Not Today! – A Guest Post by Amie Gibbons

413 thoughts on “Not Today! – A Guest Post by Amie Gibbons”

1. if i don’t wear a mask, i get fired, so… no.

   1. Yeah. We do understand those circumstances.
      I WILL send the piece of flag (things got weird) and I suggest you plan on escaping. We’ve moved out timeline up six months. If all goes well enough.

      1. Good on yer, Sarah, the sooner the better!

      2. without a highly unlikely new but equivalent stream of incomes, i aint going anywhere… literally, because i’d lose my car.

         1. 😦
            So, let’s get on that, shall we. We need to start a group for this and discuss “multiple streams of income” and “lift the right boats.” you’re not the only one in that boat.
            Damn it. Guys, get proton mail. We need committees!

            1. well, i was going to try doing covers… but realisitcally, as soon as someone suggests some of the suggestions i know are going to happen, i’m going to be like “can’t do that, can’t do that, can’t stand long enough to do that…”

               1. I know. Change orders? Or wanting to mutuality exclusive views.

            2. Did that. Handle is t r u f o x. Prior offers about foraging lessons and/or crying shoulder still stand.

            3. Got one: handle is s i t _ d o w n _ j o h n

            4. Correspondence Committees?

               1. kinda.

               2. Most people posting here seem to be thinking about pulling in their horns and trying to ride out the coming storm. Maybe it’s time to think about some nonviolent offensive action?

                  How about a digital version of Johnny Appleseed? USB sticks and SSD cards are very cheap these days, so why can’t a person buy dozens of them and load them up with copies of the Declaration, the Constitution, the 1689 British Parliamentary Declaration of Rights, the Magna Carta, and selected portions of the Federalist Papers? Then take them and drop them off at restaurants, public bathrooms, stores, gas stations, parks, doctors’ offices, university libraries, and other locales. You might also want to throw in a bit of Hayek and Milton Friedman. You could also add true stories about the wonders of Communism, like Stalin’s and Mao’s death tolls and side-by-side pics of East and West Berlin during the Cold War. If enough people participated, you could blanket the country with millions of pieces of dangerous electronic subversion. This would be a cheap and effective way to spread Good Guy propaganda, and it could never, ever, be blocked.

                  1. I’m sorry? DO YOU ACTUALLY READ THIS BLOG?
                     Because that’s not even remotely and by a stretch what we’re thinking of doing.
                     Or are you posting this, generically on every conservative blog.

            5. Done. Handle here at the positive charge mail.

               1. here?
                  Don’t get it.

                  1. on this blog. sorry.

                     I know you had said something that doesn’t link back to me, etc, but I’m a bit thick.

                     Irish, nach bhfuil? 😉

                     1. Do you mean your name in this blog? I’m a bit thick today, too.

                        1. Yes, sorry!

                           1. No — look, I slept 11 hours, and then felt sleepy all day. Sinus infection. It’s a problem.

                           2. I completely understand. Last sinus infection I had near put me down with pneumonia.

                           3. I was having all kinds of sinus headache problems this winter. This past weekend on a hunch I dug out and started the HEPA filter, the one I had been running all summer to counter the wildfire smoke out here – and the sinus stuff has gone away.

                              I don’t know what is concentrating in the household air during what we jokingly call winter out here (74F yesterday here, colder today) but it obviously set me off.

                  2. I think she means that her new email address has the same username as the username she uses here, on this blog.

                     1. She?

                     2. Jayzus, I’m a she?! I mean, I am one of the Sídhe … I’m just not a bean sídhe. Except I am now. Or something… 😀

                        1. 😛
                           You know, my first book had a sex-changing elf.
                           <RUNS.

                           1. Do I look like a fecking elf? With the big bushy ginger beard, the red nose, and a lucky shilling?!

                              Ye need new glasses, missus Hoyt!

                        2. Sorry, my mistake. In my defense, I’ve been waking up at 3:00 AM three out of the past four nights, usually due to a screaming baby, so my brain isn’t firing on all cylinders right now. (Munnion #2, now getting close to a year old, in case anybody is wondering).

                           1. Comhghairdeas! I have three wee changelings – the youngest is just past the 1.5 year mark. And sleeps through the night, consistently, and has for a while, Praise God. The older twins didn’t until they were this old.

            6. > Damn it. Guys, get proton mail. We need committees!

               Did that recently. Display name is l i n u x h i t m a n

               Protonmail will work in a pinch but email, by its nature, doesn’t have the flexibility of a bulletin board or mailing list. Perhaps what we really need is a moderated usenet list or lists

               1. Or irc? Older technologies might escape notice longer. Still needs a central server somewhere though.

                  On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 8:15 AM According To Hoyt wrote:

                  > parabarbarian commented: “> Damn it. Guys, get proton mail. We need > committees! Did that recently. Display name is l i n u x h i t m a n > Protonmail will work in a pinch but email, by its nature, doesn’t have the > flexibility of a bulletin board or mailing list. Perhaps wh” >

                  1. In truth, IRC could work in a limited fashion but it would need to be wrapped in an encrypted channel toteh IRC server. I know how to do that but not everyone does. Of course I don’t want everyone being able to get on an IRC channel I host. Also IRC is usually “real time” which doesn’t offer opportunity for creating essay length responses. Nor does IRC have good threading.

                     That is why my thinking is toward an modernized usenet. OTOH, even mailman could work.

      3. Sarah, hitting the tip jar for a roll of stamps for this project.
         Thanks for being a light in the coming darkness.
         John

   2. Hence me saying in the post don’t do this if it’s required at work, because right now, you’ll just get fired.

      1. An option: if you work retail, your employer may offer a leave of absence specifically due to the slave diaper. I took the option because I can’t breathe in one and it makes me scream involuntarily. We’re making bank on unemployment right now. Take the LOA, save your money, make plans to get out.

         1. This is especially valuable now that they’re paying the WuFlu bonus! Sure, it is unwarranted and encourages longer stays o unemployment, but it’s their economy now, they stole it fair’n’square (and anybody saying otherwise is Twitter and Facebook banned!) so why not Cloward & Piven the Hell out of it?

            What, you worried it will add one iota to the mess we’re going to have to clean up when we retake our nation?
            ~

         2. I have seriously considered applying for Social Security in addition to my regular wages. That would enable me to move my health insurance to a medicare plan — which would be cheaper than my current employer paid plan. The remainder I could bank against future need. Not so sure how it would affect my taxes, though. I’ll have to discuss that with my tax-person this year.

            1. If you are 65 you are required to be on Medicare, even if you aren’t on SS yet. If one doesn’t sign up at 65, there is a hefty penalty that is attached to the payment made, every month. (Might be an out I’m not aware of that prevents the penalty. Saw 3 people at my work transition to Medicare, they worked till they were 70. They still needed company insurance for spouses.) Note, if you are already drawing your SS at 65, then the sign up for Medicare is automated. If you aren’t 65 then you can’t be on Medicare (yet … Biden promised to change that #sarcasm).

               Dad started drawing full SS at 50 because of a medical event. But he still couldn’t be on medicare. Medicaid yes, once my parents assets were depleted enough, eventually. Mom and dad were lucky. Dad’s employer carried their insurance until mom was able to find work that had insurance and would cover them both (it had a time limit on it). Can’t say she’d “not worked” because she had. She’d work typesetting at the little weekly paper where Grandma worked when they had a specific push, never when that might interfere with what dad had planned or an event for us kids. She’d work retail Christmas for extra Christmas money. Plus by the time of dad’s stroke, they were commercially salmon fishing off the Oregon Coast so they could afford the boat to sports fish before commercial season started (when that was still allowed). After dad’s stroke that meant she did most the physical work. Friends got her on with one of the local school food providers (“Lunch Lady”). Friends they also commercial fished with during the summer. Question at her job interview? “Why are you going to work now, at 50, with your limited job experience?” Her answer “We need the insurance.” Forget the pay. That essentially went to taxes.

               1. I think that as long as you are covered by employer insurance you do not *have* to be on Medicare. But the rules are weird and complicated. If the company has fewer than 50 people in the health plan, Medicare is primary. So probably you would have to sign up. If the company has more than 50 people, the employer is primary, so in theory you could get by without it (but would have to have paperwork to prove that). You can’t get Cobra if you’re eligible for Medicare (though our Cobra administrators seemed totally clueless about that, it was *right there* in the paperwork.) At one point I worked for a company in which the number of people in the health plan changed from under to over 50 in the middle of the year, so the primary/secondary switched.

                  In any case, it’s worrisome. So right now, since I’m 66, I have both a Medicare Advantage plan and my employer health plan. I would have skipped the employer plan, but I wanted them to cover my 21 year old so, so I had to sign up. It feels stupid, but I’m afraid to cancel the Medicare because it would get screwed up.

                  I actually asked them to start Social Security when I was laid off, then when I got a job I “suspended” it. And multiple people in Social Security offices had no idea how that worked. I finally had to read a portion of the SocSec website to the person I talked to, who finally did what I asked.

                  1. The employer I worked for had < 50 employees (10, counting the bosses, of which 3 were 65+ by the time I retired, I retired at 59). Even hubby's work varied from 60 to 40 or so (as low as < 30 during worse). But then they had full pension, and (union) insurance*, at 55 with 25 years credited worked. No one worked until 70, few worked to 65 (he retired 2 months before he turned 60, 5 years before me).

                     I've been told/read that the point of forcing people still working at 65, even with employer paid insurance, that it helps fund medicare. I’m not surprised that there are exceptions, and that it is complicated. Some exceptions, veterans covered by the VA, I’d expect.

                     * We paid for the **retiree insurance. $380/month for Family coverage, which (then) included us and our < 27 year old son. No individual coverage option. Which meant I was double covered on all medical (but not dental or vision). My employer paid my insurance, but we'd had to pay 1/2 for each additional family member added … At $750/person; and was crappy for the cost, essentially catastrophic insurance. Note, our coverage now (his medicare “supplement”, and my insurance, through the same source is only $480/month). Hubby has been on medicare for 4 years in February. I’ll auto enroll this October.

                     ** It is Good insurance. I think our current per person: Annual deductible is $500. Annual out of pocket is $5500. We rarely meet either. OTOH our prescription coverage sucks, until medicare kicks in. Good thing I don’t have many prescriptions, which I get at Costco under the “I don’t have prescription insurance” plan, paying out of pocket.

               2. According to the “experts” at Kaiser I had to sign up for medicare at 65 (I did) but I don’t have to purchase the supplemental insurance as long as I have employer paid insurance. I am considering replacing my employer paid insurance with medicare coverage. As far as I can tell it will cost me less and, when I start taking my SS, the cost is deducted from my monthly allotment. Otherwise it is paid quarterly.

                  My biggest concern is the impact on my taxes which I will try to get some information on when I have my taxes done.

                  1. I had to sign up for medicare at 65

                     –
                     Yes.

                     I don’t have to purchase the supplemental insurance as long as I have employer paid insurance.

                     –
                     True. I wasn’t talking about the supplemental insurance everyone “gets a choice of”. Gets a choice in that one can choose what to get. Not choose on whether they get it or not. Yes, insurance through your employment counts. Or in our case, our family “group retiree insurance” that we have, because we need something for me.

                     I am considering replacing my employer paid insurance with medicare coverage. As far as I can tell it will cost me less and, when I start taking my SS, the cost is deducted from my monthly allotment. Otherwise it is paid quarterly.

                     –
                     Undoubtedly, unless you are paying nothing co-pay monthly, for insurance, dental, or vision. Because there are $0/month options depending on what you want your deductible and annual out of pocket levels to be.

                     We haven’t looked into supplemental options for 4 years now since we need insurance for me. If hubby drops out of the retiree insurance I loose it. To replace what we have, and not as good of insurance, then it was $750/month VS (then) $420 … Uh No. Mom dropped her medicare supplement through public employees union starting this month (finally). $185/month VS $55/month. Break even, IF she has to pay the higher deductible and out of pocket annual limit, ahead if she doesn’t. Also, it comes directly out of her SS. Where her other came out of her pension.

2. And if I don’t wear a mask, the driver who takes me to PT gets in trouble, as does the receptionist who checks me in there. I don’t know that there is any virtue in Resisting when the price is paid by low-level employees who are being jerked around by their bosses.

   1. No one ever said resisting would be the easiest route. In fact, Amie alluded to it above:

      “There are so many people who comply because they don’t want to be a problem, or it’s not a big deal so they’ll just wear one, or whatever. People who don’t believe they should have to wear them, but comply anyway.”

      Masks are useless against the virus. Wearing them is just a sign that people are allowing themselves to be controlled.

      1. Go full absent minded professor on them. Keep taking your mask off when they turn their backs. Tell them you put it on when you came in; then when they tell you you’re not wearing it, reach up and touch and feell all over your face and then go, “Damn, it was right there a moment ago. And, oh, I put it in my pocket so I wouldn’t lose it. Thanks!” And keep doing it. Drive them nuts.

