Build To Last

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

I bought a set of two very large cups from Calamity Ware.

It was completely unnecessary and frivolous spending and I shouldn’t have done it (in my defense, Christmas presents this year were odd and also I went to their site looking for two wedding gifts I’m almost a year late on. Because it’s what my life has been like.

Those will be sent, but I couldn’t resist the idea of mugs that are sold with “It could be worse.” And what those mugs show are multiple catastrophes happening at once from UFOs destroying cities with death rays, to Godzilla coming from the sea, to dinosaurs rampaging– And it’s all done in beautiful, stylized, formal and traditional willow ware.

It’s such a perfect representation for our times, and such a reminder that we can and will survive and make something beautiful out of this that I couldn’t resist. (And some of you know the very weird relationship I have with my coffee mugs.)

I’ve been hitting my head to try to clear it, in the metaphorical if not the actual sense. Because what we’re seeing makes no sense at all and has the feel of a double exposure. (I need to write on that at length, and also why I think this time Obama actually is the puppet master behind the insanity because we p*ssed him off enough to overcome his laziness. Of course he forgot — or perhaps never new. He was very maleducated — that he’s industrial grade stupid and he never realized he’s pig-ignorant. But that’s another post.) But at the same time, I get a feeling like everything we’ve been living in is a lie. Like everything I believed is a lie. And I don’t mean what I believe about the US (which — hoists middle fingers to the FICUS — was and is great, even if it exists mostly in our hearts and minds.) I mean what I believe about humans and life itself.

A conversation last night with Bill Reader kind of brought it into sharp relief. (Not the full picture. that’s still a double or triple exposure. More on that in another post.) He pointed out how people are still congratulating themselves on all the judges Trump appointed, even when it’s been proven those judges don’t give a hang about the constitution and let the incredible fraud go by. But he used lists from the Federalist society. Well, yes. Which tells you exactly what has happened to that institution. It also tells you what has happened to our legislative bodies. Yurtle the turtle fought for those judges because they were his kind, not ours.

The entire system reacted badly to Trump because for all his faults he is American and he loves America. Our system is, and it no longer in any sense respects the constitution other than lip service.

Between the Marxist poison, deliberately trickled into the culture for 100 years by the USSR (yes, it fell but the poison went on) and the after WWII creation of a faux elite we’ve destroyed our culture and started aping the sick ways of dying Europe, convinced those were “sophisticated.”

Sending people to college and teaching them to do something — back when colleges did that — doesn’t make them smarter than the rest, or more capable. What it did was convince them they were much better than their peers, and make them behave in “cosmopolitan” ways. And that got silly ideas in their heads, like that people couldn’t really govern themselves and that “social scientist” or “social engineer” are meaningful terms.

In other words, by swallowing a lot of crap from increasingly inefficient and out of contact with reality academia, people became convinced they should destroy the American system which is indeed an abomination to the rest of the world, and instead build a clockwork technocracy.

This, because it was unexamined and came with the remnants of the USSR despondency-propaganda manifests itself in shows and movies (and books) where no one and nothing is clean, individuals have no agency and it needs a government or an ubermench to straighten things out.

If you wonder why we’re behaving a lot like Germany when it fell to the Nazis? It’s because our kids have been fed the same claptrap in post-modernistic clothes, with the racial hierarchies upended, because the one thing our overeducated morons are absolutely sure of is that their own country, their own civilization, their own (largely. I mean, sorry, even Obama ain’t black. Not where it counts, and how he was raised) race are wrong, wrong, wrong and must be completely upended.

Because if it weren’t, well, there would be no glory in tearing it down and building their clockwork kumquat. Look, they wanted to shove Commie LaWhorish into power (and they tried to get people to vote for her in the primary. She was the chosen one, with all the fanfarre) not because she is wonderful, or capable, but because she’s a broken down whore, ugly, with dead eyes and — from people who have worked with and for her — the mind of a sadistic child. They want this because their glory in getting her to ‘rule’ (with the “great minds” behind her, of course) is greater. And we, the common people they think are all corrupt, evil and hypocrites will have our own evil — they think — rubbed in our faces by having to submit to her.

