Things Got Insane

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

I don’t even mean in the country, just here. I’m just now sitting down and trying to write.
I just wanted you guys to know I’m okay.

Because I think it’s important to let you know that.

247 thoughts on “Things Got Insane”

    1. More along the lines of got in a screaming argument with mom who is convinced we’ll all die of covid, because Europe, and 86. BUT seriously. “We’re losing 156 people a month.” Me “yeah, and?”
      Then snow, and had to shop. Then….. just stuff like that.

      2. And Portugal should have a normal mortality rate of ~8,000 per month. 156 is statistical noise.

          1. Most people seem completely lacking in historical perspective. Which makes the fear-mongers’ jobs easier.

          2. If they required that the class would quickly become Woke Statistics and worse than useless.

            A better idea is to get a hot nekkid chick to do a series of YouTube videos explaining the basics of statistics. Complement that with some hunky guy(s) doing much the same material. Maybe make some catchy songs – if they can explain the process of crafting legislation in song they ought be able to teach the stats.

            It isn’t as if Statistics are harder to grasp than Physics.
            ~

            1. That’s the trouble with any “There ought to be X requirement to vote”: The requirement is then subject to regulatory capture and shenanigans. Worse, it’s a problem that can corrupt even necessary and proper anti-vote-fraud measures. One has to accept trade-offs and then exercise constant vigilance to make them the best trade-offs practical. That means “X requirement to vote” has to be limited to some very basic things: You must be an actual person to vote. You must not have voted previously in this election. Probably a few other things – but even an in-person, purple-finger system without any other controls would still have cut out a LOT of fraud.

            2. Then it would not be Statistics 101. Hence, my speaking of what should happen, not what there is any chance of happening.

          4. I still want to see somebody make a cartoon of an EEG machine next to the polls, and a big sign:

            YOU MUST HAVE THIS MUCH BRAIN ACTIVITY TO VOTE

      3. “got in a screaming argument with mom”

        Ugh I got into a text spat with a long time friend over Trump’s “coup attempt” on the 6th.

          1. Got a call from Ma & friend… who both watched TV the other day and been mired in Das Narrtif (über Alles!). It’s sad… they have no idea that they’re dead right about the country being in trouble, but have the polarity backward.

            2. I got surprised giggles and weak chuckles when I told someone (going on about “The Riot”) that it was the least competent riot I’d seen. I mean, no burning, no real looting, no serious damage, no spray paint . . . What the heck kind of riot was that? A few thoughtful looks followed, then topic change. (Which is what I was aiming for.)

              1. I’ve seen several articles claiming that there was spray paint all over the statues, massive vandalism and looting, and get this: poop smeared all over floors and walls. That the protesters aren’t just your typical rioters, but are filthy and disgusting in their personal habits as well.

              2. “What the heck kind of riot was that?”

                Amateur. Even with professional provocateurs directing traffic. That’s why they had to send in the professionals to mess things up for the news crews.
                ~

          2. Europe is getting full scale propaganda and those that I talk to (not any more) really believe that Trump is a dictator and was trying for a coup.

            1. Trump has money, power, and a huge number of loyal followers.
              If he had wanted to stage a coup a small but critical number of his enemies would simply have disappeared in the week following the election.
              The left, bless their hearts, somehow are incapable of hiding their true intentions. Currently they are floating all sorts of ideas to cancel their opposition, from two separate attempts to remove Trump from office, to destroying both his and his supporters means of communications.
              And since the left apparently simply cannot refrain from doubling down on stupid, things are only going to get worse. Expect some form or fashion of “reeducation” camps and Gulags by the end of the year. All in the name of freedom, Democracy, and some “necessary” minor and of course “temporary” infringements on all our civil rights.

              2. Don’t forget Pelosi’s attempt to stage a military coup by calling the Pentagon to lock out the Commander in Chief. Not even a conspiracy theory and not even authorized by the Constitution. At least impeachment and the 25th A are actual remedies put forward by the founders, even if they can be used stupidly.

            2. Europe and Asia. I read Yahoo news, Japanese language (with dictionary & google translate, etc.) a bout 3 months or so ago and the article noted, in Japanese, President Trump feared losing and being a private citizen because he would then, surely, be arrested and tried for his crimes.