         1. Oh, yeah, I can do that without even trying. It’s kind of my natural state.

      2. Yep! Thank you. 🙂

      3. Or…wear a mask because it makes one, um, unremarkable. When needed: mask plus sunglasses plus hoodie > facial recognition.

         1. I’ve thought of this

         2. I use camouflage or “disruptive” pattern gaiters. From what I have read, one of those covering my lower face combined with the large dark glasses (Cocoons) I wear over my prescription glasses and a hat make face recognition effectively useless.

   2. Yes, they ARE using our altruism as a weapon.
      I CAN’T wear a mask. I will wear a face shield.
      And I plan on escaping.

      1. I can wear a mask for short periods. If I’m going for a medical appointment and the face shield isn’t an option, I can do it. OTOH, they only slightly discourage the shield, and I tilt mine up quite a ways. If I actually have to read something, the shield gets removed.

         Despicable Kate Brown (D-structive, OR) is trying to use OR-OSHA and the Liquor commission to force businesses to force customers into the diaper. Karens have called in OSHA complaints for businesses that don’t force customers to wear masks. Rumor has it that DKB is trying for a spot under FICUS, though any successor will be almost as bad, but less experienced at screwing people over.

         OTOH, the local restaurant that defied the no-inside dining order is still doing so, and is usually packed most days. The county will not cooperate with the state, largely because DKB’s orders are of dubious legality, much less unconstitutional.

         I see a couple of places with gatekeepers; one sells firearms, and understandably is worried that the state could play dirtier than they already are. OTOH, the masks occasionally come off afterward.

         1. There is a bar in Newberg that I am planning on going to when I am able (new house, small children, etc) that has stood up and said piss off to gov and masks ad the whole shebang.

            I am going to do everything I can (without fecking over the family) to make them succeed.

   3. I have to wear it during my kidney appointments. We deal with some yucky substances so I good thing. Otherwise, I keep the mask off in the car, walking the dog, and in my house except for connecting to the dialysis machine. I do wear on into the grocery store, but like everyone else, I am adjusting it all the time so I can breathe.

      1. Pulling it down, so I can breath and unfog my glasses.

         Lifting up so people can hear me make a request. If I have to talk to someone I have to remove the mask muffler.

         1. So true– although us kidney people have learned to what mmhh-mmmh means lol Translated: Step on the scales please

      2. …are there places actually trying to enforce people wearing masks in THEIR OWN CAR?! I’ve seen a few folks around here doing it, and rolled my eyes (because Wyoming isn’t exactly going whole hog on forcing the masks, although there is technically a statewide mandate–but that’s lip service, so far as I can tell. At least in my county.

         1. Yes.

   4. That is what this is for: Clear plastic spit-guards*

      About $1 each. And you can replace the little string thingies when/if they break. Clean ’em with a quick rinse with dishwashing detergent (one of the best kill ratios out there barring a 5% bleach solution.)

      Clean, humane, white mutiny.

      And chat them up. How they protect every bit as well as the “filthy fabric face rags” and are so easy to clean. So sanitary! They won’t give you bacterial pneumonia like the ones from the Spanish flu that killed so many people. How they’re kinder to deaf people.

      And if you get Aufseherinnen at the store insisting you get a “real mask,” calmly and clearly say the above. Earnestly as you can “I cannot shop where the management is trying to make vulnerable people sick and even kill them” OWTTE.

      Those with better people savvy, please refine.

      *If you have to get within “spray it not say it” distance and the yearly ‘flu threatens your life, this will keep blobs of goo from landing in your open mouth. Or keep yours from others, as the case may be.

      1. No idea why, but the picture points me to a Kindle preview. Found a pack via ‘zon Prime and should have it next week. One of the people at the mail drop uses one and loves it. Worth a try for me.

         The biggest complaint on a lot of these is that the nose isn’t always covered. They speak as if that’s a bad thing. VBEG.

         The forehead/headband shields don’t work with a hat for me, unless I wear it the way I’m supposed to do, in which case I have a hard time breathing and the fog is impressive. It’s also a problem when it’s windy.

      2. Glorious Gavin the First’s mandate says “cloth covering” so the useless bandannas and stretch neck gaiters are fine but these shields are verboten.

         Local grocery store staff at one point had pretty much universally gone to face shields, but the next time I went in everyone was in paper masks – they got inspected and the inspector said nope.

      3. I see them on customers (as well as face shields) at work. I would be fired if I wore one (I can use a face shield, but only if I wear a mask with it), I have specifically been told as much. Corporate headquarters infested with karens.

3. Note the exceptions listed above, in the post.
   The articles says to resist, not to be damned fools.
   Is difference.

   1. Is difference?

      Looks at BLM, looks at Antifa … nope, I ain’t seeing it.
      ~

      1. Those bunches of… things… are self-impeding.

      2. That’s because they are about as serious as the person at my workplace who had a “Resist!” bumpersticker. Four years of it, and every single time, I was still thinking, “Yeah, really, if you were resisting you would be hiding it.”

         1. I see useful idiots like that everywhere. They don’t appear to understand that the ideological alliance of media, universities, Hollywood, and “Big Tech” *are* the system. That alliance did not join the resistance, the so-called “resistance” joined them.

            1. That alliance did not join the resistance, the so-called “resistance” joined them.

               Joined ’em like a Habsburg wedding, looks like from here. Our “resistance” is to “The System” what the 2minHate was to Big Brother.

               I can wear a mask in a small shop, if I’m in a small shop that requires it, out of respect for the proprietors. Not so much in the box stores, and the only place I’ve even been questioned about it is coming into Sam’s Club. “Do you need a mask?” at the door, and I answer by pointing at the shemagh around my shoulders, maybe saying that I’ll pull it up if I need to.

               “If I need to” is like the Maytag man’s “in case somebody calls.” But y’all knew that.

               1. They were like that in CO before the governor’s order.

4. I’m with you, Amie. Here in Maryville, in east Tennessee, I don’t wear a mask either. If the stores I need to go to have some signs up insisting on masks, I ignore those and go in anyway. Kroger (the grocery) is like that, but they’ve never done anything to enforce their call for masks. Walmart the same. And as you say, any place that refuses you entry or service because of non-face-diaper-wearing will see my business no more.

   As for restaurants requiring masks, not here. They’re not that stupid. And the main local restaurant we ever eat at, Gracies, has their staff masked but never insists on the clientele doing so (and I didn’t ever see any who do).

   Our church is likewise mask-free. And never closed during the viral silliness.

   1. I’ve been told to leave one chain restaurant for not wearing a mask, and had an employee tell me at a grocery store not to come again without wearing a mask. Fortunately, my church does not require masks, and no one wears them, at least at my service. There’s one chain hardware store here that early on started literally having a security guard standing right inside the door, telling people they had to wear a mask, and kids under 14 were no longer permitted at all.

      1. Those stores would not see my business again.

      2. The STATE order makes them afraid not to enforce it on us. They’re afraid of getting shut down.

         1. We have a State order too. Sissy-lak

         2. Out here, they’ve been hit with hefty fines if they don’t comply.

      3. Menards?

   2. Hey dr! I’m in Nashville. (Moving up to Sumner County in May for obvious reasons 🙂 ) There’s places even in Nashville that don’t ask if you walk in without a mask. And once you get outside the city, most places don’t give a fuck if you’re wearing one, and may or may not have their employees wear one so customers don’t scream at them.

      1. Yes , Sumner is better. I do not wear a mask at all in most places never have any difficulty. Tennessee is overall pretty sane. Unfortunately i lead a retail store where our executives are enforcing for store staff. We do not generally confront any customers. Most wear out of respect to our position. Good to know there are more freedom lovers nearby.

5. I tried to teach my children, and while they are both hard workers, when I talk about other things, like why raising the minimum wage is a bad idea, they treat me like I’m an old man in the 1970s still talking about “them Japs.” Then they shut down the conversation, which I guess is good in a way, since they’re trying to keep our relationship. One good thing, my daughter is frustrated because she switched jobs and is now in a union. The very small raise she’s guaranteed next year is nothing compared to the merit-based raises she got at her previous job.

   We’ve almost completely stopped shopping at a local chain grocery that I’ve shopped at for the last 40 years, because they told me I’d have to wear a mask, even with a medical issue. I haven’t bothered testing the other stores, and honestly, there are a ton of places to shop where I live, but most of them are corporate, and will toe the corporate line.

   1. Some places have mask signs, and mask signs. That is, the “Official” ones and the “Due to HIPPA we cannot ask therefore if we see you with a mask, we will presume you a have medical condition/exemption.” Other places don’t have the sign, but (if you are good terms with folks there you will find) the intern policy is, “Don’t harass the costumer.” Which makes sense – the customer is what keeps them in business.

      1. That’s why I don’t have to wear a mask at my favorite restaurant, because they’ve known me for years and I have good relations with most of the management and staff. I’ve never seen one sign about an allowance for the medical condition/exemption thing here, which is nonsense.

         1. Yeah, it’s like ADA suddenly isn’t a thing.

            1. I’ve noticed that the Subase doesn’t allow anyone to leave off the Magic Muzzle™, even with a medical condition. You wear it, or you can’t use the Exchange or Commissary. So sorry retirees with COPD. The ADA isn’t even on the military’s radar. I’ve noticed in the past that the government gets to ignore all the rules they insist everyone else follow (the base pharmacy only started accepting e-filed prescriptions about 5 years after the rest of the world had to by law).

               So I’d be willing to guess that China Jo’s mask mandate will mean that no one with a medical reason to not wear a muzzle will be able to do any business with the feds until at least May.

               1. Dan hasn’t had a blood test for a year because he will not wait with muzzle on.
                  He’s diabetic. He ran out of metformin. So he’s taking mine.
                  Only problem, is I NEED mine, as I’m pre diabetic and stress makes it worse.
                  And here we are.

                  1. Have you tried Berberine? Some studies show it works a lot like Metformin. It’s not cheap though.

                     1. It’s more that he needs it more than I do.
                        And can’t do the blood tests because of the mask thing.

                  2. I think some medical supplies/prescriptions can be bought through Amazon but, well, Amazon. I presume your (Dan’s) doctor won’t refill prescription without blood?

                     I’d happily send you some of mine but a) don’t think it is kind of thing to be entrusted to USPS b) then we’d all three be short as I am at top dose.

                     Try adding powdered cinnamon capsules which reportedly help blood glucose uptake. At the very least they improve flavor of belches. Available over the counter in bulk at Walmart pharmacy and I suppose others, as well.
                     ~

      2. Not in CO. They tell us that if we have a medical condition, we should order. So.

         1. Same here. However, I do have a long memory.

         2. That’s what we’re seeing here in Plano.

         3. I will be damned if I will let a store select my produce, fobbing off their half-spoiled inventory on me. I’m not letting them stick me with their damaged cans and crushed boxes, either!

            That’s my story and I’m willing to argue it out all day and into the night. It ain’t like they’re letting me go to a job.
            ~

            1. THIS. Plus I am uh… like people who need sun, but I need to see people (I don’t need to interact with them. JUST see them) otherwise I slowly get more and more depressed.

               1. Same. Ex used to call me an “antisocial extrovert” — my favorite thing is going to the club when it’s crowded, but I can easily just drink and dance all evening and hardly talk to anybody.

                  I’m happy I haven’t had to go to downtown Seattle during all the 2020 ructions, but I really miss just walking to a restaurant at lunch hour and seeing the other people.

         4. Oregon too. “Must use a mask to come inside and shop. Otherwise please use our non-contact shopping options.”

            1. That’s what many signs say here, but not what happens. Then $HOOTERVILLE is.. not exactly St. Paul and it shows, sometimes in ways as simple as ‘failing’ to not see a mask.

      3. That is, the “Official” ones and the “Due to HIPPA we cannot ask therefore if we see you with a mask, we will presume you a have medical condition/exemption.”

         I love those signs. If that isn’t a bureaucratically perfect way of saying “F you!” to the mask Nazis, I don’t know what is.

         1. I like those ones too, Zsu 🙂 They are threatened by the government and still find a way around it.

            1. Threatened by government to get you to wear a mask, they turn around and threaten one government bureaucracy with another bureaucracy. It’s wonderful.

   2. Print up some cards reading: “I have a medical condition which precludes wearing a mask. If you insist I wear a mask while in your establishment and I suffer medical consequences you will be sued for damages, fees, pain and suffering. If you refuse to allow me to enter without donning a mask I will sue you for discriminatory treatment, violation of the Civil Rights act, legal fees, pain and suffering.”

      If they ask what your medical condition is loudly denounce them as intrusive and violating medical privacy rules.

      Note to Huns: can we come up with a psychological term amounting to fear of masks? A little searching suggests hypophobia but something a tad more intimidating might be in order. Anoxyphillic, for inability to breath while wearing a mask?
      ~

      1. Well, the actual Latin term for a mask is “persona,” so “personaphobia”? Or since “phobia” is Greek, and mask in Greek is actually “μάσκα” (pronounced “maska”), “maskaphobia”?