So, we have a detached, broken, insane would be elite in power, who are desperately trying to run a movie that obliterates reality, because we keep scaring the crap out of them by acting in unscripted ways. Do you know why the capitol rally scared the heck out of them? Remember in their heads everyone is like them: empty nihilists animated by the will to power. Well, they knew there would be hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters coming to DC and they seeded the crowd with rioters and in fact started the break into the capitol before Trump was done speaking. If this were their crowd, coming to the capitol and seeing the broken windows, etc, not one stone would have stood on another. The capitol would be on fire. There would indeed be dead cops. And they would have their bloody shirt. Instead what they have is thin gruel, which they are trying to bolster into “the FBI can find you anywhere” but…. nothing happened and people increasingly know it, and their screams of “riot” are farcical. Their screams of “insurrection” and “attempted coup” are even crazier.
And that’s why we scared them. Because they behaved off script. They fail to get that we will at some point again behave off script, but what we’ll do will not be the Burn Loot and Murder show riots, but something that will be unstoppable and will only terrify them …. briefly.

No I don’t know when, because I can’t tell you that. It’s a matter of crowd psychology, and that’s tricky. What I can tell you is that it’s coming, because what these crazy people are doing and trying to start has absolutely no contact with reality. And I don’t mean no contact with reality in America. I mean, no contact with reality. None of it makes sense. And honestly, with Obama behind their grand fraud ascent what is going on is both evil AND stupid. As in, he hates us more than he ever did (and he always hated us, because we disappointed daddy. If we hadn’t daddy would have stayed and raised little Barry Pooh in his inscrutable authentic African ways. Or something.) but he’s also now convinced he’s some sort of mastermind. So everything they’re doing is transparently designed to punish us and hurt us, and it’s a toddler’s revenge fantasy, in which he throws his evil toys around and they stay thrown or do exactly what he plays them doing in his head. This won’t end well.

So, here, now, America, the short term — it’s going to get very very bad. Partly because it’s important that people see through the lies of the media and the indoctrination they were fed in school to how evil all of this nonsense is, and how “rule by the elite” is a nasty and anti-human thing. It’s important for our indoctrinated youth to realize that it’s not evil because it wears hugo boss uniforms and swastikas or even because it thinks whites are the ideal humans. Rule by the elite is evil because it treats humans as things and superimposes crazy theories on reality. Meanwhile our founding documents harness the imperfections of humanity in a way that makes us all rise.

And I was thinking that what I felt last year must be akin to what happened to the English under Henry VIII. I mean overnight, one of the pillars of their lives — the church — was gone, and what had been good was now bad and– And the common people couldn’t help but see that this was all insane nonsense and people were getting executed for doing what was lauded the year before, and hell, everyone knew it was all so he could lay that Boleyn whore. (She was not at all popular.)

But they submitted. And I’m sure sane people in England were going “what’s wrong with you?” which is what I’ve been screaming all of the last year.

What was wrong is that all their institutions and everything they believed in were not what they’d thought they were. Had they been, none of this would have been possible.

But it didn’t mean everything was lost. Eventually the executionpalooza and ‘you’ll be this religion because I told you to’ receded, and troubled Tudor England gave birth to America. Which built anew ideals of freedom for the common man, partly through having seen how bad it could get.

And yes, I know we don’t have colonies to go to. That must be fixed. Though i will point out if we manage to rebuild to some extent, shortly (and the difference is Americans still love America. Dying Europe threw over their heritage for socialism) in a hundred years our grandkids can colonize Europe. It will be mostly empty ruins and howling wasteland. They forgot how to have babies.

However, part of what had to change before civilization could be built anew, on firmer ground, was the story in people’s heads.

Now, look, history goes fast now, and also — technically and unless it takes another fricking two hundred years of convulsions and executions — America isn’t what Tudor England was. But their narrative was also broken, having come apart with the black plague, and then gotten worse as people got cynical.

I have a book somewhere about how Shakespeare invented humans as we think of them. It’s right and wrong. What Shakespeare invented to an extent was the common man. Sure, his kings wear crowns, etc. But they’re costumes. Shakespeare wrote good self-actuated English Yeomen.

Before him a lot of the stories told — unless in penny pamphlets on execution day — were about the “inevitable movements of history” and the elites and maybe the Deus ex machina no one could understand.