              2. The Japanese cops can and will enter your home any time they wish.
                Without need of a warrant. Somethings we obviously missed when setting up their new government way back in 1945-46.
                Trump has a marching army of high priced lawyers to drag out legal attacks, so I am less worried about that aspect than I am of the new administration somehow justifying removing him and his family from Secret Service protections. And then whatever private security he puts in place would be sidelined for some bogus reason to leave them vulnerable. Shortly thereafter expect some random attacker to harm or kill Trump and possibly some or all of the rest of the family. Someone with absolutely no ties to our then current administration or anyone associated with the Democrats of course.
                Make no mistake, the only thing they fear worse than Donald Trump sniping at them (figuratively of course) from the sidelines is this whole concept that we common folk have any right to keep and bear arms for our defense.

                1. Yes, I’m afraid that scenario is highly likely. However I suspect and hope he has, and has had, his own security people in place and trusts them more than the secret service.

              3. The Wall Street Journal has (probably behind a paywall, but Google will sometimes slide around that) an article about NY prosecutors engaging in a Trumphunt:

                Manhattan Prosecutors Seek Records About Trump’s Seven Springs Estate
                District attorney’s office sends subpoenas to officials in Westchester, N.Y., marking expansion of criminal probe
                Manhattan prosecutors have subpoenaed records relating to President Trump’s sprawling Seven Springs estate north of New York City, according to people familiar with the matter, expanding the known scope of the only publicly disclosed criminal investigation into the president and his business.

                Some of the information requested by Manhattan prosecutors relates to the president’s valuation of Seven Springs, which he bought for $7.5 million in 1995 and in 2012 said was worth almost $300 million as he tried to develop it into a luxury residential community. Inflating assets to help secure loans or other financial benefits can be a state criminal offense, legal experts said.

                Prosecutors from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. in recent weeks have sent subpoenas to local officials in the three Westchester County towns—New Castle, North Castle and Bedford—in which the Seven Springs estate sits, the people said. The people said the subpoenas request tax assessments, email correspondence, planning-board materials and other documents about the 213-acre property, with a mansion built in 1919 for former Federal Reserve chairman Eugene Meyer.

                The probe is among several legal threats Mr. Trump could face when he leaves office on Wednesday. Though some legal experts say it is possible that Mr. Trump could pardon himself for federal crimes, that power doesn’t extend to state charges brought by a district attorney.

                Mr. Vance’s office has said in court filings seeking Mr. Trump’s tax records that it is investigating possible bank, tax and insurance fraud. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Mr. Vance is entitled to obtain the records, though the president’s lawyers have blocked their release so far with a second appeal to the high court on different grounds.
                [END EXCERPT]
                ~

          3. I learned that some arguments are not worth the effort. With my Mum’s dementia there came a point when I realized that even if I won the argument today, tomorrow we would have it to do all over again. She wasn’t being allowed to vote, so it just didn’t matter.

            Your mother thinks we’re all going to die of the Wuflu? What, she thought we’d live forever otherwise? At 86 she ought be aware that death is not the worst that could happen and should, instead, focus on the next world* rather than clinging to this one.

            Keep your focus o things that matter and don’t argue about things that don’t. So say you convinced your mother – so what? What would that achieve?

            *Assuming she leans that way.
            ~

              1. As well she should be. You may consider yourself one still small voice in the wilderness, but those are precisely the sorts that the left is going to be looking to silence.
                On the one hand, I am encouraged by the huge spike in commenters the last few days, but by the same token I am convinced that a certain number are not our friends. Too many new names and too many possibly purposeful leading questions.

                1. Hello fellow drumphnazi! Don’t you agree that we should start blowing up schools?

                  (for the humor impaired / monitors: that there is what-cha-call a “joke”. Mocking you specifically.)

                  1. Well, akshully…

                    Bombs aren’t a good weapon for the schools. Not sure what is, but it seems like any bomb use should be narrowly targeted.

                    Ideal case would be tech executive alone in their car in the middle of nowhere. But a tech executive in a self driving car could potentially just be hacked to pull over, and then shot.

          4. Bruce Bawer’s writes vividly about how the average You’re-a-peon is insulated from reality as much as possible from the media, chattering classes and “intellectual elite”. It doesn’t always work of course but from all I’ve heard it’s pretty bad. Personal caveat: never been there myself.

  3. Pack up the cats, rent a storage space in Abilene for your stuff – come to Texas. Things are getting just to weird.
    Anyone have a work-around to deleting pages on Book of Feces? I don’t want to ditch my main FB page, but I want to delete some of the other individual pages that I set up for various books. I want to send a message to Mark-the-Zuckerface.

    1. We have a mountain home, west and north of Denver. Have always thought it would be a great retreat. Texas is looking better, but I’m holding onto hope. Every day.

    2. If you can’t delete them outright, can you change their content to inspirational quotes and cat pictures?

            1. linked with the one missing the initial. it is the newer one 2018. which I think you don’t post with. will go to the other one.
              hmm. did I do the same?