      2. ADA has clout, sure. But first you have to get them to give a damn and move their Ass. What will get them to move their Ass? Lots of complaints from lots of people. But there is an out with the ADA for businesses. They can provide a different method of shopping. But I don’t think something that costs extra is “the same”. I don’t care what the excuse is.

         How do I know? I have a Service Dog. Trust me. The ADA, how it works, how to file a complaint, and is it worth it, or “hopefully your state provides extra protections because then something might actually happen”, is a common topic in Private Groups.

   3. “I’m going to double your allowance.”
      “YAY!”
      “Except since I’m not making any more money than I was before, one of you gets the doubled allowance, and the other one gets none. Also, I now have to charge for cookies.”

      1. And of course, the other problem with “hey, lets make the minimum wage $15/hr now,” as I explained to one of my nieces back during Sanders’ first run at the presidency nomination, if someone is already making $15/hr after working someplace for several years, did she think the employer would give them a raise equivalent to the increase in the minimum?

         He*l no!

         So that would mean someone who worked hard to get to $15/hr would now get to watch someone hire in brand new and making the same. My wife will be in this boat, if this goes through…

         If I recall, back during the run-up to 2016, there was a company that actually did this, bumped everyone’s pay to $15/hr. Except, the people who’d been there and worked hard to get to $15+/hr got ticked and started to leave.

6. Knit a facemask. (Grin)

   1. Better yet, get a pair of fish-net stockings and make one from them…

      1. Can I wear someone wearing fishnet stockings instead? (Assuming my back can hold out.) I like wearing my mask as shoulder pads, bracers, and skull caps too.

         1. If you can carry such a person it would seem to adequately obstruct all virus-laden exhalation.

            One caution: no licking, nibbling, nipping or laving your “mask” as that might induce excessive wriggling and impair the protection.
            ~

            1. Ah Res, why wear a mask if you take all the fun out of it? 😉

      2. Some older ladies I know with respiratory problems, bought those almost transparent silk Hindu head coverings. Eventually someone wouldn’t let them in with it. But I thought that was funny.

      3. Go with the classic pantyhose over the head?

         If questioned, insist that “research shows it is as effective at preventing spread of disease as the standard 2-ply mask and conforms to all government standards!” No, you do not have to show them the research; if they cannot find it online that is not your problem.

         It has, of course, the benefit of being true: research shows the standard 2-ply mask is ineffective means it is no better than pantyhose.
         ~

         1. For a moment I read that as “as effective at spreading disease”… which sort of makes sense. I do know someone who came down with a mask-induced illness.

   2. Crochet.
      Use a belly dancer’s face veil. Rant about them usurping the trappings of your religion.

      1. I’m trying to find a place to find beekeeper netting cheap so I can make “masks” out of that…:D

         1. Cheese cloth.

            1. I happen to have a stash of hand-dyed cheesecloth in brilliant colors, in case anyone wishes to be decoratively defiant.

               1. I made my own mask out of a single layer of thin cotton fabric and made the elastics a bit too long so they just barely hold the thing on my face. Therefore I look like I’m wearing a compliant mask, but I’m not. So far nobody’s caught on. It’s not perfect, I still don’t like the restriction of air, but it’s not nearly as bad as the two or three layer masks with the (unbreathable) polyester shell.

                  Have you seen all the crazy people who have taken to wearing two masks at a time? I’ve seen Biden and Romney thus masked and wondered why neither of them has passed out from oxygen deprivation. I would have, and I’m considerably younger than either of them.

                  1. Who suspected this guy was anticipating our present …
                     
                     ~

                  2. Virtue signalling

      2. I saw a woman a couple of months ago, wearing a diaphanous, sequin-trimmed belly-dancer’s mask, and I thought it was hilarious, and gave her a thumbs-up.

         Malicious compliance – you gotta love it.

         1. We got a bunch of people who have those. The bonus is that the sparkly bits make it non-obvious that they are made of netting.

            The bad thing is that other people are doubling up on their masks. (Some out of paranoia, but most to avoid their glasses fogging up.)

      3. Medieval Plague Mask. Tonight somebody said, “Best mask ever!”

         I like to ask the Karens, “How many times do they have to lie before you stop believing them?”

   3. I’ve been considering getting some nice pantyhose, cutting a section out of them and wearing them over my mouth and nose.
      It’s fabric, aina?

      I didn’t jump fast enough for my original preference back when the mask mandates were coming out, of getting a milsurp gas mask to wear…

      1. I wanted a plague doctor’s mask to wear to the grocery store, but I didn’t end up getting one.

   4. One LOL showed up to shop a few months ago wearing a black lace mask. Quite stylish, and nobody said a word to her about it not being acceptable.

7. At noon Eastern Standard Time on 20 January 2020…
   I flushed the toilet.
   And likely thereby accomplished more than I did on that first Tuesday in November.

8. Here are our enemies, Those Who Are No Longer Our Countrymen.

   THIS IS A LETTER OF INTENT FROM PUBLISHING PROFESSIONALS OF THE UNITED STATES

   https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vS_tiz6ATX5piqGmFlu6FqNwJinahlYJqn7JtGoiDOUIFEEx3MuvXubKQJi6BGpTlsyJpqLgk-pyhiE/pub

   Those authors, editors, publishers, and agents have all just proven they hate the 1st Amendment.
   The Line is Drawn. The Threat is Real. So what are you going to do about it?

   Thank goodness I’ve never bought any of those author’s books. Wish I could say the same about the publishing companies on that list.

   1. And they wonder why the publishing industry is in its death throes. Well, they don’t wonder actually, they just deny…

      I read through that list down to the “F”s or so, and didn’t recognize any of the signatories. Yeah, their intent is pretty meaningful…

      1. Patrick Nielsen Hayden signed it. Because of course he did.

         I saw a couple of peripheral Baen authors, some YA folks, some usual SJW sf/f suspects, and at least one person who went wah wah wah about First Amendment rights for _their_ company. A few people who put their novel’s name next to their signatures.

         No really big name authors. There’s a tad bit of self-preservation left, even among SJWs.

         However, it may also be one of those things where they were SECRETLY passing it around to their friends, and none of them actually knew any big names well enough to SECRETLY pass them things. Heck, most of the Patrick Nielsen Hayden stable of suckups did not sign, so he must have gotten it late in the game.

         1. It may be a list of people most people never heard of, but lists by people with attitudes like this is how you got a large portion of Germany and Europe going along with the “final solution”. The more stuff like this is put out, the more it provides a veneer of approval and legitimacy to efforts to “cancel” whole groups of people, permanently, in the fullest sense of the word. It is why notwithstanding “never again”, there have been multiple genocides since, including the ongoing one being committed by the CCP. There are a lot of people who enjoy having power over others and relish the chance to have such power and to use it to persecute those they dislike. Those people now have full control of the elected branches of the Federal government. They will abuse that power accordingly.

         2. I skimmed all the way through – Chuck Wendig signed it, too. I didn’t recognize any other names, besides his and Patrick Neilson Hayden.

            1. Holly Black and Martha Wells, who are actual writers but went SJW at some point after having been center-left/libertarian. Charlie Jane Anders. Shannon Hale. I forget who else.

               I’m just shocked that Scalzi wasn’t on there, or some of the other usual names. Which is why I think it was a rush job.

               But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe some of the usuals actually understand civil rights, or good business.

               1. Mmm. I missed Martha Wells when I skimmed the list earlier. Whose stuff I quite like.

                  Well, I haven’t bought anything of hers in awhile (because she’s not really been doing much, so far as I can tell) so I’ll be content with what I already bought. Same for Shannon Hale and Holly Black–but again, haven’t bought stuff of theirs in a while.

                  1. Martha Wells has been doing the Murderbot things, which I’ve actually enjoyed. Oh well.

                     On Wed, Jan 20, 2021 at 5:44 PM According To Hoyt wrote:

                     > sarathered commented: “Mmm. I missed Martha Wells when I skimmed the list > earlier. Whose stuff I quite like. Well, I haven’t bought anything of hers > in awhile (because she’s not really been doing much, so far as I can tell) > so I’ll be content with what I already bought. Sam” >

         3. A few people who put their novel’s name next to their signatures.

            I noticed that. Had to put the novel’s title next to their name so that everybody would know…they have an actual published book…please don’t blacklist me?

            1. So we should take that as a suggestion :). I know Sarah started a page to list authors on the right(ish) to support. Perhaps there should be another page with authors who sign things like blacklists against the right so that we can actively avoid them. In keeping with the competitive boycott plan.

               1. Make it something simple, though. Like “We support the Bill of Rights, and therefore….”

               2. Except we’re going to take that page to a site called I canhasbooks, and link it to that page 😉
                  Because there are So. Many. People.
                  Younger son and I have sketched a plan to make it “good reads from the right.”

   2. Which is why I’m indie.

   3. Nice of them to give us a Handy List of Toxic Substances Best Avoided. (Never even heard of most of ’em.)

      “…our country is where it is in part because publishing has chased the money and notoriety of some pretty sketchy people, and has granted those same people both the imprimatur of respectability and a lot of money through sweetheart book deals.”

      …what, like the sweetheart book deals given to … oh, say, Obama, Hillary, that Wolf guy who writes biographical fiction….

      1. It’s not what they mean but it’s the truth.

      2. “publishing has chased the money and notoriety of some pretty sketchy people, and has granted those same people both the imprimatur of respectability”

         Bwah-hah-ha! They think being published by TOR, Penguin, Hatchette and the rest confers respectability!

         “No participant in an administration that caged children, performed involuntary surgeries on captive women, and scoffed at science as millions were infected with a deadly virus should be enriched by the almost rote largesse of a big book deal.”

         So that would bar all members of the Obama Administration, wouldn’t it? They built those child cages and have admitted to having botched the response to SARS and other viral epidemics. As for scoffing at “Science” – they were scoffing at Scientism, which has as much to do with Science as Infantilism has to do with infancy.

         As for those surgeries, that is ((like so many other Leftish allegations) simple hysteria. It certainly was NOT official policy and seems to be a result of ICE employing services of a “gynecologist … an immigrant himself with an Indian name who presumably is not a native Spanish speaker.” [ https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/ice-hysterectomies-allegations-what-is-the-truth/ ] Of course, refusing to hire that doctor would have been prima facie proof of anti-immigrant discrimination.
         ~

         1. …and I seem to recall that once ICE realized what the hell the guy was doing, they sicced other law enforcement on his ass? Because he’s a freakin’ Frankestein/serial killer level of lunatic?

   4. I saw a rep from Diamond Comics on that list. Comic book distributors really can’t afford to be picky, but here we are. Maybe Uncle Joe will bail the comic book industry out right after Hollywood.

      1. Probably they thought “Marvel’s doing it, we should too!” and nevermind that I think the comics end of Marvel is in the toilet and been flushed several times already, and now is being gone after with a plunger…

         1. I thought that DC and Marvel were dead?

            1. no , they’re both being propped up by their respective parent companies.

   5. My reply to that letter would be “F*** You. Strong message to follow”.

      1. “If you were a dinosaur, my love” shouldn’t have been a grant proposal….

         https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-described-a-dinosaur-s-butthole-in-exquisite-detail

         1. Arggh. Just mentioning that story sends my blood pressure up. Kittens. Puppies. Beaches… Blain breach 🙂

            1. FWIW, John C. Wright did a *lovely* rebuttal to That Story a while back. I saw it on his blog, but it’s probably in one of his short story collections.

         2. I thought that was Nancy Pelosi’s biography.

   6. A summary, for those of us who can’t see it?

      1. Paraphrase: “Our country is in trouble not because of BLM and Antifa, but because conservative people are allowed to publish their sketchy books.

         “Any publisher that publishes Trump? That will be a “uniquely mitigating criterion.” We don’t swear to boycott or refuse to take their money, though.

         “Nobody from the administration that did X things should get a book deal. Even though those are all Obama things, not Trump things. And nobody who somehow supported the Capitol thing either, even though that was Antifa that did the bad stuff.

         “Those who ‘enabled, promulgated, and covered up crimes against the American people’ shouldn’t get any publishing money, even though that was all Biden and Obama, not Trump.

         “We should get all the money because we are virtuous, and everybody else is one of “the monsters among us.”

         “Signed, Bunch O’ People You Never Heard Of.”

         1. You realize that phrasing makes all urban fantasy a metaphor for life as a conservative. They’ve finally admitted that we’re the people who are unjustly hated, feared, and erased.

            Until the next time they have to pretend to be oppressed.

            1. Yes, we’ve been “Othered.”

               I’m so old I can recall when “othering” people was something the Left denounced.
               ~

               1. Then you probably also remember when they were in favor of free speech. Good times, good times.

                  On Wed, Jan 20, 2021 at 5:30 PM According To Hoyt wrote:

                  > RES commented: “Yes, we’ve been “Othered.” I’m so old I can recall when > “othering” people was something the Left denounced. ~” >

               2. Heh. It’s only and always been people of whom the Left approved that get to be victims of “othering.” When THEY do it, it’s righteous and correct! (Just as when they commit racism, sexism, homophobia, and other things they claim the right is eternally guilty of. It’s okay when THEY do it!)