Shakespeare wrote people. Individuals. And some were very very bad, true, but some were very good. One thing the man didn’t have was the flat greyness of “everyone is horrible” or “everyone is a pawn to kings and queens and great people, and only created to pour out buckets of blood on the stage.”

And sure, he was a product of his era and of a middle class upbringing.

But what he did was get in people’s heads, as people went out to form colonies, and tell them stories in which they saw each of them and in which they mattered.

So, ladies, gentlemen, dragons, minotaurs and the occasional echnidia: we have our work cut out for us.

If civilization is to survive beyond the very bad no good containslivebobcatwouldn’torderagain two or three years ahead, we need to rebuild.

Not just rebuild our systems of government, our systems of culture and civics: though we need to rebuild that, but rebuild civilization. (Yeah, I know. And I was hoping to have an evening out to wash my hair in the next decade or so.)

So, roughly and whatever else we have to do to survive with dumbass idiots who hate us and are tripping on power in charge we have three long term points of action. And they must be done. Must. If we’re to come out of this with HUMANITY surviving. (And while humanity is a pain in the ass I think well of it. I mean, the ideal of rocks and empty space the left embraces is pretty, but it’s not a good story.)

-Have children. No, I mean that, have children. If you can find someone willing, or lay hands on the amazing tech of the 21st century (yes, I know the moral dangers. But life is better than not-life. Period. For me. You cut your cloth to fit your your garment) have children. At any rate, with crazy lockdowns or whatever going on (and they will again, when the “elite” gets scared what else were you going to do with the next 20 years? Play parchesi solitaire? Don’t be silly.
If you can in any way have children. Because the future belongs to those who show up. Have at least three, because if your grandkids are going to colonize Europe (you only think I’m joking) let alone space you need far more than replacement number.

-Raise your children. Look, heed Peterson: don’t let your children become someone you hate. This means to an extent a lot more work (you don’t even like parchesi, remember?) because you can’t — can’t can’t can’t — offload them on the education factories. Because they don’t educate, they indoctrinate and they create nihilists and people who think individuals count for nothing. And sometimes the poison is so subtle you will not see it until it’s too late.
Homeschool. Create co-ops with like minds. GET INVOLVED WITH YOUR KIDS’s MINDS. Virginia Heinlein once told me that the most important work was forming children’s minds. And she was not wrong.
And if it’s absolutely impossible for you to have kids, remember there are a lot of kids out thee that have no functional parents at all. While adoption is difficult to impossible and all men are suspect in our broken society, find a way to teach, to pass on wisdom and to make sure we’re not raising yet another generation of unparented children. Sometimes even a passing influence makes a big difference. Trust me on this.

-WRITE. WRITE STORIES. Write stories about individuals. The left can’t you know? Increasingly it’s all about how the archetype does this or that.
The stories of the left, winding through the culture, have destroyed it. If you can write write stories about people. Flawed people, sure, but make sure you don’t fall to the “no one is clean.” Sure, nobody is perfect, but individuals (and cultures, I’m looking at you America!) still achieve towering goodness despite their abysmal failures. People tend to have the virtues of their vices, and sometimes they can overcome the vices enough to make the virtues shine. Write some of those people. But write normal people too: silly, ignorant, but self-actuated and worthy of having their say in their own lives. We need to rebuild the idea of who and what they are in people’s lives.
Oh, and write blog posts too. Heck, create memes. The important thing is to replace the old rotten narrative with the truth that individuals are what matters, that they have agency and that even when silly and bizarre they can be — and are — admirable.

-CREATE. I know not all of you are writers, but anything new you create, particularly if you create something magnificent, whether it be a cabinet a dress, a ballet production, a painting, ANYTHING YOU CREATE gives the lie to the left’s bizarre, oft propagandized “inside story” that nothing matters but the masses and the forces of history and that everything must be produced by committee.
YOU CAN BUILD THAT. And you will. Go and do it.

– And in that vein, not because we need frontiers (we do, but they can be frontiers of the mind. Truly. It’s a lie to believe they can’t) but because humans were born to strive, and because having all your eggs in a basket is wrong, if you can and have the mind and the training to, go work on getting us out of this rock and giving us new horizons to colonize. Yes, we’re descending to dark days, but I’ll remind you Von Braun, rightly or wrongly made use of one of the most evil regimes in history to find us a way out of this rock. Do what you have to do, but get us the stars, okay? (Younger son says every engineer wants, ultimately, to do that. Well…. makes shooing motions with hands, what the heck are y’all waiting for? WHY don’t I have a shuttle to the Mars colonies, yet? Why are there no Mars colonies for that matter. GO and do it. Sure, it might take a lot of money, or who knows, maybe you can build a gate like the ones in Tunnel in the Sky. Yes, I know scientists say it’s impossible. And? Go. You have work to do.)