                1. WPDE or something crashed my pc. I then decided to install the old hard drive from the old machine so I could find what files I had there.
                  Weirdly, I was mad because I did not send the reply you replied to . . .um.
                  Anyhow. found certain AR files and will now go sort out MeWe.

                3. I am but an egg with MeWe. Sent a join request through MeWe for Sarah’s Diner. Hope it doesn’t blow up. (It’s been one of those weeks.)

              1. Um, is Parler going to be live much longer? Looks like the long knives are out for it already.

                1. Well, that answers that question. They’re off the air tomorrow.

                  If they get the same crap that Gab did, they’ll need a handful of hosting companies before one has the courage to stay with it, and then an upstream support company. And *then* the financial crap starts.

                  Or, one could join Gab. (Hey, the Nazis and white supremists are covered by so much traffic from real people, it’s not an issue. At least for my lurking.)

                  1. On the seventh they were up and down like they didn’t have enough computer power to handle the new amount of people. But yea, parler looks like it is going to be “called” rasssissst and other derogatory names

                    1. Gab has been spotty lately, largely because they’re getting 60 to 100K new users each day, and they’re adding servers as fast as they can. With Parler going toes up, (at least temporarily, but I think it’s going to take a lot longer than a week for them to get stable hosting and financials), they expect a bunch more people. They own the servers and went through the deplatforming hell earlier on. I think “antifragile” is the word they use for their situation. (Unless the 1st amendment is cancelled. In which case, noncombatants leave the room, please.)

                      And then there are some security issues with Parler. Ron Watkins (Codemonkey) doesn’t have an an account on Parler, but TPTB refuse to do anything about his imposter. He’s been ticked off about it for weeks. I gather it’s not too hard to spoof a “verified” account.

            1. thinking back I joined the twits to offer support to a long time online friend
              She is doing far better now, so I feel fine leaving her and know a search of Twitch or Etsy is all that is needed to get back in contact.

            2. Me neither. Kinda regretting that now as I’d like to join those who are dumping them. But it would only encourage them if I signed up so I could then cancel my account.

    4. The view from where I sit in LA County is that Governor Abbot is doing his level best to import every last citizen in California…

    5. We have room here for you and Dan. Younger son too if he’s willing to sleep on a couch. Plano has been quiet. Small town somewhere in Texas would be quieter, but I’m selfish. I want you near me and Steve.

  4. Thanks Sarah. Periodic check-ins are definitely an important to-do item during the crazy years.

    1. And then the most trivial things arouse fear. . . .

      I was able to get a new computer yesterday — last one in the shop — because my old computer though not dead was too screwy to be relied on.

      1. I figured things were going sideways when the DVD remote batteries were corroded. 2011 expiration. Hmm. (As were the dedicated TV remote’s and the legacy VCR player. The bad thing about lists–if they aren’t on it, they won’t see attention. Sigh.)

        Swapped batteries, but the player will open the drawer, then immediately closes it. The manual says that’s not supposed to happen, but the player is about 20 years old. (Same era when capacitors were going south after several years.) I guess it has a right to crap out. OTOH, replacements are cheap!

        So much for Midsomer Murders tonight. (Seasons 1-4 in the box. John Nettles FTW!)

        1. I restored one monitor (still in light service) with capacitor replacement. I admit, it took some serious concentration and a really light & steady hoof. Another.. well… junk is sometimes junk.

          1. I did that for a Princeton monitor with a kit from (looks it up) lcdalternatives. The power supply section went toes up with the capacitor plague. I replaced several bulged out caps, and the monitor worked for another year or two until the colors went wonky. At that time, the budget was in better shape, so a replacement Dell monitor came in.

            Since the old DVD changer didn’t work with Blu-Ray, I figured we could get that capability while we were at it. I have too many other projects to want to mess with the old player, so I’ll pass. The county might still take electronics for “recycling”, though cardboard and glass are all that’s left of the other programs.

            And I have a couple of old (either failed or just too feeble to be useful) computers to decommission. The feeble one has a decent power supply, so I’ll see if it supports a different motherboard.

            1. I had a big Acer monitor fail a couple of weeks ago. It was only four years old. I found a video on how to disassemble a similar monitor – most of it snaps together – and yes, one cap had leaked electrolyitic goo and several others were bulged. I ordered some of each size, a solder sucker, and some braid… my electronic skills are about on the level of “let the chimpanzee rebuild your automatic transmission”, but hey, it’s not worth mailing off somewhere to have it fixed.