            2. …The plotbunnies are stealing that. I dunno what they’ll do with it, like ravens, but they find it tasty.

         2. Of course, as Sen. Hawley has demonstrated, there are publishers like Regnery who will be de-effing-lighted to publish conservatives books and probably provide better editorial service and sales promotion.

            So what will those people do? Boycott B&N? (Like B&N puts conservative authors on the front display tables!) Boycott Amazon?
            ~

            1. I hope Regnery has the budget for a bunch of really good tax lawyers, because we know what’s coming next.

         3. Signed, Balph Eubank.

      2. Basically an open letter urging people in the publishing industry to not publish anything by any member of the Trump administration, signed (well, typed) by a long list of people (authors, publishers, random crazies) whose names (I got down to the Ds before I gave up) I don’t recognize.

   7. Earlier there was a link for folks to sign the letter (it’s a live document) but now I don’t see it. Unfortunate, since it just now occurred to me that it would be fitting to sign it with “Cordwainer Bird”….

9. Nice to see a lawyer who does not appear to have lost their mind.

   Gotta ask a question, since I’ve read this letter purporting to be signed by 157 heads of law schools.

   Do the words ‘fact’ or ‘facts’ have a special reading when used by lawyers, or does the plain ordinary reading suffice.

   1. Hey Bob, usually when we say “facts,” we mean facts of the case. As in what happened to lead up to the case being in front of the court.

      Can you link the letter you’re talking about? I’m curious about the context.

      1. Thanks.

         https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2021/01/157-law-deans-publish-rare-joint-statement-on-the-2020-election-and-events-at-the-capitol.html

         This doesn’t directly lead to the PDF. I think the PDF linked on this blog under ‘joint statement’ is the text as the one I pulled from a Harvard website.

      2. ‘Heads’ is a mistake on my part, the actual text says ‘Deans’.

10. Hey, I’m always willing to bite my nose off to spite my face. back in June I drove over 120 miles from North Pole to Healy, Alaska to buy a loaf of bread at a maskless store. OK, it’s also a fun drive with endless beautiful vistas and the occasional quick stop giving moose right of way crossing the road, so maybe masklessness was an excuse but the principal was there anyway.

    I do carry a mask when I head to town, that my savage teenage granddaughter made for me back in April, just in case I absolutely need it to buy something critical, like say, .308 WIN, but so far it’s stayed in my pocket.

    I hear you Amie, though I don’t fault the mask wearers (Fault them, no, laugh a bit at them, yes.), personal choice & I gotta admit, it does make it easy to tell which are the sheep.

    1. The wife and I have now twice gone to a store that’s about an hour drive from us to give them our business. Considering it’s a firearms store with an attached restaurant that’s thumbing their nose at our governors’ mandates, it’s worth the trip.

       It’s even funnier when you see a couple nuns (habits and everything) through the glass between the restaurant and the range, plinking away at targets (and the nuns are supporting the business.)

       1. We will go to any restaurant we hear of not requiring face diapers.

          1. Come on out and visit then!
             Heck, while you’re here, and visiting the range, if they’ve got the ammo for it, rent their 50cal Barrett rifle and send some downrange!

             I’ve even tried to con the wife into letting me figure out where to come up with $15k, they’ve got a 5-barrel Bulldog Gatling gun for sale.

             1. Gotta ask; whereat be that Gatling?

                1. Same place as the restaurant: Huron Valley Guns (https://www.huronvalleyguns.com/)

       2. Those are my kind of nuns!

          1. They’re *almost* scarier than the nuns when I went to Catholic school, with their rulers!

       3. We drove an hour+ to a brewery that wasn’t requiring masks and was ignoring the governor’s 25% capacity rule.

11. My Whole Foods here will, on request, allow you to enter without a mask if you allow them to take your temperature and answer three questions (“did you test positive/were you around someone who did/have you traveled outside the country”). I don’t know if that’s a company-wide policy, but it might be.

    The place is expensive, but they’re acting sane. So I shop there. That’s another piece: if places are acting sane, give them your business if you can, even if you have to sacrifice.

    1. There’s a spa that the wife and I have been going to for a long time, and while they’re requiring masks (and yes, even when you’re on the massage table, at least when you turn face-up) that we’re still going to despite this.

       Because we want to support both the owner and the staff, most of whom so far seem to have the same attitude towards masks as we do, but to keep a paycheck coming in, they’re wearing them.

12. The left does a much better job at putting pressure on corporations to enforce the leftist ideology. I feel like we should be shadowing them and every time they start one of those campaigns start a counter campaign. Is anybody doing that?

    1. THIS. And no.
       So, well done Spero. You’re in charge of this operation now.
       Keep an eye on it, and do me a post when we need to apply pressure and where.
       (WHAT? we’re now the True Americans Army. YOU VOLUNTEERED.)

       1. USAians Unite!

          Or is that redundant?

          1. It’s rhetoric. Redundancy is sometimes a good thing.

       2. I guess the first thing to do would be to start a list of leftist organizations that create such campaigns. Probably a very long list. Also, I get the impression that a lot of the effort is organized on Twitter, and though I technically have a Twitter account I’ve never used it. I guess watching for news items about lefty pressure campaigns might help.

          I do wonder if lawfare cases might be more effective in the long run — it feels to me that discriminating against people and businesses for reasons of ideology *ought* to be illegal. Maybe a list of right-leaning law organizations like Judicial Watch and the Thomas More society… Hmm…

          1. The courts are corrupt. The left has all the money. Boycotts are what we CAN do.

          2. Sites like https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/ can be a useful resource.

       3. TAA? Ah, to be sure, I think you mean the ARB/ARA. American Republican Brotherhood / Army.

    2. A counter campaign might not be a bad idea, but I was one of the people in a line of cars that wound around and around a Chik Fil A store when the unofficial Support Chik Fil A restaurants happened. Then the old man died, and the new owners shived us. Don’t know a way around it.

    3. Their better job is solely due to the fact that we can’t / won’t send Party troops to their businesses and assault them.

       1. It’s true that they have less to fear from the right. But I also think that a lot of it is the “false consensus” that platforms like Twitler provide, where the screeching and outrage come mainly from the left. I think they’re only getting outrage from one half of the political spectrum, so their perception of the PR issues is distorted.

          1. THIS

          2. Barack Obama was doing this to banks in Chicago before Twitter was ever thought of. See also Jesse Jackson, labor unions, etc.

    4. Forced conformity is a Leftist value. It is contrary to the values of Conservatives. So of course they do a better job of it. Satan does a better job than Jesus of corrupting and debasing people.
       ~

       1. Point. Herding sheep is easier than herding Huns.

          On Wed, Jan 20, 2021 at 5:37 PM According To Hoyt wrote:

          > RES commented: “Forced conformity is a Leftist value. It is contrary to > the values of Conservatives. So of course they do a better job of it. Satan > does a better job than Jesus of corrupting and debasing people. ~” >

       2. I’ve always been of the firm opinion that when Jesus (or G-D) describe people as sheep in the scriptures…it isn’t exactly meant to be flattering or complimentary…

13. > Supreme Court can be threatened

    A single order, and everyone from the Central Intelligence Agency to the National Park Service would have shielded them and their families while turning the country inside-out to find the perpetrators.

    They each swore the oath. They chose to break it. They were the final arbiters of justice; they sold us all out.

    1. The supreme court is only supreme so long as their errors do not merit appealing to the next court.

       1. Indeed. Several paragraphs in the Declaration were for judicial impropriety and malfeasance.

    2. THIS.

    3. Except when it’s everyone from the CIA to the National Park Service that’s doing the threatening.

14. > 6th by blowing up one riot

    Where was this riot?

    1. It’s where all the unarmed and mostly peaceful insurrectionists were touring The People’s House. Some rioter the authorities won’t name shot peaceful, unarmed Ashli Babbitt.

    2. The Capitol Open House Day Walking Tour.

       Even mostly peaceful protests require arson, and there was none of that.

       There is no evidence of a riot.

    3. You know, that’s something I was thinking about today. Now, granted, I don’t generally visit the heavily left-leaning news sites (CNN) but there doesn’t seem to have been much coverage of any ACTUAL rioting in DC after the first day.

       Saw a couple photos attached to articles (fine, yes, I browse Fox News online,) but that was IT.

       No breathless reporting of burned buildings, destroyed cars, and beyond the 4-5 people who died (lets see if I recall right, 1 shot in the Capitol Building, 1 PO who may or may not have been killed with a fire extinguisher, and 3-4 people who died from medical issues,) that’s been IT.

       Is it really a riot if no one came?

       1. No. I wouldn’t even classify it as a riot. People were storming the castle, going between the ropes in an orderly fashion, and they took selfies in offices. There was supposedly a cop killed, and a woman there was shot by a cop. No fires, no real looting, no real destruction, but that was a “riot,” according to the MSM.

    4. If they had been chanting “no borders, no walls, no USA at all” and other “social justice” slogans instead of “stop the steal”, they would have been praised by the Democrats and their media arm for the “peaceful direct action”.

    5. The Unguided Tour Of The Capitol Building. Which occasioned much Aimless Wandering Around, a number of folks Taking Selfies With The Statues, and other such Subversive Activity.

       All of which caused The Help (otherwise known as the Congresscritters) to wring their hands, cower in closets, wet their diapers and call for a military occupation of our Nation’s Capital which makes it look just like East Berlin. Although they’re too paranoid about those 25,000 scary-looking soldiers to actually issue them any ammunition.

       The minefields and guard towers go in NEXT month, after the guards swear loyalty to The Party.

15. I care for and shop for three older folks, one 94 and the younger 2 in their mid 70s both with risk factors like asthma and past bouts with cancer. So yeah, I’ll wear a mask because if it reduces my chance of passing a possibly lethal (and very unpleasantly lethal) disease onto people I love, it’s not being brainwashed or kneeling or anything else. I’m not sure masks do much, but I don’t want to watch my extra Mom figure drowning in her own juices or my bestie or her husband on ventilators. So as much as I loathe people shaming people to wear masks, I equally loathe people shaming others for wearing them when everyone may have a different motivation for doing so.

    1. There is no shame in believing in something that is untrue–masks do nothing but compromise your immune system.
       You come at your decision from a loving place–you are doing good work.

    2. I don’t think anyone here is trying to shame anyone for wearing a mask if they make the decision to do so themselves. We’re just railing about being forced to do so when the efficacy of said masks is at best questionable.

       1. Getting 1st shot tomorrow. I’m in the last cohort of the in-hospital group who got the shots first. State is distributing vaccine to public dispensaries starting next week targeting the 75 and older first. I’ll wait a week after the second shot (some 25 to 35 days later-depends on which vaccine I get), and ditch the mask and shout down anyone who tries to make me wear one after that.

    3. Actually the mask doesn’t. Study after study shows it doesn’t. UNLESS you wear an N-95 mask.
       And btw, if you’re asymptomatic you don’t pass it on. THAT TOO has been proven.
       THAT SAID I understand appeasing the fears of th elderly.

       1. New paper in The Lancet on a retrospective study of household transmission at https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30981-6/fulltext

          Yeah, it’s from the Middle Kingdom Where God-Emperor Xi the Pooh reigns with a fist of iron, but the bottom line makes sense:

          Within households, children and adolescents were less susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection but were more infectious than older individuals. Presymptomatic cases were more infectious and individuals with asymptomatic infection less infectious than symptomatic cases.

          1. The Lancet has been caught favoring politics over medicine before. So they’re somewhere between Fauci’s latest revelations and CNN as far as trustworthiness.

16. Remember, as said above, that some people don’t have a choice. The military order to wear masks is still in place, so until it’s rescinded service members don’t have a choice. And not everyone in the military is in the E-4 Mafia and can get away with thumbing their nose at the order.

    And, as a side note, my general response to them telling me to kneel is to respond in the inimitable manner of Sean Connery on Celebrity Jeopardy. “Kneel? Your mother was on her knees for me last night.”

17. Someone on Rumble suggested flying the flag permanently at half-staff.
    “Who died?”
    “Freedom.”

    1. And upside down…

       1. that’s been the leftoid’s trick whenever a “R” is in office

          1. I thought they just burned the flag.

             1. oh, they do that too. They can’t seem to make up their minds. oh wait, they’ve lost them.

    2. Funny…but nuh-uh. The only thing that’s over is that inning. Grab your gloves and let’s get out there and get three outs any way we can. Then it’s our turn at bat again.

18. Gerard, over at American Digest has a great little list of things we don’t want to forget during this 4 year socialist experiment; http://americandigest.org/how-beautiful-we-were/

    1. Put in the links page, so I remember to link at insty?

19. Purely financial: nearby town has fines in place.

    But, I can walk into the store and say “Still doing that mask nonsense? When will your city council learn basic biology?” Loudly.

    Because ridicule is also a thing. And, for now, ridiculing city council is very popular.