– Live your best life. Be a decent human being. Help the suffering, bind the wounds, sure, but also learn new stuff, do stuff, be good to your family, stick to the oaths you swore. Create, and live and be joyful.
It’s important to look at Commie laWhorish and the corrupt, bought and sold old pedophile and realize the left thinks this is the best of humanity. The best we have. They’re just not “hypocrites” and not “hiding it” like the rest of us. Because they don’t believe it’s possible to be good or joyful or to build.
JUST being something they think is impossible is a kick in their rotten, pumpkin heads.

Yes, I’m very afraid we’re going to have to fight in other ways too, but the thing is those ways won’t rebuild civilization. These will.
Go and be excellent. Make a leftist’s heads explode.

In the end, we win, they lose, and on the way there we’re going to be very very busy.

It’s okay. I don’t like card games and I don’t want to learn parchesi.

Go forth. You have work to do.

478 thoughts on “Build To Last”

          2. Yep. And because there are very very few trustworthy sources of information it’s easy to become paranoid and believe “conspiracy theories” that I probably would have rejected last year. Of course, our institutions have been proven to be much more corrupt than I could have imagined. So right now “conspiracy theories” are more believable than the Democrat media.

              1. After Epstein conveniently died, the various investigations and smaller lawsuits were dropped due to… how did they phrase it… ah, “lack of standing.” The courts didn’t feel like continuing the cases against Epstein’s criminal associates, so it all went down the memory holee.

                I expect we’ll be seeing that phrase often in the future.

                  1. It has since at least the Proposition 8 (re-banned same sex marriage in California) lawsuit mess.

                    1. Yeah, how exactly can a marriage be illegal? Or legal, for that matter? Marriage is none of the government’s damn business, is what it is! Or anybody else’s.

                    2. Sigh.

                      When there are Laws On The Books giving advantages to Married Couples as opposed to couple “just living together”, then there has to be something like Legal Marriages and Illegal Marriages.

                      Getting Government out of Marriage will be opposed by anybody getting the Legal Advantages of Marriage.

                    3. California voters had previously legalized “Civil Unions” that gave the exact same legal benefits to same sex (and other) couples who applied for it. So the “legal rights” argument didn’t hold water. It quite literally came down to a term.

                      Saying anything beyond that is a can of worms, which I think it would be best not to open here, and is not really relevant to my original point anyway.

                  2. Except when a Leftist is suing on spurious grounds and then it will be a transparent and dismissed attempt to avoid the lawsuit.

      1. I bought them early last year when things were falling apart in entirely different ways. I’ve needed to see them a lot more the last few weeks. But they do make me smile. But sure as heck can’t spring for the actual place settings. Woof!

    2. I love them, actually – signed on to their newsletter, because I’m weird that way.
      BTW – thanks for the link on Insty this morning. I’m watching sales creep up, and up by the hour. Because the WWII book is a hark back to those ancient values, of real people dealing in their various ways, with real stuff, and not having the time or delusions to deal with Commie nonsense.

  3. And always remember (everyone) that no one can do everything, but everyone can do something. I’m too old to have more kids, but I’m happy to be a surrogate grandfather to some kids if I can. I don’t have the writing-fiction imperative that some have, and my occasional, very infrequent, attempts at such writing show me why, over and over.

    But “create?” And “work on getting us out of this rock and giving us new horizons to colonize?” Oh yeah… We’re going to have our 7th Interstellar Symposium in Tucson at the end of September, and we’re working on getting remote viewing sites set up in the UK and in Nigeria. The one after that, I have some hopes of making a distributed global symposium, with presentation sites at different locations around the world (no guarantees at this point). And while I haven’t pushed it much yet, I’m hoping to get various existing interstellar exploration advocacy organizations in the US and Europe to get together to foster other such organizations in South America, South Asia, East Asia, Australia, etc. Doing what I can…

    https://irg.space

    1. Oh, I forgot to add–anyone who wants to help IRG (the Interstellar Research Group) as a volunteer (we’re all volunteers), feel free to hit us up at info@irg.space. Or fill out the “Contact Us” form under the “About” menu item on our website.