              1. Yeah, as long as the caps use through-hole leads, they’re fairly simple to replace. I had a Mac Classic II that died, but the massively leaking ‘lytics were all surface mount, and while it’s theoretically possible to replace such, that’s not the way to bet.

                That was the last Apple product I bought until I needed a smartphone for the travel trailer (sigh), and the alternatives were Apple or Google/Android. Very evil vs off the charts evil company.

            2. Locally Good Will takes all electronics. I think they partner with Bring locally, which recycles components.

        2. In the Aughts certain computers had an issue with their power supplies due to capacitors swelling. Supposedly an employee (of a supplier of a supplier of power supplies) had moved employers (and from one island to another) bringing capacitor design with him; but didn’t get it right. Recalls resulted.

      2. i’m doing fine so far with buying refurbished corporate computers. $342 for i5 16Gb 1Tb but lousy graphics.. ditched wow for crawl.

        1. My home computers are both refurbed Dell Optiplexes. Not quite identical, but when the power supply went out on the office machine, I a) ordered a replacement supply from Dell (via Amazon) and b) put the hard drive into the shop computer, did some renaming and was back in business. The shop computer doesn’t have internet access, so I have to bring it in the house to get updates from time to time.

          8 Gb memory, 1 or 2 Tb drives, and “good enough” graphics. I don’t game, and resolution is OK. Both machines were under $300, and the power supply module cost about $50.

  7. Sanity … the new abnormal. Sigh …
    Stay sane Sarah. The world needs you. We need you.

    1. Filled the gas tank on the 5th. Plan to do that (no matter how high the needle) on the 19th, too.

      Backups also filled. Might even check on the bicycle – despite the season.

      No, I do NOT trust a damned thing outside my direct control any more.

    2. I’ve always respected Alex but the comment section for this link seems to appeal to mostly middle schoolers. I know, “DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!”

        1. The next purge by the tech oligarchs will be of everyone who questions the left’s insane global climate emergency narrative; anyone who disputes that the Earth will burn to a cinder unless “immediate”, i.e., totalitarian, action is taken will be banned from social media and will be subject to Operation Chokepoint style cutoff to financial services.

            1. The 48 hour rule needs to be updated to the 8,766 hour rule? (that’s 365.25 days)

              😛

            5. ESR had an interesting post on the lizard people conspiracy several months back:

              That was the moment at which I realized that, barring one unimportant detail, lizard-people theory is actually true.

              The unimportant detail is the part about the lizard people being actual extraterrestrials. But let’s look at the rest of it. The believer says: Our elites behave as though they are heavily infiltrated by beings hostile to the interests of ordinary humans. They hide behind a mask of humanity but they have alien minds. They are predators and exploiters, cunning at hiding their nature – but sometimes the mask slips.

              –The reality of the lizard people

            1. It’s the difference between a political opponent and an enemy. Greenwald still wants to be a political opponent of the Right. Most of the Left have declared themselves to be enemies.

              2. An opponent will engage you fairly, employing the politics of good faith; most of the Left engages with bad faith, denouncing counter-arguments as “evil,” “racist,” sexist,” etc. – calling you a Nazi while they employ the Nazis’ tactics.

                Both sides are inclined to use such ploys, as those of us who recall the Sixties must acknowledge, but one side now seems to know ONLY such tactics and has become incapable of operating under an assumption that those with whom they disagree may simply be wrong – and might conceivably even be right.
                ~

        4. Ha’Shem.

          I just had a revelation (not that kind). Everyone’s ethos (politcal, etc) is typically running on a x axis, say. Some form of Left/Right. Then there’s Ian ( 😉 ) who runs on the z axis.

          And then there’s me, who is more of a celtic knot. In multiple axes. Or at least I would like to think so. 😉

        5. In all of history we’ve never had this kind of ability to communicate… yet we have little trustworthy news to pass along. Just the shrieking and posturing of the swamp things and the patter from Minitru.

        1. Don’t have to do it all at once. Every week (or two weeks) just buy that one extra day’s worth.

          We probably have several weeks yet. From what I am seeing, they are still arguing over just where to draw the line for the purges. Closer to Stalin, or closer to Mao? With some pushing quite vociferously for Pol Pot.

        2. It’s been a weird couple of days. (Ordered something for Mom and forgot to redirect the delivery, so it came here. 2000 miles away. The ‘zon won’t/can’t take it back, so I have to ship it to her. Other bits and pieces of oddness.)

          Can I do the lumberjack song?

          1. Ima miss shopping on ‘zon. Gotta represent. I wouldn’t do Parler bc they insisted on phone #; Now Amazon has shut them down.