    To be fair, this is the town where it is illegal to not smile. (See any list of top however many absurd laws.) It has been widely pointed out that it’s impossible to enforce the smile mandate (which is not enforced anyway) together with the mask mandate. They set themselves up for ridicule, and it’s a fairly popular sport here. (The city council when I was a kid did a smile fundraiser thing where THEY and other city leaders would get ‘arrested’ for not smiling and fundraise for charities as ‘bail’. The current, not so.)

    1. I’m surprised the town hasn’t caught flak yet from the types of feminists who complain so hard about the “You look prettier when you smile” line.

    2. Smile.
       Like a Kzinti.

       1. I have been accused of having a Kzin attitude many times. Born in the year of the tiger, I was!

          1. we were born the same year? Yeah.

             1. Breathe-like a dragon.

       2. Nope – smile like a human smiling at a Kzin on purpose.

          1. Unfortunately, I’m not from Jinx. So hand to hand against a Kzin is out of the question.
             But I’m I pretty damn good shot.

             1. There’s a great scene at the start of something set after multiple Human-Kzin wars where the MC is sitting in a Kzin nature preserve and a Kzin parent with a cub in tow walks into view – MC smiles mouth closed, and the Kzin locks eyes, so he smiles showing teeth, and the Kzin – shuffles the cub off away from the crazy human.

                He ponders that the Kzin may be actually learning from their multiple defeats.

       3. I need one of those sets of press-on vampire fangs.

20. You all already know about the manipulated/inflated case numbers, and the cosplay theatre of masks all with the deliberate political motives. But they aren’t the worst truths.

    “Yes, people died …”

    You’re right, they did, are still, and will continue to … but why?

    https://odysee.com/@MirrorContents:7/d2:4

    The simple fact is that almost no one “diagnosed” with Covid actually has it (if you have to run 40+ cycles of PCR to detect it you’re imagining it – see ‘The epidemic that wasn’t’) and almost every death supposedly due to it is directly caused by over-treatment.

    All those placed on ventilators when they knew it was not only contraindicated but actively harmful. All those given large, often massive, doses of drugs known to reduce, or even negate, the patients immune system leaving them vulnerable to any passing opportunistic infections, whilst either refusing, or misusing safe proven medications. All those who will present major or fatal side-effects from untested vaccines.

    All for political reasons.

    So? People who haven’t been infected are being placed on ventilators and pumped full of immunosuppressants and consequently dying in windrows. It’s not just theatre to gain power, it’s eugenics writ large. Remember the very people running this are the very ones who believe the world is overpopulated.

    Assuming you catch it the absolute last place you should go is a hospital (and I’m a nurse saying that).

    (Also all the clinical and laboratory staff I have spoken to are adamant that they will not take either of the mRNA vaccines, the virologists and microbiologists so vehemently they basically state they’d rather face unemployment and removal of registration. Just a thought).

    1. What’s truly nuts is the push to have people who have had Covid19 & recovered to get vaccinated.
       Wait a minute – how does vaccination work again? People who had measles don’t get the measles vaccine…

       1. Almost. IIRC the shingles vaccine is the same stuff as goes into the chicken pox vaccine. The problem being we live so long now that the dormant chicken pox virus in us has a weakened immune system to attack a second time. We used to die before we had to worry about shingles.

          1. Certainly we may find that the immunity fades in time as it does with some other diseases. But since followup studies on recovered Covid19 patients show immunity lasts at least 9 months (the limit of our current data sets) shouldn’t recovered patients be last on the list to get vaccinated? Juan Williams who just recovered has his scheduled for this week…

             1. Ah, but that’s the thing …

                The Flu vaccines have been around for decades and they have between 10% and 60% (average 40%) effectiveness due to multiple strains. You have the Flu, or the vaccine, and a day/week later you can still catch a different strain. Those new strains of Covid are already out there so those hyped vaccines will probably be just as ineffective.

                The fact that they are entirely untested with a current estimate of 21% serious side effects (from facial paralysis through debilitating weakness up to anaphylaxis, significant neurological damage and death). Influenza is caused by an Orthomyxoviridae type virus. Covid is a Coronaviridae and … there has never been a vaccine for any such that did not fail at the animal testing stage due to major, and often ‘unpleasantly’ lethal, side-effects.

                So? They wont just want you to take the vaccine now, but annually and, like Flu, dependent on which strain is circulating that season. Now calculate your chances of getting a serious side-effect (21% each time) from taking a vaccine that probably wont protect you from a virus that has a tiny mortality rate (assuming the doctors don’t kill you).

                Just as with the mask farce, insisting on vaccination is all about submission, humiliation and compliance (and a guaranteed annual billion dollar income for big pharma and politicians supporting them) rather than any rational scientific basis.

                1. Based on our data set of 1600+ vaccinated in the hospital (about half moderna, half pfizer), with no serious side effects, and few side effects other than a day or two of sore arm, I’d say the risks are less than that for Typhoid or Yellow Fever vaccines.

                   We’ll have to wait a while before we can say anything about efficacity.

                   1. Interesting, thanks.

                      Are these are first dose only? Whilst your data is reassuring to an extent with the ‘rush’ development, deployment pre phase 3 trials (both have now apparently completed animal trials – I wonder how thorough they are when long term effects are impossible to know yet), advise is still for ER etc. teams to be administered in a staggered pattern as it is expected that many of those receiving ‘will’ be debilitated, and uptake amongst health professionals is ‘spotty’ at best (not a good optic, happy to give, but not to receive it themselves).

                      There are multiple reported instances throughout the world of significant side-effects and overt Covid infection post 2nd dose, as well as questionable deaths. How accurate they are or how representative … and this is the point … nobody yet knows, and yet there is a mass vaccination programme being enacted, effectively without any concern.

                      PCR is ‘not’ a diagnostic tool (as you’ll be more aware than most – see 2006 Dartmouth). Covid deaths, when actually directly attributable, are almost always treatment related (see the guidelines requiring 2400 mg HCQ based on an idiotic misinterpretation), etc.

                      So rather than exchanging a small risk for small percentage of at risk people for an unknown (but possibly/probably considerably larger) risk for … everyone? They may be fine, work exactly as advertised, but nobody knows but … damn the torpedoes …

                      Whither Rights, Informed Consent, and The Hippocratic Oath?

                      1. They’re starting second doses for first cohort next week; so we’ll see how the reactions go.

          2. RIght – so give those folks, those who ha dit and recovered, an appointment to get their C19 vax in 30 years.

       2. Yep – and why do they have to wear masks? President Trump, Melania Trump, Rand Paul – everyone that ever had the bug, whether confirmed by testing positive or not, and got better, can’t get it and can’t give it.

          If that is not true, then the vax won’t work either, and we just have to send the old folks over the top and accept the casualties.

          And if they got it and were asymptomatic – then they still got it.

          And if they were exposed and fought it off – they already have immunity.

          Again, can’t get it, can’t give it.

          So why the mask, science-based-Marxist-governance folks?

          1. My wife, three of her four daughters and two of their partners got it just before Christmas and have since recovered. I did not socially distance from my wife, I took care of her. I was asymptomatic and tested negative after she recovered. There’s no reason any of us should have to wear the face diaper.
             We all had our delayed Christmas celebration this past Saturday.

          2. …but just a few months ago, the CDC was telling us you could get sick from the virus multiple times.

             That’s the problem with socialist countries. You have to find out what the “facts” are that particular day before venturing an opinion… and then when the facts change, your wrong opinion is still out there like a time bomb. So better to shut up and go with the flow…

             1. CDC – Clueless Disease Center

    2. *shuffles around in lunch trash looking for a grain of salt*

    3. hmm, just learned Odysee won’t play here at work.

    4. Gee, look what happened yesterday:
       https://pjmedia.com/columns/stacey-lennox/2021/01/20/the-who-finally-updates-its-covid-19-testing-policy-1-hour-after-bidens-inauguration-n1398857

       All of a sudden CDC / WHO is now telling Drs to take into account how many PCR cycles were used when someone is tested for COVID…

       Any bets that within about 2 weeks we’ll be hearing stories about how COVID cases are falling! We’ve beaten the COVID thanks to his royal highness, “Sleepy” Joe!

21. I love the sentiment, but the reality for many is not possible.

    2020 has shown we need to completely re-align the power of government, especially over business operations. In CA, if you enter a business without a mask, you don’t just risk getting ejected and yelled at, you risk getting arrested and charged for criminal trespass. You may never be convicted, but imagine what just the arrest will do to you when it comes to future job prospects. It doesn’t matter that these health orders are unconstitutional under both the U.S. Constitution and the CA Constitution. The business risks being closed, at least temporarily, with a high risk of losing its license.

    This is the part that chafes the most for me (partly because of personal experience, I will admit), but you need a license to open a business. Any business. Many trades and professions require a specific license. CA requires more jobs to be licensed than an other state, but there are plenty who are close behind. In fact, there are very few occupations these days that don’t require a special license, often with burdensome requirements to qualify. You need a license to cut hair or be a security guard, even the kind that doesn’t carry a gun. You can get around the licensing requirement, sort of, if you’re just working for someone else. But, not always; some jobs require every employee performing certain functions to be licensed.

    Oh, but the general business license and professional licenses aren’t enough. You need to make sure your facility is ADA compliant, so you need to comply with building codes and deal with code enforcement. Oh, and then there is the health department. Sure, they’re mostly for restaurants.. and tattoo parlors … and salons… and massage services … Now, it helps if you own the property your business uses because it’s easier to make any changes. Oh, and if your use is properly zoned and permitted, then you only need to worry about whether the neighbors will try to shut you down because they don’t like the color of your front door (true story). Don’t, whatever you do, ever buy a building that is old and might be considered “historical.” Ever.

    When you have to go through all that to start and keep a business, wearing masks and asking customers to wear them becomes a trivial demand.

    1. There are no trivial demands.
       Only deaths by 1000 cuts.

       1. I think he is describing the death. Masks just happen to be one of the 1000.

22. Since nothing else worth noting is happening today, Happy National Cheese Lovers Day!

    https://nationaltoday.com/national-cheese-lovers-day/

    1. cheese.
       Dupont has disappeared from the Michigan store shelves. I think they have it in the Wisconsin side.
       Their 2 and 5 yr Sharp Cheddars are great (by compression or something they age like 5yr and 10yr respectively with less grain crystals)
       Steve’s in FLowers (iirc) is really good too. Possibly my uncle’s old cultures being used.

23. “Bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation,” Biden continued. “And I ask every American to join me in this cause.” Biden said the country must “fight the foes we face,” which he said includes “anger, resentment and hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness, hopelessness.”

    1. MY MIDDLE FINGERS ARE RIGHT HERE. ALL THAT SHIT IS ON HIS SHOULDERS.

    2. So, FICUS is sayin’ he doesn’t much like the results of Democrat policies??

    3. Just think of Biden at this point as the Mouth of Sauron. He was a divisive power hungry ambitious man who always sought power, did not want to ever give up power, and in order to hang on to continue the pursuit of power now has no independent will of his own and is purely a puppet of the Dark Lord he serves, spouting out the lies that are given to him to spew.

       1. That really fits. Scary.

24. The left is coming up with lists to punish people who think differently then them. “Have you now, or have you ever been….” apparently has morphed into a good mantra somehow. What they don’t quite seem to fathom is that other people can have lists as well. I don’t fully expect them to understand this as our education system, even around here, has become quite useless. (Last night on the way back from dance I was asking my 4th grader something and we ended up discussing what she know of history. Let’s just say that the entirety of what she knows is completely from Scooby Doo episodes. Greeks? -No idea. Romans? -No idea. They were in charge of the area where Jesus was born. -Oh.The British Empire? -No idea. Their the ones who settle in North America and established the 13 Colonies. -Like Texas, Florida, New Mexico and Arizona? ….) But, we can probably keep our lists in our heads. If communists and their fellow travelers start disappearing as things turn hot, oh well. Lists are good right now, I guess. Until Not like that! comes back to bite them in the posterior because they couldn’t comprehend anything beyond obvious, primary, results. Secondary? Tertiary? Forget about it, doesn’t exist to them.

    1. Never mind the spelling errors.

       1. spelling? Here? I hates the Spellings. bad shows and bad acting
          wait

    2. Grab some episodes of Horrible Histories from the web. I could pick nits here and there, but any liberals who actually *watched* many of them would be very unhappy.

       1. Remember when History Channel and Military History Channel aired history shows all the time, and all kinds of random people would discuss historical stuff they’d noticed during a channel flip?

          And then the corporation turned it into an aliens and Jesus hating channel. Funny, that.

          1. You forgot Hitler. AHC stands for the All Hitler Channel whenever I look. A few down there’s the Aliens channel, and then the oohgaboohgaghosthunters channel. Then there’s the multitude of People Walking Around In Alaska channels, the People Fishing For Crabs Near Alaska channel, the veterinarian’s channel, the zoo channel, and waaaay down on my channel numbering stack (and another ownership) on Smithsonian it’s Air Disasters and now Sea Disasters all day every day.

             That is why if I watch these days I do so on streaming.