      1. We possibly could. What’d be needed would be a local organization able to set up the facility. Alternatively, we’ll be livestreaming the whole thing as we did in Wichita (better this time, I expect). There may not be the possibility of participating in the Q&As by livestream viewers, but we’ll see what we can do.

        1. I can put you in touch with crazy brother. He’s a commie, but before he was one he read Heinlein, and he wants to go to the stars, or at least his grandkids to go, if he ever has any.
          And his son works in city government, so they might be able to set something up.

  4. The Senate is going to impeach Donald Trump on February 9. That’s right, they’re going to remove him from office three weeks after he left. I’m not sure whether that is more crazy than stupid, or more stupid than crazy.

    Trump now has an opportunity to do another great service to America. He should instruct his legal team to put up a…spirited defense. Drag that impeachment out as much as possible. As long as they keep the Senate beating that dead horse, they can’t do anything else. They can’t pass the laws the Democrats want, and destroy our nation. They can’t even confirm any more of the FICUS’s cabinet of corruptocrats.

    As the defendant, Trump has some potent weapons he can deploy against them, starting with discovery. He can claim bias against him in every part of the process, and then compel them to divulge the documentation to prove it. His lawyer can question his accusers, starting with MaligNancy. He can call thousands of witnesses. He can subpoena all the Antifa thugs that broke into the Capitol. He can ask the Capitol Police who ordered them to do what, and when.

    The Democrats want a show trial. Trump can turn it into a six-month circus, complete with elephants.

    1. And in the process, turn it into a trial of the Senate. Who knows how many criminal indictments could result.

      Be careful what you wish for, Dems…

    2. IMO it isn’t about “Removing Trump From Office” but is about “Preventing Him From Ever Returning To The Office Of The Presidency”.

      Oh, I really like the idea of Trump using the trial against the assholes. 😆

      1. As it stands, I don’t have any confidence in seeing honest elections until there is real security in place. But we will have elections, so someone has to be put forward. For 2024 I’d rather see Don Jr. run. Don’t see anyone else currently with his level of energy and reasonable ideology.

          1. There is an effort to run Eric’s wife, NC native Lara Trump for the state’s open senate seat in 2022 … the seat is already drawing strong candidates, so her running, much less wining, the seat is not assured.

            But a senate with Ivanka, Don Jr., and Lara Trump might be amusing … it would almost certainly be an improvement — and three senators would be a credible basis for a third party launch.
            ~

            2. I’d watch that. I’d even tune in to legislative sessions to catch what the 3 were doing …

              Won’t be enough popcorn!

      2. Which IIRC isn’t even a legal thing, elected offices not being covered by the wording in the Constitution according to Supreme Court precedent. And how much more can they poison his name than they already have?

        1. You’re not the first to make that claim but nobody has provided a cite (from the Supreme Court) supporting that claim.

          Of course, even if the claim is correct, the Democrats may not know about it.

          IE They actually believe that they can prevent him from becoming President again.

            1. Too Bad because it would be extremely Funny/Ironic if there was such a case and Trump’s lawyer could tell the Senate “The Supreme Court says that you can’t prevent Trump from serving as President again and since Trump is already out-of-office, you can’t kick him out of office”. 😈

          2. Prohibition on holding subsequent elected office is apparently an open question in spite of the plain language, with most of the evidence from contemporaneous sources indicating that a publicly elected office is not an “Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States” – see https://conlaw.jotwell.com/constitutional-officers-a-very-close-reading/ for a cogent summary written before the 2016 election, and thus free of the psychic influence of President Trump on all academia.

            The one case that talks to this was brought when Alcee Hastings was elected to a House seat after he was impeached, wherein the Senate convicted him out of that office of Federal Judge but neglected to vote to prohibit future office, so the FL case trying to prevent him from being seated was denied on that basis without considering the question of whether the House of Representatives is an “Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States”.

            All that being said, we live in the age of faint emanations and invisible yet judicially detectable penumbras and Chief Justice Roberts’ amazing power to find that anything is a tax, so basically the elites are gonna elite.