        1. The song that comes to mind for me as to the Communazis who are now openly destroying freedom is Hell Awaits (by Slayer).

        1. It needs a few lyric changes but …

          I believe, I do, I believe it’s true
          I believe exactly what they tell me to
          I believe, I do, I believe it’s true
          I’m a simple guy, I believe

          The politician told me just the other day
          That he really didn’t want the job at all
          But he would make this sacrifice for me
          If I would only place my trust in him

          And I believe, I do, I believe it’s true
          I believe exactly what they tell me to
          I believe, I do, I believe it’s true
          I’m a simple guy, I believe

          And the labor leader told his membership
          That his limousine was no extravagance at all
          His cocktail parties at Miami Beach
          Merely helped him roll the union on
          ~

  17. You’re not the only person who didn’t exactly have a productive day. It’s late evening out here, and I still haven’t really gotten started working. At least part of the problem was being on the road yesterday, leaving me with a lot of catching up to do today, but I’m still having a lot of problems with attention and focus. Having to work in an environment of intense uncertainty is not helpful for my productivity.

  18. Been screaming “There are FOUR lights!” a lot lately.

    In my head mostly, but still, this can’t be good for my BP and circadian rhythms.

    Good to know you are keeping keeping on.

  19. Fwiw, it was actually a good day today for me. Got home briefly to drop off the RV from a short stay in a nice Park. Then off to the auction, where we scored a small greenhouse, eleventy billion tomato cages, a watering barrel, which had a stash of chicken feeders and waterers and plastic egg trays. Also got some 8′ galvanized fence posts cheap, and some tools.

  22. We spent the day at Cabela’s looking for stuff to finish off the bug-out bags and looked at guns. But the selection is sparse. We’ll keep working on that. Then we went to a brewery that we heard about that’s ignoring Gov’s 50% capacity rules…they had live music and the place was normal looking and no stand here stickers or roped of seats or anything. It was so much fun. I’d totally forgotten what it was like.

    1. not wanting to get into the NICS is keeping me from getting something nice and small.
      and miss out on the cheap .308 Win model 100
      as an aside I see .308 is now over $1 a round at ammoseek.
      sigh

      1. A friend who is a state legislator (from the middle of the state, colloquially known as Pennsyltucky) posted an article from the local paper about it. The paper was mildly horrified, be we were delighted and immediately made plans to visit them. Well worth it.

  24. Take care everyone. The last time we had something this bad happen in my lifetime it was the election of Nixon. I wound up living in Switzerland for 8 1/2 years, but not all was lost, I wound up with a masters degree. I’m not even thinking of leaving now, and since we’re in a suburb of Houston, not really fearing total lunacy, yet. We’re taking D3 and zinc daily (ZMA), with a stock of HCQ if necessary. Weapons are covered, and reloading takes care of ammo requirements. Dry fire practice keeps the skills current. At the same time we’re volunteering as it gives us an insight to what’s cooking so to speak. The rest of the country will wake up, even the woke folks after idiocy rules/ruins what they’ve got.

    1. Er…. NIXON? REALLY? NIXON?
      After the spying on Trump and the total roll over of our “secret services” on behalf of Obama?
      The Dems should so on their knees to Nixon’s grave and beg forgiveness.

      1. You are missing the critical distinction: Nixon was Republican and doing it to enhance his political power. Democrats (from FDR on) do it to protect the nation.
        ~

          1. It is admittedly mostly visible in retrospect — after all, the winners write the History books wherein all is explained away.
            ~

          2. >> “er…. It could be I have trouble with serious divorce from reality”

            …Says the lady addressing a talking wallaby.

            1. Yeah, but I’ve met him. He’s nice. And he and his Beloved Spouse are both stunningly handsome. Of course, I met him in his human form. In THIS form, he’s not a talking wallaby. He’s a TYPING wallaby. (Accuracy matters.)

    2. What you think you know about Nixon came from the same people who are telling us all about DJT.

  25. Stand strong Sarah. You are very important and if you go down a lot of us will feel like going down also.

  27. So Amazon is throwing Parler off its servers tomorrow. So evil. I can picture the phone calls for the Thief-in-Chiefs minions, coordinating the Big Tech cancelation of freedom of speech. I feel like the ground is crumbling underneath my feet. I do most of my purchasing from Amazon. And buying books.

    We’ve got to ramp up the pressure on these companies from our side, in addition to cutting them out where we can. I guess we’re going to be in almost completely different online worlds, but there aren’t options for everything yet.