             1. Exxxaaactly. When I’m in a mood to go spelunking for interesting things to watch, I go to YouTube (even though they are on my soon-to-be-dunked list) for interesting and eccentric things. The Moyseiev Ballet company. Performances of Gilbert and Sullivan musicals. The Red Poppy Ranch home reno and construction videos. All kinds of odd things.
                The History Channel could have been so good, you know. Old movies. Old documentaries on various topics. Reruns of documentary series like World at War, and Burns’ Civil War. They could have gone to town on all that … but they didn’t.
                Eh. Programming fail.
                They could have been great.

                1. I don’t mind using Youtube; I have their ads blocked, so I cost them money.

                   1. Try the steam technology series from the BBC, hosted by Fred Dibnah. (there are several)

                      I can’t understand him half the time either, but he’s so enthusiastic about his subject it doesn’t matter.

                      Most similar shows have “presenters” and scripts. Fred was just delighted to have an audience for his monomania…

          2. The History Channel actually has some good stuff posted on their YouTube channel. I’ve been watching _How the Earth was Made_ and _Engineering an Empire_ in the last few days. There have some others, including Battles BC. You just have to sort through the garbage to get the nuggets.

             1. Right – you can’t depend on programming these days since someone decided to emulate binge-watching patterns and show eps of the same show all day long – You gotta go streaming.

    3. Totalitarian style ideological purity is to be rigorously enforced. One of Harris/Biden’s first actions today was to demand every federal agency perform an “equity” review; leftist Critical Race Theory is now official policy and government programs and agencies will use it as its guide.

       The only missing will be the yellow stars on clothing.

       1. The best way I can think of to make sure something doesn’t happen is to order all federal agencies to do it.

    4. Our lists are considered “sedition”. Their lists are considered, “free speech”.

    5. Presented without additional comment:
       https://safr.kingfeatures.com/api/img.php?e=gif&s=c&file=TWFsbGFyZEZpbGxtb3JlLzIwMjEvMDEvTWFsbGFyZF9GaWxsbW9yZS4yMDIxMDEyMF8xNTM2LmdpZg==
       ~

       1. Sigh – I feared that wouldn’t appear. Other sites offering Mallard Fillmore in simple jpg conformation do not yet have the 001-20-21 strip.

          Sigh.
          ~

          1. http://www.jewishworldreview.com/#toons

             Daily toons (you may have to scroll down). Enjoy.

             1. I checked there – they’re a few days behind the Mallard Fillmore strip. The Wednesday strip is, as yet, unavailable in jpg or png form.
                ~

       2. https://safr.kingfeatures.com/api/img.php?e=gif&s=c&file=TWFsbGFyZEZpbGxtb3JlLzIwMjEvMDEvTWFsbGFyZF9GaWxsbW9yZS4yMDIxMDEyMF8xNTM2LmdpZg==

    6. Forged in Fire is fun.

    7. You know, it really does seem that the Dems just DO NOT think about anything beyond the “does this benefit me / us NOW?” when doing something.

       The nuclear option in the Senate? Yay, we can ram through our policies without having to deal with the filibuster, what could EVER go wrong?
       What do you mean now that the EVIL Republicans hold the Senate they’re using it the same way?!? That’s NOT FAIR!

       They seem to do these things without thinking about the possibility that at some point, they won’t be the ones in charge. Then when someone uses it against them, let the wailing commence.

       1. They are counting on being able to not only pack the Supreme Court and rig election rules to ensure they are able to keep frauding, but to add enough permanent Democratic Party Senate seats (such as 2 in DC), that would enable them to keep power forever. They will criminalize dissent and impose totalitarian control. The Constitution will be effectively shredded and meaningless. Remember these are the people who think that LIBERTARIANS and everyone else who believes in individual rights and freedom are the fascists.

          1. And not realizing that that would be the sort of thing likely to send conservatives and Libertarians over-the-edge (or at least right on the edge and someone behind them gently pushing so that they keep inching closer and closer to going over)

             Then things explode and they’ll be standing around with stunned cow looks going “what happened, why did they do this?”

             1. Nope – they say “See! I told you they were all evil!”

                1. ^This. They’re counting on being able to garner sympathy and/or aid from the “rest of the world” (ie, the Euro-crats they’re so enamored of) to point to libertarians, etc and say “JUST LOOK at these BARBARIANS! They must be eliminated!”

                   1. The Eurotrash have always hated us. “They DON’T HAVE KINGS!! That is sooo Eeevul! They have to bow down, just like us!”

                      Whether they bow to royalty or kommissars makes no difference, EVERYBODY must bow down. USAians will not, therefore we are Eeevul.

                      Trump would not bow down to anybody, and was ‘not Presidential’ — did not demand that people bow down to him. That upset their world order. Inconceivable!!
                      ———————————
                      There is no shortage of people convinced they can create the perfect world. They just have to eliminate all those imperfect people who don’t fit in it.

             2. They intend to prevent a flash point, no doubt. One wonders if they can really pull it off.

             3. If we’re going to engage in discussion of “Things Liberals Don’t Realize” we are going to need a much bigger blog.
                ~

       2. That’s the purpose of Pelosi’s proposal: to ensure enough voter fraud to allow only a RINO majority.

25. One of the few kneel pictures I approve of:
    

    1. I have no idea how to insert gifs in WP, but imagine the Cary Grant gif with the “Get Out” one that’s used for really awful puns 😀

26. I was just telling my daughter (in-law) today that this leftist propaganda has been infiltrating our country since the 50’s (at least). It has been so subtle, so insidious people did not notice. Oh, they may have said, wait a minute that is not right, but ignored it and figured they were just being picky. Until Americans realize they cannot just sit back and go with the flow, to stop being silent, to stop voting for a party totally uninformed on WHO they are voting for, until people stop saying, off the top of their head “On that is a feel good idea or law, until people wake up we are doomed. It matters when a society would rather feel.good then do what is right for the long run. It matters when we pull God and morality out of our schools, our businesses, our very lives. It matters. If people are not being able to see it with the outrageous currently being played across the medis NOW then we truly deserve the horror that is coming.

    1. We did NOT vote this in.

       1. When I was young – last century don’t you know – we got a television in 1955. At the time public service ads would pop up from time to time demanding that one think correctly – that was never directly said, just subtly implied. One that even at my young age bothered me was one depicting someone as a “One Man Band.” The end of the spot finished up with, “If you want good harmony, takes more than one, takes two or three.” Subtly disparaging individualism while doing social good. At little later ad spots warning drivers to take their keys out of the car, “Don’t help a good boy go bad.” WTF Good boys don’t steal cars.

          No we didn’t vote any of this in. The push has been going on for a long, long time.

27. Kneel? With my knees? I don’t think so. Ain’t gonna happen.
    ~

28. I have a couple of places I need to get into that absolutely won’t let you in without a thief’s face disguise. I have written “1984” on both sides of mine with a wide magic marker. I also pull it down below my nose and they usually don’t bitch and moan about it.

    1. Another good idea! I love the picture of pulling my “forgotten” mask out of my pocket and letting them take in 1984 written across it.

29. The same Democrats and media which spent the last four years hyperventilating that Trump was “creating a cult of personality like a dictator” has spent the day engaging in full cult worship of Biden in the same manner they did for eight years of Obama. When people praise non-leftists, it is cult of personality time. When leftists are feted as if they just became Emperor of Rome, they are given the full-fledged “we welcome our new god” treatment. Utterly nauseating.

    1. Forgot the link to Breitbart in the above (also posted in the interesting links section)

       https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2021/01/20/msnbcs-reid-we-have-gone-from-trumps-indecency-idolatry-to-bidens-true-religion/

       It really IS a religion to the Democrats/left, and THE STATE is their god.

30. Just in case it wasn’t clear that Harris/Biden is all in on facilitating Israel’s destruction and the mass murder of Jews:

    https://lidblog.com/robert-malley-iran/

    Yep a PLO supporting hater of Israel is going to be Harris/Biden special envoy to Iran. He is just one of a slew of haters of Israel and open haters of Jews who have been selected for senior positions in the Harris/Biden administration.

    1. I know.

    2. I just read online that the US Special Envoy to Israel is now officially the US Special Envoy to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Wow, the “Palestinians” are so very important that they get TWO homelands … and no doubt, that first of the three names is considered theirs too.

       I don’t want to die. I want to kill. So there.

       1. yeah.

31. “The Supreme Court can be threatened to let through socialist programs against the Constitution with a court packing plan, a la FDR.”

    Wouldn’t it be fun if the “conservative” Justices “found” a Constitutional bar to court packing? I’m sure it is in there, at least as much as the “right” to abortion, gay marriage, group marriage, pet animal companion marriage, self marriage, and the right to drain a willy in the Ladies’ loo.
    ~.

    1. They’d have to have spines to find that. Which they patently do not.

32. “They had to have the public convinced that the person next to them could kill them, put them at risk, so they report on each other.”

    In fairness, it is far quieter (and less tiring) than the old method: requiring you to walk ringing a cowbell and calling out “Unclean!”
    ~

    1. I actually did that one day. “Unclean! Unclean!!” No one got it. *sigh*

       1. Maybe you didn’t have enough Cowbell. You need Moar Cowbell!! 😀

33. “I say again, stop following the fucking rules!”

    OTOH, any time you observe a public official out sans mask – drop a dime, report the bastard, karen them full-throatedly. DO NOT ALLOW them to live by rules different from those they attempt to impose.

    Hell, do it even if the prick is wearing a mask. If necessary claim they were not wearing it properly or even that you thought their mask was off. Do this even if you are not, yourself, masked (“No, I am not wearing one of your damned masks and you haven’t legal authority to make me — but you have declared masks mandatory and you have an obligatioin to support the rules you impose.”
    ~

34. Disney announced they’re making an animatronic Joe Biden* to add to their animatronic presidents collection. Personally, I’ve always found those things rather freaky and inhuman, but this time it might seem more human than the real thing.

    1. GAG. THrows up.

    2. They can save a bunch of money on the animatronic Biden, I think. First, they can just program a speech synthesizer to spout random word salads. Then they can have a little girl in front of him so his hands can be all over her, saving the programming of realistic arm motions…

       1. It has to have full motion so every time the female secret service agent figure walks in it can strip and jump in the pool.

    3. Animatronic 周扒殿*

       Hmph.

       How will they tell if it gets swapped for the muppet one they are using now?

       1. If he moves fluidly and speaks coherently we’ll know it’s Robo-Biden.

       2. The muppet one will sound less demented, and won’t sniff the hair of women nearby.

    4. They already have one sitting in the Oval Office.

35. Pingback: A Candle For Our Freedom | Powered by Robots

36. Finishing up a blog post dovetailing off of this one. Watch for the pingback.

37. I note no mention about what do do when it’s your doctor or your pharmacist who won’t let you in without a mask.

    “If the store says you have to have one to get in, ask politely if there’s exceptions, if not, don’t shop there.”

    And if every single place you can buy food in your area is the same? Should one just refuse to buy food at all, and hope one’s stored supplies last long enough that restrictions are lifted before one starves to death?

    “Same for restaurants saying you have to wear one to your seat”

    Lucky you, to live in a place where restaurants allow you a seat at all. By order of our Acting Mayor, all restaurants are shut down for anything but takeout or delivery, indefinitely. All bars and entertainment venues are shut down completely (as, IIRC, are the churches).

    “The former ones lose your business permanently.”

    And after every single place that sells food where I live has lost my business permanently, I guess I just never buy food again… and starve to death.

    And before anybody says, “just go to the next town/county over,” I doubt many of you save fellow Alaskan Jim understand how far apart things are up here… and it’s even worse when you don’t have a car, and all the buses and cabs require you to wear a mask to get on.

    (I know, I know, cue the denunciations.)

    1. No one has to eat in a restaurant. I don’t know where you live, but I would be wildly surprised if there wasn’t some grocery store that was “lenient” about your fascist government’s mask requirement. Especially if you’re in a part of the country as sparsely populated as you imply. If you are, buses and cabs are very unlikely, too. I know, I’ve lived rurally almost all my life.

       And if by some unlikely chance you actually don’t have any groceries that wouldn’t force you to wear a mask, there’s always the black market. If you claim there isn’t one wherever you are, you just don’t know where it is. There’s always a black market when some things are made illegal.

       1. There isn’t any here, Doug.
          So, I wear a face shield.

          1. Nor here. The best I can figure to do is write UNDER PROTEST in red sharpie on the face-thing.

             There’s a real problem of “When you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow” here. Any place that doesn’t enforce gets shut down. My local barber[1] was willing to do Irish Democracy, until the local health department came down on him with an official edict of “No masks? No business. And Big Brother WILL be watching.”

             [1] The kind with hunting trophies and pro-gun slogans on the walls as decor.

             1. You can carefully cut out the two inner layers on those cheap masks, leaving just the blue mesh that’s easy to breath through. The sign just says you must wear a mask covering your nose & mouth. It doesn’t say anything about the filter quality.

          2. But you’re not in a rural area like Kevin says he is, Sarah.

    2. What denunciations?
       Are you still delusional? You keep telling us to denounce you. We have no idea what for.
       BAH.
       She knows I live with those conditions too. Note “unless you can’t.” DUH

       1. “We have no idea what for.”