            There’s no question that an impeachment conviction followed by a vote to specifically prohibit him from holding an “Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States” would certainly matter if a future President wanted to appoint DJT as Ambassador to The Crysanthemum Throne like they did with Mondale.

            But it’s not clear if they can prevent him from serving in an elected office.

            And there’s no question that the one thing the elites could do that would yet further enrage 74 million recorded DJT voters, plus the 8% of the China Joe voters that said they would have instead voted for DJT yielding a win in the popular vote if the media had not suppressed the Hunter story, is poke them all in the eye by pulling this stunt.

            Impeachment requires 2/3rds of the Senate, where the VP Indian Chick Pretending To Be Black doesn’t get a vote while Roberts is presiding over the impeachment trial, so they need 17 R Senators to vote to convict such that this becomes a question. Even the warm bag of hair gel and Collins are not enough to betray DJT, especially as the actual case behind the referral consists primarily of an old ziploc full of Nancy Pelosi’s Grey Goose Ice Cream infused spittle.

            17 R Senators. It would be well to let them know this is being paid the attention it deserves.

              1. If we’re talking “elites gonna elite”, were Little Chucky Schumer to physically prevent enough R Senators from entering the chambers and attending the “impeachment” “trial”, he could easily acheive “the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.”

                  1. Holy shit. If Democrats order the National Guard to prevent Republican senators from voting against impeachment, that WILL be the end.

                    After what they have already done, does anybody still believe they couldn’t possibly be that stupid? They have All The Power, they can do anything they want!

                    If sanity prevails within the Guard, they will refuse to carry out blatantly illegal orders. They can’t be that corrupt already, not even the ones declared ‘politically reliable’ last week. Can they?
                    ———————————
                    Does the Left drive those idiots barking mad, or were they drawn to the Left because they were already batshit crazy?

      4. Here’s a thought. And I’m going to say right out that this is highly improbable. But the thought of it amuses me, so I’m going to post it anyway.

        What if it really is about “removing Trump from office”?

        Let’s say that the Dems are worried that the fraud is going to come out in a way that will be impossible to ignore. The Dems are concerned that certain revelations are coming that will blow the whole thing open by this coming Summer. And then the inevitable will occur, and claims will be made that Trump is the actual President.

        Except, if he’s been impeached, then obviously he isn’t the president.

        On a loosely related note, if it were determined for the majority of the public in an incontrovertible way that fraud had pushed Biden/Harris over the top, then it might represent a serious crisis for the country. Now that Biden has been sworn in (but not before), I could see something like that being the flashpoint for Civil War 2.

    3. It would be great if Trump could present full evidence and drag the process out, but I don’t think that will happen. After the virtual farce of a Biden inauguration and the gasslighting of the world about the need to fortify DC against planned massive attack,, the Marxist Left is not about to allow Trump and his legal team a forum to make their case to the world. The Senate will highly restrict whatever process is used. You can expect that any presentation will be chopped up, made incoherent, no discovery, much disallowed, and it will make a Kangaroo Court look impartial by comparison. There will be histronic speeches about the danger Trump and his supporters pose to the planet, and then they will find him guilty followed by another vote to forever bar him from national office. It will also be fast.

      1. One neat point, though – I don’t think they can bar him from the presidency. The offices that they can bar him from are appointed offices only, not elected office. There are a couple of lawyers over at the Volokh Conspiracy that explain why, and there’s even precedent. A current Democratic representative in the House is also an impeached judge who was barred from holding office. So, I think, if Trump wants to run again in 2024, there’s nothing the Democrats can legally do to take that away from him.

      1. This. They hate that all of their lies and attacks have had almost no effect on his popularity. The impotence is driving them to toddler-like tantrums. They NEED to control the narrative, and that power has broken down for half the country. If the other half of the country starts to crumble, they’re toast.

    5. > I’m not sure whether that is more crazy than stupid, or more stupid than crazy.

      I’m seeing a lot of Trigglypuff in the political arena now.

      There was a quote that used to float around, from a TV show called “Dallas”, something like “people don’t expect *good* government, but they demand *entertaining* government.” Well, we have it for certain values of “entertaining.”

      > The Democrats want a show trial.