      1. Yeah. Me too. I guess a possible tiny bit of glimmery light at the end of the tunnel is that they *might* be improving the position of their competitors. If things go well. But de-platforming and not allowing installation of apps and outright censorship is really hard to fight and really hard to survive.

        I though that *2020* was a bad year. I really don’t like my 9 day free trial of 2021. Would like a refund.

        2. I’ve been trying to return my 30 day free trial of socialism since last April. But so far, no luck.

          1. I keep looking for the Restore button myself. It’s almost as if the “free trial” subscription was neither free nor a trial.

    3. I WILL be setting up an alternate for people to bu my stuff — sort of — but I’m still trying to figure it out, and the new market is still with Amazon, alas.

      1. Amazon is so easy… I’ve also been thinking about restarting the process of downloading my Amazon ebooks to Calibre. It was kind of a drag and I stopped worrying about it for a while, but it seems rational to worry about it again now.

        If anybody ever gets a programming project going to set up alternative fiction sites, let me know. My current programming languages are Perl and Python, though I’m picking up Rust soon. Which would probably be my 9th computer language…

        1. I do anything database, shell scripts, Cloud and on-premises integrations, Java, any of several varieties of ML.

        2. “Sell a file on the Web” is basic Web 2.0 stuff; all you need is a storefront account with a hosting company. You can add instructions on “how to load this on your proprietary reader device”. And you can get all the potential customers who aren’t ever going to buy into the Amazon ecosystem.

          Some people want to stand up something to compete with Amazon, that will somehow poach their Kindle users. And if they can’t have that, then they’ll just keep hoping Amazon doesn’t deplatform them.

          1. It’s not a techincal problem. It’s a discoverability problem. Thousands of businesses have built their own Web 2.0 platforms, but went broke for want of customers who actually knew they existed.

            For writers, this is THE killer problem, and there is no technological solution.

        3. I spent my time in the COBOL, C*, C++ mines. After MS destroyed VB I’ll never bother with C#. Java has no reason to exist; it was DESIGNED as a malware vector. Haskell is weird but fun.
          * C is gonna fall off my resume. All C gigs I’ve seen for ~10 years have been grody spelunking thru code that was bad when it was new, doing meaningless “improvements” to satisfy awful MISRA nonsense.

        4. Don’t have time to commit to anything right now, but I can give some advice. To any developers looking to whip up a quick Web site for anything… look into Svelte (https://svelte.dev/). I’ve been looking into it over the past few days, and it’s seriously good. Beats the pants of Angular (which I’ve had lots of experience with) and React (which I’ve dabbled in) in terms of simplicity and how fast you can get stuff up and running. This isn’t *quite* the right time to start using it for a project, because the tooling is still in development and the shiny new tooling is expected to come out in a few weeks / couple of months, but once the shiny new tooling is ready and its GitHub repo is made public… It’s going to be really easy to set things up. Really.

          Oh, and bonus? It was developed by a graphics designer at the New York Times. But it’s open-source: there’s nothing the NYT or anyone else can do to stop you from using the software they’ve built to put together a conservative alternative to $BIGTECH_SITE. This isn’t Middle-Earth: using the tools built by the enemy isn’t inherently corrupting. And in this case, it’s a seriously good tool.

          If anyone has questions about Svelte, or anything else technical, please feel free to email me at (my first name) dot (my last name) courtesy of Google’s free email service. If you think I won’t recognize your name, include something in the email to prove your bona fides (such as mentioning a certain religious item from our hostess’s Good Men series, for example). Once I get your email and verify that you’re someone I do want to help, I’ll send you my real contact info that I check much more often than my Gmail account.

    4. Amazon has unfortunately (as of 4+ years ago) implemented a new encryption algorithm that locks all their books. You can’t read their new format on anything else.

      There was a program called “ApprenticeAlf” that used to break their encryption, but it doesn’t do so anymore on any but very old versions of their software, or their older (1st generationish) kindle readers.

      1. Oh pfft. I guess it’s been too long since I looked at it. Didn’t realize it was no longer possible to de-drm the ebooks. Sigh.

        1. Barnes & Nobel has done the same thing off and on. Very frustrating.

          * Special app addin for Calibre that ran separate. PIA to setup but once done. Easy. This quit working.

          * Found a pay-for-app, not real expensive, so okay. After a few years, this quit working.

          First two methods required the CC name and CC number the book was purchased and downloaded with.

          * Researched and found the Calibre Addin that de-dm’d the books when importing. But then the download process went away …. *growl*. Found the Win64 Nook App. Allows download of books but file name is a numbering system … *growl*, *scream*, *sigh*. It quit working just recently.