          Well, in my experience, the usual in spaces like this (right-wing, mostly religious) seems to be “committing the sin of despair”; “refusing to let Jesus into my heart”; or that this being a war, maintaining morale is essential, and that criticizing “the plan” weakens that morale, and is thus the act of either a “perdiferous traitor” (as one once called me) or an enemy agent of demoralization (that latter accusation has been sometimes accompanied by questions of whether my “masters” are paying me in yuan or shekels). Or that, when I “poke holes” in someone’s proposal, I’m challenged to propose an alternative proposal, and denounced when I don’t have one on hand (as if that somehow invalidates my criticisms). Or else, they conclude that my disagreement on *methods* must actually be a disagreement on *goals*, and that I must clearly be a leftist pretending to be on the right to perform “concern trolling.” Or when I point out how elements of my personal circumstances — particularly my disabilities — inhibit me from performing the advice in question, I get back that, since success is guaranteed if only you *want* it hard enough, my failure to overcome my disabilities through sheer willpower is proof I’m just a lazy whiner who just doesn’t *want* to succeed.

          (For the mostly-*irreligious* right-wing spaces, take the above, remove the religious parts, and add in arguments about how, as a disabled person, my “natural place,” per the theory of “Bio-Leninism,” is on the left voting Democrat in exchange for handouts, and that the fact I’m even *alive* is evidence of how dysgenic our current society is, along with greater exhortations to “man up,” lift more weights, and “have you tried *not* being autistic?”)

          In short, for being too negative and too defective to really “belong” on the Right, per most people’s opinion.

          1. I have to say if you use “usual spaces like this” you don’t know this space.

          2. “perdiferous traitor”

             Why do I hear that phrase in a Walter Brennan voice? 😀

          3. I think you can see from observation that you’re much more likely to get denounced for the sin of pseudo-environmentalism than those that you mention.

             1. It’s not the pseudo environmentalism that pisses me off about the current chew toy. It’s the unearned assumed superiority.

    3. I just look them in the face and say I have asthma. It’s one of the “legal” exceptions to wearing a mask.
       My saying so is a bald faced lie, but they started it with their BS.
       It’s also a HIPPA violation for them to ask for proof.

       1. Not here. I carry my inhaler, because if they make me wear the mask I will need it.
          But hey, ADA is no longer a thing.
          Note I can’t get doctor’s services IN PERSON without a mask. Which is just as well since now “because COVID”the doctor doesn’t TOUCH you during a physical.
          It’s like the goal is to kill as many of us as possible.

       2. THEY. WON’T. CARE.

          “Got Asthma? Order online and pick it up/have it delivered.”

          THE ADA SAYS THAT’S ILLEGAL.

          “Fine. Bring us a court order with your name on it.”

          1. THIS.

          2. What scares me? This is going to transfer to other pieces of the ADA.

             It is Discrimination! Pure and simple. Why? Separate but NOT equal. Not equal because: 1) You can’t choose to substitute, or not buy, if what you ordered is not in stock. 2) You can’t choose your fresh fruit and veggies. Doesn’t matter that the picker might be better at it than me (which I doubt). I’m not picking them. 3) It costs extra. I won’t pay the stupid local 10 cents per paper bag on principle.

             The only benefit is it is an employment program for additional employees whether through the store or subcontracting companies.

             Going forward I can see SD handlers being forced into these services whether grocery, restaurant, or other retail, because they are getting away with it with the pandemic. Right now the ADA specifically says SD handlers with their aid can not be denied entry even if someone is allergic or afraid of the service animal (which legally, in the US, can be either a dog of any size or type, or a mini-horse).

             1. And yet they deny it.
                And my problem? I get depressed if I don’t go out and see people.
                So, see? No two disabilities allowed. APPARENTLY.

                1. Disabilities are a limited resource. You are only allowed one. 😛

                2. Strange. You’d think that intersectionality rules would apply, and you’d got a gazillion more disability points for multiples. Oh well. Consistency is anathema to the left.

                3. Sarah, this problem has been around for a WHILE. We saw it in filking starting in the mid 90s. Tom Smith (who was always a Lefty, and has now gone Oblate Viridian Spheroid level TDS) wrote a huge number of amusingly obvious parodies based on Disney tunes. In spite of having a clear SCOTUS precedent, he had to withdraw ALL of them after the Mouse essentially said “Fine, you say it’s a parody. Let’s let SCOTUS confirm it.” Tom didn’t have enough money to fight it.

38. My car battery died, so I jump started for the nth time and rembered to head to the auto parts store. Walked in. Had totally forgotten about masks because I never wear one-my church doesn’t make me, my friends and I only go to restaurants that don’t care, the kids have a homeschool co op where none of us wear them, and I only shop pickup groceries now.

    I walked in past a sign in the door demanding a mask and told them I needed a new battery. They did stare for a couple seconds, but maybe that was because they could hear me rattle off the part number clearly. The store had dumb things on the floor and it looked for all the world like it was designed so I couldn’t reach the keypad thing, but I smiled, and the three clerks smiled, and I bought my battery, and the clerk brought it to my car.

    No one threw a fit, no one looked terrified. Try it. See what happens.

    1. Exactly. They all have signs saying you have to mask. Ignore the signs, make them throw you out. You’ll find in virtually all cases, they won’t. (At least here in one of the still-free states)

       1. I’m not even in a free state. I’m in NC.

          1. You’re welcome here in east Tennessee.

       2. Yeah. let’s talk about Colorado police.

          1. Or California.

             California’s disallowed sit-down dining at restaurants, again. LA County had banned it late last year (with Pasadena refusing to follow, which it could legally do because it has its own health department). And then the state decided that sounded like a good idea for all of California.

             How much you can ignore the rules really depends on where you live in the US. On Christmas Day, I saw someone riding a bike… and wearing a mask. When people do stupid things like that, you’re probably going to get jumped on if you try to refuse wearing one at the supermarket.

39. I fully agree. Masks are where I planted my feet in the ground.
    My friend and I have made a game out of it. If someone is coming to tell us to put on a mask we split up and make them chase us down. It’s great fun.

40. I really don’t wear a mask though and it’s astounding how rarely anyone says anything. I grant you, our location plays a part there. My very practise “I’m so clueless to what’s going on around me!” act really helps too. I put on a happy, dumb facade that throws people off their game.

41. People’s Republik of Kanada here, full lockdown central in Ontario. Here in the People’s Republik, it is good to have friends.

    ALL retail is curbside pickup-pickup only. Not only can you not go in the store, you can’t even ask for a product at the door most places. Any place determined to be “non-essential” is closed-by-order.

    But I got a burger today at McDonalds. And you can still shop as-normal at Costco, Walmart, grocery stores etc. Because… I guess Covid-19 is not transmissible inside a Big Box store? Or something?

    Also, the very essential movie industry is grinding right along, they are filming a Christmas movie in my old hometown of Ancaster. Filming continues on Wilson St. right in the middle of town, on the front lawn of the old town hall. Four other productions continue filming in Hamilton area as well. Because… I guess Covid-19 is not spread by the movie industry? Or something?

    It’s good to have friends, see?

    Meanwhile, the Liberal government of Kanaduh is introducing a new law that will protect Canadians against free speech. Because… me talking about Costco, Walmart and the movie companies being exempt from The Lockdown while I can’t even buy fasteners at the friggin’ hardware store might promote hate against minorities? Or something.

    So if I delete The Phantom Soapbox suddenly and my posts start reading like a Hallmark greeting card, that’s what happened.

    But on the subject of acting up, there has been an -unpublicized- anti-lockdown march down Yonge St. in Toronto every week since just after Christmas. Thousands of people just show up, every weekend. They listen to some speeches, have a march down the middle of the street, through the middle of hundreds of cops (pretty much -all- of the cops in town, usually) and then they go home. Zero. Media. Coverage.

    The last couple of times, marchers have been getting tackled and arrested if they don’t move along quick enough to suit the cops. The only reason I know about it is Blacklock Reporter and The Post Millennial blogs cover it. Apparently the cops wait until most of the people have gone home, then hammer the mouthy ones that are still hanging around.

    Flashback to maybe a few dozen #BLM/#Antifa fruitcakes BURNING COP CARS and taking over Nathan Phillips Square for weeks in the summer, during the very height of the Covid-19 panic. When the cops were arresting people for bothering the protesters. Yes, you read that right. Rebel News had their reporter guy get arrested because he was “harrassing” the #Antifa shit heads by asking them questions (like ‘what are you guys doing here?’) and taking their pictures.

    I’m strongly considering ditching life, becoming a street bum and going on welfare. Just being as heavy a drag on society as I can possibly manage.

    1. The only reason I knew about this protesting is because of a YouTube video I saw from Rebel News. I think I might flip out if the police grabbed me and started dragging me away, and it wouldn’t be by choice.

42. Well I thought he’d last longer than THAT pic.twitter.com/sFF2VdL05r

    — Just give out the vaccine who cares (@crumbbutler) January 20, 2021

43. Ni uasal aon uasal ach sinne bheith iseal: Eirimis!

    The great appear great because we are on our knees. Arise!

    James Larkin was labor and became a communist so quoting him here is delicious. We can do as the old colonel of the 14th of foot said when he had Ca Ira played as he attacked the revolutionaries and “beat them with their own bloody tune.”

    1. Cuir síoda ar ghabhar agus is gabhar i gcónaí é.

       Nó striapach … nó cumannaí …

       1. now, now. We revolutionaries can’t be picky about where we get the good lines.

    2. Speaking of commies, John Brennan of Russia collusion hoax infamy and voter for communist party candidates, stated on MSNBC that LIBERTARIANS are “religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, [and] nativists”.,

       The Democrats mean to crush individual liberty and freedom and are criminalizing dissent. This push to go full totalitarian is coming from the Democratic Party leadership, including Nancy Pelosi’s protégé Adam Schiff, who has taken the current laws that pertain to foreign terrorists and has introduced legislation to amend those laws to apply domestically; i.e. all of the tools used against hostile foreign states, such as warrantless surveillance, indefinite detention, etc., could be used domestically against American citizens.

       They have no intention of waiting or going slow in trying to literally get rid of political opponents.

       1. Analysis: Big Tech and the Great Reset (and that push to total dominance)
          One of the best short interviews on the subject I’ve seen.

       2. GAH.

44. Vote time:
    https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/213133-what-book-on-an-alternate-earth-with-magic-shall-we-read-in-february

45. Walked through the supermarket today, past the magazines. Lots of Kamala Harris covers, not one for Biden. Take that as you will.

46. Just saw a headline, “Why Kamala Harris wore purple”

    Hmm, let me guess, Commie LaWhorish, Mike Obama, and Killary all wore purple because they see themselves as royalty.

    1. No. They think they’re centrists.
       I’m sorry, should I have given a spew warning?

       1. good thing I am almost done with my margarita.

       2. MomRed is thinking about retiring her pearls for four years. I pointed out that I still wear white in summer, even though it’s “supposed to be” about the sufferagetts* et al.

          *Pelosi probably marched with Emmaline Pankhurst [Yeah, kitty’s got claws.]

          1. She probably marched with Lenin also, or at least Stalin. No doubt she has a copy of the Little Red Book under her pillow.

       3. The fact that purple is the same color of the Roman Emperors and their praetorian guard is pure coincidence, right (sarcasm voice). Their idea of “unity” and “cooperation” is complete and utter capitulation to their ideology and demands.

       4. Center of WHAT??!

          [thinking]

          Center of the whole damn world. NOW I get it!

          1. Apparently when Medieval thinkers referred to the Earth as “the center of the universe,” they didn’t mean it as a compliment. They thought Earth was at the center of the universe the same way that your intestines (and the orifice for evacuating them) was at the center of your body: it was the place where all the crap ended up.

             Maybe this crew IS at the center of the world.

       5. I am sure that keyboards everywhere would approve of a requirement to wear a mask while reading this blog.

          1. Wear a mask. The keyboard you save could be your own.

             1. Nah, just get an old IBM Model M keyboard. Got something in it? Take it outside and hit it with the hose.

    2. I recall that most interpretations of the DC villain The Joker also have purple as a significant part of their outfit. You know, the criminal psychopath who thinks nothing of committing mass murder if it strikes him as being funny?

       Probably not the symbolism they were aiming for, though. 😉

       1. Ooooh, good point!

          Or you could ask if they also had a green accessory, for Mardi Gras.

       2. She does have that laugh, however.
          ~

    3. Well, color of her dress aside, I do think it was quite fitting that her ensemble included a pearl necklace…

47. Ohio has the “Retail Compliance Unit” roaming around all 88 counties. So far, all they have done is warn businesses, but on the second warning they have the power to close a business for 24 hours, “to allow potential COVID-19 droplets to dissipate.”

    Last week they inspected 3,607 retail establishments and issued 11 warnings. Lovely. No closings yet, thank God. But apparently they are counting individual customers and employees, as to whether they think they are wearing masks properly. Bleh.

