyers for the expected attack vector).

    2. To coordinate actions.

      1. How much longer before they insist that phone calls must be monitored “in order to prevent the spread of misinformation”?

  37. Remember: When you do take a deep breath, let it out then take another.

    You’ll want to do that several times before reading this:

    ‘Three Wrong Counts In Three Minutes’: Georgia Recount Auditor Says Things Aren’t Adding Up
    A Republican National Committee monitor in the Georgia recount efforts came forward claiming he witnessed a counted wrongly calling out votes. According to the monitor, the counter called votes that should have gone to President Donald Trump and claimed they were for former Vice President Joe Biden.

    “So, second person was supposed to be checking it, right. So, three times in three minutes she called out Biden. The second auditor caught it and she said, ‘No. This is Trump.’ Now, that’s just while I’m standing there,” Hale Soucie, the monitor explained. “So, does the second checker catch it every time? But this lady, three times in three minutes, from 2:09 to 2:12, she got three wrong.”

    Soucie said he left the original table he was where they were recounting ballots for Cobb County. He claimed he left the table because the second person wasn’t looking at the vote but was automatically assuming that the first counter was correct.

    According to the insider, table 17, where they were counting votes for Cobb County, was where the woman called the wrong votes. Table 18, which was also counting votes for Cobb County, is where Soucie said he witnessed the second person not looking at the ballots.

    “So, I go and report it. They say, ‘Oh, we’ll talk to the [Cobb County] election officials.’ They talk to her. And so I come back by again in a few minutes and she’s not doing it after I’ve talked to her,” he explained.

    The RNC monitor stated that after he left the table, election officials kept a close eye on him and pointed him out despite him simply observing the process.

    “I haven’t done anything wrong. All I’m doing is writing down and observing to tell what happened,” he explained.

    Soucie said he made another slow lap around the room and reapproached the woman. He allegedly heard her say, “‘I’m paid by the taxpayer and this f**king a**hole is coming out and watching me.'”
    –

    1. Yeah, this is gonna work really well …

      Video: California Liberals Mock Georgia Voters as They Hope to Influence Runoff Elections
      Activists from California and other blue states are preparing to descend on Georgia as national Democrats wage a full-fledged effort to unseat incumbent GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in their runoff elections that will occur in January. Some activists even went as far as to pledge to relocate to, and vote in, Georgia for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in the pair of runoffs, despite clear legal boundaries.

      The San Francisco Chronicle published a detailed piece yesterday revealing the efforts by California Democrats to have a say in Georgia’s runoff elections:

      California Democrats are peppering political organizers with questions about how to travel to Georgia to volunteer for Democrat Jon Ossoff in his race against Republican Sen. David Perdue and for the Rev. Raphael Warnock in his contest against GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler. Both seats went to a Jan. 5 runoff when no candidate won a majority in this month’s elections.

      Even more, a reporter for the Washington Post shared a viral video on Tuesday of an out-of-state activist grossly mocking Georgia voters, as Sens. Perdue and Loeffler both highlighted:
      –

        1. It’s not only a felony to move to Georgia for the purpose of voting in an election, it is also a felony to vote in the Senate runoff if one has already voted for the Senate in a different state.

          The people organizing this and publicly encouraging it are themselves committing a felony by actively seeking to get people to commit a felony, and themselves should be charged and arrested for doing so. This includes people like Andrew Yang and Tom Friedman, both of whom openly called for people to move to Georgia by the registration deadline to vote for the Democrats in order to “give Biden a majority”. This is an explicit call for people to commit a felony. Punishment for doing so is a must.

          Likewise Twitter and Facebook are not censoring these tweets that openly call for commission of multiple felonies. By making the editorial decision to allow open calls to commit criminal acts, they are doing what Obama seized Backpage for; aiding and abetting in the use of their “platform” for the conduct of criminal activity.

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