          Third method just needed your login for Barnes & Noble site. Presumably to go get the information above. Either 4th method plucked the information from the prior method, or login information isn’t needed anymore.

          * Updated Calibre. Updated the Addin. Working again. Now have to figure out which newer books didn’t get their DM removed when importing. (Not that hard really. Mostly it is going to be the product of non-insty Authors like Jance.) PIA but doable. I delete book out of Calibre. Archive book in Nook App. Unarchive and down load again, so date stamp is noticeable so I know what file it is. Reload it into Calibre. Double check access.

          Depending on when Amazon has pulled the DM change. Someone somewhere has probably figured it out. Just need to go find out how or what shortcut they are offering for free.

  30. Caught the tail end of Judge Jeanine tonight, with Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch and Dave Rubin — and Dave Rubin was the most paranoid sounding.

    Although Rubin ended on a positive note that boils down to, “In the end, we win, they lose. Build up, build around” Oops – sorry! What he said was “They will destroy themselves, we just need to build some things in the mean time.”
    ~

  32. Hi Mrs. Hoyt, I follow you on Instapundit so I thought I’d come over here a leave a comment.

    Do you have a recommendation for alternatives to Amazon if you’re an author? Given that they’ve now joined the deplatforming mob, I can’t in good conscience keep my books on their site. It’s not a huge sacrifice since I don’t sell a lot, but I don’t want to go from one lefty platform to another. Do you know if Kobo or Barnes & Noble are as bad as Amazon woke-wise or of any other platforms that are successfully resisting the leftwing berserker onslaught.

    Thanks Vince

    1. Unfortunately, no, there are no alternatives. Yes, the others are just as bad.
      I mean, Kobo is worse, so is smashwords.
      To be fair the data service is not the same as the book sale service.
      None of which make me happy, but until there’s an alternative, there’s not much I can do.

      1. various entities know I like scifi. So of COURSE I want to buy Hugo award winning authors. Esta rirar!

  33. I work for a chemical factory. We are an “essential” business, so I’ve been working all along. My husband, who is retired, needed to get out of the house for awhile, and it was finally a sunny day, so we took a nice long drive to enjoy the sunshine and get out of Michigan. Stopped at the Iron Skillet restaurant at a truck stop just outside of Fremont Indiana and had a nice meal there. Except for the masks, it was almost normal. We both needed that.

    1. Wife and I a couple weeks ago did something similar.
      Drove down to Toledo, stopped in at a Twin Peaks then went to see a movie (Monster Hunter, I’d give it a 2, 2.5 out of 5) and drove home.

      Tomorrow, well, we’re going to get the wifes’ rifle sighted in.

      1. As someone who actually plays Monster Hunter World, the video game that it’s (very) loosely based off of, that movie doesn’t look very good.

        ^^;;

  34. In brighter news, I found out my uncle (who we would go to in event of a bug out) shares my opinion of current political events. I need to go visit him so we can trash the left together in person.

      1. Protip: if a sentence ends with a colon and there doesn’t seem to be anything relevant after it, assume there’s an image or video you’re not seeing.

        1. ProProTip: when you post a video or even a graphic file, put in enough verbiage to allow email recipients to search for phrase on the web page because (generally) the videos and images cannot be relied upon to appear in the email reader.
          ~

  36. Good Lord~ THIS is the woman whom the House Democrats deem “The Best Among Us”?

    The Latest: Pelosi Ties Rioters’ Actions to ‘Whiteness’
    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is accusing the Trump supporters who rioted in the Capitol this week of choosing what she calls “their whiteness” over democracy
    By Associated Press, Wire Service Content Jan. 9, 2021, at 6:50 p.m.
    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is accusing the Trump supporters who rioted in the Capitol this week of choosing “their whiteness over democracy.”

    The California Democrat used an online video meeting with her hometown San Francisco constituents to criticize the overwhelmingly white mob that attacked Congress on Wednesday as it met to formally finalize Joe Biden’s presidential victory.

    “It has been an epiphany for the world to see that there are people in our country led by this president, for the moment, who have chosen their whiteness over democracy,” Pelosi said.

    Pelosi has set the House on course to potentially voting on a new impeachment of Trump as early as this coming week, a move that has overwhelming support from Democrats. She shed no new light Saturday on whether she’s made a final decision on that or other details.

    Pelosi says, “The complicity, not only the complicity, the instigation of the president of United States, must and will be addressed.”
    ~

      5. Odd … I see her eyes glaring up at me through strawberry Jello.

        I used to imagine her rent by wild dogs but that seemed needlessly cruel … to the dogs.
        ~

    2. “Whiteness” is just some vague demonic force the Left can blame for anything. Like most the words they use its devoid of meaning.