    So yeah, we are trying to be easy on the customers and ourselves, but there’s a big stick in the background.

    1. Ohio has the “Retail Compliance Unit” roaming around all 88 counties.

       But do they have spiffy leather trenchcoats? Asking the important questions.

       1. Uniforms by Hugo Boss.

48. Stolen from It ain’t Holy Water:

    

49. via the Insty open thread-sums up things quite well:

    

    1. In Pournelle’s CoDominium, America is ruled by a “Unity Party” with Democrat and Republican wings.

50. Well, does not sound like there was an accidental weapons discharge today.

    Anyway, the folks who put the NG composition together made a choice that looks good, superficially, from a security perspective, but which contained a flaw that they were probably not equipped to immediately cover.

    For an accident which completely by chance kills about forty Democrats, infantry is probably your best bet. Sappers would be if you thought you could get in enough explosive to bring most of the politicians to justice.

    So, pulling all the infantry from New Jersey, where the politicians would probably have made sure of the officers being politically reliable, makes sense. At first. But it is New Jersey, where the Democrats have been busily killing Grandma.

    Now, your successful regular infantrymen who go on to enjoy time in the reserves are probably going to be a little more stable and able to handle stress than average. So even considering the hell year, that none of the ones who’ve had Grandma murdered went postal is not a surprise.

    But ordinary armed forces security practices are not going to start out good at figuring who is related to someone the regime murdered, and might be taking it poorly.

    1. Arty. Set up the tubes anywhere in range, fire a time-on-target salvo cold, and if you can’t get it lased have your observer walk it on.

51. Here’s hilarious: The official White House video of the Potted Plant’s watering ceremony has been marked UNLISTED, so the wandering public cannot discover that it has 4013 Likes, 23,316 Dislikes.

    In the time it took me to write this post, it gained 8 likes, 316 dislikes. (There’s a little indicator mark on the line below the stats; if you hover over it, the exact numbers should pop up. May have to refresh page to get updated stats.)

    I’ve done my part to help goose the ratio.. For those who’d like to contribute:

    youtube DOT com/watch?v=LmIZmu7EY74

    Also, they’ve killed off all the Trump videos formerly on the channel. However, they’re still on the Bitchute channel (not sure they *can* be deleted from there).

    bitchute DOT com/channel/zWsYVmCOu4JA/

    Note: easy way to save Bitchute videos in your.. er, at least in my browser: Page Info, Media tab, scroll down to the .mp4 file, save as.

    1. It’s now up to 4155 Likes, 29,916 Dislikes.

       The trimmed version of Potting the Plant is here, and doing only slightly better:

       youtube DOT com/watch?v=q5iCPKDp4V4

       5091 Likes, 21,550 Dislikes.

       Yep, FICUS is provin’ real popular among the proles. Help him along. 😀

       I note too that these numbers approximately reflect the real voter numbers.

       Wonder how long it’ll take ’em to disable likes/dislikes (comments are already turned off).

52. Way too good a message to let a couple of typos blemish it. It’s “Bueller”, and “kneel” instead of “knell”.

    1. My posts, and I presume Amie’s are not paid for. So they are written in the moment, and then we go and work.
       When we get paid we’ll spend time proofreading.

53. Great post, Sarah. Not wearing a mask can make a difference. Quick story. Was doing a job in another state. First trip, hotel full of mask Nazis who would yell at us when we came in without masks. At 11 PM when literally no one else was there. Second trip, different hotel (obviously). Walk in at 10 PM, dude behind the desk–wearing a mask–greets me and says nothing of my masklessness. Next night, I come back from the job, same dude behind the desk, not wearing a mask! Greets me with a big smile (that I could actually see) saying, “Hey brother! How you doing? You have a great night!” Next morning, I head out, same dude, no mask, big greeting. Do not submit. If a business refuses to serve me without a mask, they lose a customer. Period.

    1. This. It can really happen. And more–people can see you SMILE. Humans are wired to feel safe when we see smiles and unsafe when we don’t. Lower the fear –show your smile.

       1. I’m not sure them being able to see me smile is that comforting to them. 😛

          But I don’t wear one except for at work, and even then only in a few specific circumstances because of potential Karens. (Food delivery, so if I don’t mask up at the customer’s door they know it.)

54. The story Sarah told about the coup members not being “all-in” was great. I will encourage others. We submit to God; but do not kneel to men.

    1. I like that. I’ll kneel before my God, but no one else.

55. I don’t know if this was already mentioned – but previously Sarah and others have mentioned maintaining contacts with local people. For the non-mask compliance, it would be great to gather a group of 10 or 20 and march into a grocery store. The more the better. Hang out inspecting the goods for 20 -30 minutes. Make a good show of it. The more there are, the harder for them to enforce anything.

56. Happy St. Agnes’ Day!

57. Okay, speaking as someone who has never done a lot with cash (because when i was young and stupid I tended to use it to buy books instead of saving it)…what’s the advice on the money front? Should I start slowly taking bits out of my government thrift savings plan (gov employee here) and squirreling it away in cash, or do we think that’s gonna end up pointless?

    1. Cash will still lose value, but it’s more ….. useable in the short term.
       Also I always recommend used gold. Not coins, jewelry. PARTICULARLY used wedding rings, because people expect you to have those even if you’re poor. Look in pawn shops and thrift shops.

       1. Aha. Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.

58. Incidentally, that supplemental (ie, ‘run by another company, usually Kaiser) insurance is a surefire way to get screwed over, as we found out with my grandmother. Who had allowed herself to be persuaded to link it to her Medicaid/Medicare…and the “supplemental” company then had final say over everything. Which meant that she did NOT get the full round of physical therapy when she broke her leg (because they refused to approve it), or when she had issues later, and they did their damndest to try and get her to sign something else that stated it was my parents’ fault she got injured, so they could come after my parents (because she was living with them when she broke her leg) because they couldn’t take the house she’d lived in (because she never owned it–my parents have since the 80s, and now I own it) and they wanted to take somebody’s house to cover their “costs.”

    The gov run stuff sucks, but the contract they gave to whatever “private” companies to “help” are worse.

    1. WP delenda est. This was supposed to be nested above to someone else’s reply.

    2. I’m 55, so none of this will apply to me for another ten years, by which time it may all be entirely moot for one reason or another.

       My real plan is just to never get sick. 😀

       1. My plan is not to die. 58 years of so far so good.

          1. Well, I figure that if I never get sick I won’t have anything to die of either. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

       2. Yeah. I remind myself that I’m “only” 40, and in pretty darned good health…barring one thing that will likely require me to have major surgery within the next ten years, which is one reason I kinda have to keep the gov job, grrr.

       3. “What’s your secret for living to 100?”
          100-year-old man: “Don’t die.”

59. Asthma. Just say you have asthma as you pass by the guardian at the gate without a mask.
    It’s illegal for them to ask further under HIPPA.

    Doesn’t matter that you had to BS your way in, as people see fewer and fewer with masks they in turn will be less likely to comply.
    Never admit if you don’t have the condition, only reply to queries from other shoppers, “Oh, if you have asthma you can’t be required to wear a mask.”. The equivalent of “I can neither confirm nor deny”. Thus you avoid confirming any Karen’s suspicions that you’re gaming the system.

    Outside of that, let’s be generous with each other. If you’re freedom minded and get the feeling that someone you are dealing with is likewise, cut them as much slack as you can manage.
    Don’t car if thats a bank loan for a car or house or simply giving them a check mark on a form for moving forward in a bureaucratic line. Cover their asses and trust that they, or others of like mind, will cover yours. The system is looking to screw us over, do your part to help out.
    Likewise whenever possible induce errors to the system. If it wont screw over our fellow liberty minded folk, when you enter data induce errors. Wrong addresses. Birth dates. SSN’s.
    This is time for the full court press.

    1. Not in COLORADO. I DO have asthma. BAD. Part of the reason I can’t wear the d*mn thing.
       I even have the inhaler with me all the time.

60. How about a digital version of Johnny Appleseed? USB sticks and SSD cards these days are very cheap, so why can’t a person by dozens of them load them up with copies of the Declaration, the Constitution, the 1689 British Parliamentary Declaration of Rights, the Magna Carta, and selected portions of the Federalist Papers? Then take them and drop them off in restaurants, public bathrooms, stores, gas stations, parks, doctors’ offices, university libraries, and other locales. You might also want to throw in a bit of Hayek and Milton Friedman. You could also add true stories about the wonders of Communism, like death tolls and side-by-side pics of East and West Berlin during the Cold War. If enough people participated, you could blanket the country with millions of pieces of dangerous electronic subversion.

    1. Sigh. You do realize I approved your first comment.
       You can stop spamming now.
       Also, most of those SSDs and USb sticks will get erased and reused unread.
       we’re trying to do less futile stuff.

       1. Sorry, I didn’t mean to spam. I thought it simply wasn’t being posted. I guess I was just getting impatient. For what I’ve seen here and at other conservative sites is that many people seem to believe that ‘resistance’ means pulling in their horns and hoping the Left will leave them alone in their alternate society until at some vague point in the future they can come out of their forest strongholds to retake the Republic. This presupposes that the good guys will have plenty of time to plan their campaign of liberation. My guess is that we have at most ten years (and I’m being generous in that assumption) for a restoration. After that, the memories of the Old Republic will start to rapidly fade as the older generation dies off and the Marxists’ education/indoctrination campaign is fully entrenched not only in the schools but in society as a whole. Actually, we may have a lot less time than that depending on the fairness of the 2022 midterms and whether or not the Demomarxists push House Resolution 1 through congress which, if it passes and is signed by the old Pretender, would wreck any chance of having fair elections for the foreseeable future.

          As for my little idea, it doesn’t matter if most of the USBs and SSD cards are tossed. People can just pump out more of the things and spread them around, which could be done again and again literally forever. Some people will get curious, read the contents and tell other people about what they read and the cycle would continue. I never expected this idea would topple the Left all by itself, but it could be a small part of a baloney baffles brains softening up campaign.

          Since you’re a sci-fi writer, there’s a good chance you may be familiar with these two works, even though they’re both incredibly ancient, Robert A. Heinlein’s, Sixth Column, and Eric Frank Russell’s, Wasp. Of the two, Wasp may be the most applicable to the current situation. I also think the movie V for Vendetta may provide some useful tips.

          H.R.1

          https://www.ifs.org/expert-analysis/analysis-of-h-r-1-part-one/

          1. Actually, It might be better to use a QR code that when scanned takes people to a website hat has all of these things … Print the QR on stickers and slap them on EVRYTHING.

             1. Picking up and inserting SSDs and USb sticks of unknown provender is how stuff like stuxnet end up on Alliance servers. Don’t do it – it’s a trap!
                ~

          2. Also the people who most need to read it can’t read.
             And oh, dear Lord. You really don’t read this blog.
             Yes, we’re familiar with the “ancient” Robert A. Heinlein.
             Are you for real?
             Sorry, okay. Deep Breath. I’ve been breaking my head to come up with ideas to fight this. You might want to read some other posts.
             Yours sounds nifty, but it won’t work.

61. The comment about Usenet is probably one of the best ideas out there for communications. Text-only data, takes very little space or bandwidth for millions of messages per day. Highly distributed, take a feed from a couple places and let others take from you, messages propagate quickly and bypass unavailable hosts. SSL or SSH encryption could be easily tacked on, both encrypting and authenticating data across the internet. PGP could even encrypt the individual messages for only selected readers with the private keys and authenticate the poster’s identity. Each host can carry whatever groups it wants and host local-only groups, each host can vet peers however they feel best, moderation capabilities are already baked in. If a host fails or quits or disappears you find another or continue locally until yours can find another peer to exchange with. Usenet servers don’t require DNS, and they can operate on a web of trust or openly with other peers. Ultimately, Usenet News is a database of messages, which does not require real-time transport, so I can download a feed to my laptop or phone, read and comment at leisure, and upload at my convenience. A 256G pen drive could hold, at a rough guess, all of Usenet for the year 1985. You could literally cram a pen-drive up your anus, walk through a checkpoint into CommieStan, and deliver a year’s worth of messages behind the Iron Curtain to a Raspberry Pi capable of feeding it to thousands of avid readers. Or if you’ve an android phone, perhaps a terabyte ssd with an encrypted file buried in your Facebook cache would be a little easier to pass? (Pass! Get it? Geez I crack myself up…). Finally, the code for both readers and servers is already out there, open-source, using a standardized protocol so there is nothing to stop thousands of programmers world-wide from rolling their own tools and passing them out. Maybe going a bit primitive and more distributed is the better way for communications?

62. Pingback: Not Today! | NC Renegades

63. I’ve started handing these cards out everywhere I go. Check them out…
    https://defytyrants.com/store/mask-cards-1-pack-of-100/

64. Reblogged this on The way I see things ….

65. amie, i just read scorpions of the deep. brava! bravissima! you exceeded my genre expectations in every way, a deeoly layered story,it even stands alone as therapeutic reading for the shattered. And so say all of us.

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