      2. They wore out “Nazi,” you see, so now they figure, “Nazis were all white, so all “white supremacists,” must be Nazis.”
        *Sigh.*

      3. And they, of course, use it when it could mean “being white” and get haughty that you didn’t know they were not speaking English.

  37. This sounds more like the work of infiltrators than MAGA ralliers, but maybe they thought the Congress critters ought get a taste of public housing life:

    Rioters left feces, urine in hallways and offices during mobbing of US Capitol
    They turned the US Capitol into a craphouse.

    Some invading rioters defiled the hallowed seat of democracy with their dung in their ill-fated effort to overturn the election, a source close to incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told The Post.

    “Congressional staffers saw feces in the hallways,” the source said Friday.

    The vile vandals apparently took dumps in bathrooms and then spread around their poop, a Schumer insider said.

    “It came from the bathroom and they tracked it around,” the source said. “There was an intentional effort to degrade the Capitol building.”

    Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) of Brooklyn also reported that some members of the mob urinated on the floors during the rampage.

    “There was urine. There was clear desecration,” he told WNYC on Thursday.
    [END EXCERPT]

    I am confident Rep. Jeffries knows urine.
    ~

    1. Yes, this is IMO the work of Antifa. MAGA supporters don’t do this. The left lies about everything and often accuses their opponents of just what they are doing.

      1. Also, I don’t believe anything the Democrats claim, especially when it comes from “a staffer close to”. And Jeffries’ claims must be treated as false until proven otherwise given his history of anti-Semitic screeds and conspiracy theories.

  38. Actually, things got insane back around 11/3. It all went downhill from there. Blatant steal. 1/6 was a predictable result of that.

  39. Now: keep in mind that the people leaving will far many reasons be skewed towards the highest quality employees in any given company.

    Also remember that these are companies which cannot replace one high quality employee with any number of low quality employees.

      2. Although, now that I think about it, seeing they have cloudflare DdoS protection makes me wonder.

      3. That happened years ago. Gab hosts themselves.

        Gab is already hardened; there are still attacks that can hit them, but they require considerably more work than just canceling an account.

        1. They’ve had the odd DDOS attack, but the current problem is the huge (excuse me, Yuuuge!) number of digital refugees from Twit and Parler. They’re spotty, going down for a while a few times a day right now, but they keep coming back as more servers come on line.

          They’ve extended an open invitation to President Trump.

    2. They will be replaced with highly trained communist Chinese agents in Biden’s unlimited H-1(B) program.

    3. Also remember they may be on assignment from their “old” companies to sabotage/take over their “new” employer.

  42. Remember, every time an NBC executive or network personality screams about riots that they not only openly support the Antifa/BLM riots, but that they hired Al “Kill the Jews, Burn the Jewish and Korean stores to the ground” Sharpton, who personally explicitly instigated several riots/pogroms in New York City.

    1. I have actually heard someone state that if Al Sharpton had instigated a riot, he would have died.

      There are not enough face palms in the world.

  43. One or fewer of you may remember that I have posted some here. And said in October that I would be gone, perhaps until January.

    Here it is January. And this must be my last post. Very sad. Wish in so many ways that it were otherwise. Absolutely love you guys!

    You are smart. You know that “IT” has started.

    They are scared out of their minds. They are desperate beyond what you imagine (but not, given this crew, beyond what you can imagine).

    Desperation creates great danger. The 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th amendments will not protect anyone. They will lie, create “evidence”, and round up or eliminate at will. Try to avoid showing up on their radar as a threat or useful as an “example”.

    This is not primarily a kinetic conflict. I call it the tech war. They aim to dominate via tech, including not only the obvious (Amaz**, Goog**, Micro****, Appl*, Twit***, and F***book) but also the big entertainment, “news”, telecom, and financial corporations. To get to the other side, these must all be, at a minimum, rendered neutral platforms. And education, universities, also.

    Will be increasingly ugly.

    Be safe. Don’t do anything stupid. Being scared out of their minds and desperate, they are presently damaging themselves.

    I’ll be out here reading and, Lord willing, will eventually post under a different name.

    May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.

  44. We will get through this. It’s not going to be quick, but we WILL make it out the other side.

  46. Yesterday wound up being a mental health day, away from the politics, and I think I’ll try to do the same for the rest of today.

  50. Gaah. From viewing page source, it looks like wordpress added a bold tag after my close-bold tag. WPDE

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