      For a Legislative Branch action, they don’t have to follow judicial forms. They can run a complete Stalinist show trial, keep parts of it secret for “national security”, deny discovery, or even deny any testimony for the defense. *They’ve done it before*. Though it can’t be any worse than the Judicial Branch, given how the Supremes have already shat their robes.

    6. Absolutely nut-crackers. and I’m hearing a lot of people who wonder why there is a “kangaroo court” at all. He’s not there. Maybe we should check them for mental health issues?

    7. I heard (no verification as yet) that John Roberts has said he would have nothing to do with this “trial.” Without the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding, it couldn’t possibly be a legitimate impeachment trial of a president. And of course everyone knows, you can’t impeach a private citizen, which any former president is.

      1. It also puts Harris in the position of presiding over the kangaroo court that is impeaching the person she ran against and is already out of office, for the sole purpose of trying to prevent him from running against her.

          1. I seem to remember hearing that she did before the 20th.

            IE She wasn’t a Senator when she was sworn in as VP.

              1. Well, I don’t hold it against her.

                There is no set date where she had to do so.

                She just couldn’t be Senator Harris and Vice President Harris at the same time.

                IE There’s plenty of reasons to dislike her besides “when/how she resigned her Senate Seat”.

                1. I just really dislike her. It’s another speck of dust and makes me wonder if she had a doubt that she would be VEEP. My mind ferrets out these little gems. I would have found it maliciously funny if she hadn’t resigned.

                2. It is customary for such senators to resign their seats as soon as practical, allowing their governor to appoint a replacement who will have seniority over other members of their senatorial class.

                  It is a back of her hand to the people of the state which sent her to Washington, denying them an advantage, however trifling, that would ordinarily be theirs.
                  ~

          2. I heard she resigned the 18th or 19th, but it was drowned out by fears of 200,000 Q-anon terrorists planning to invade the inauguration. It wasn’t clear if they were “expecting violence” or more afraid of a bunch of people laughing at Biden trying to give a speech.

            The Q-followers I read strongly advised Deplorables to stay out of DC and away from state capitols. Even the Donks couldn’t blame the usual Portland smash-n-burn on Q.

            1. Biden’s handlers were probably worried about the humiliation. However, you are right that no one especially Deplorables should even step foot in the city. It would have been bad for them.

      2. Ah, but can he be persuaded to, however reluctantly, “do his Constitutional duty,” (this is sarcasm, folks)with the proper persuasion? Say, “Do it or the riots start again?” That is allegedly the club used to beat him with last time.

    8. Yes! What the hell, burn it all down (metaphorically). MAKE them bring in their “proof”. Instruct his lawyers to ask embarassing questions, dig into their financials/relationships/family/associates – get some decent investigators in there, and dig out the dirt.

      Drag his feet at all points. Argue EVERYTHING. Make them go to the Supremes on EVERY dispute.

      He’s done it before; he knows the drill.

      In the process, he can unlock all their dirty little secrets, and make them wish they had never started the whole thing.

              1. When they hear the word “evil,” they think of their own naughty impulses that they keep in check, and imagine someone who gives those desires full rein. They don’t understand that there are things far worse than that.

                It’s how child molesters can live undetected for so long in a community. Not just because of their skill in grooming their victims and the adults around their victims, but also because the adults really can’t imagine someone doing that until their noses are rubbed in it.

                2. That’s it exactly. I wasn’t a victim myself but I knew several and the possibility was there.

          2. Because his whole motivation boils down to “I want YOU to be as successful as I am. I know you can do it.” Which requires him to be an optimist.

            He did once refer to some foreign torture lords as “evil” so methinks he does have the concept, but has a hard time applying it to his fellow Americans. What he doesn’t get, methinks, is that they are no longer Americans.

      2. Yeah. Too many things are getting swept down they memory hole by TPTB. I wish Snowden and Assange would have been pardoned. Things need to be revealed and shaken up. Too many people asleep.

          1. The thing about both Snowden and Assange, and Manning even, is they showed classified documents proving the United States was breaking both our own, and international laws.

            That meets the definition of a whistleblower. By law, all three of them should have been protected from prosecution. Manning under the same logic that convicted Lt Calle of the Mi Lai massacre; that just because you are ordered to do, or not do, something, that doesn’t mean it’s a lawful order. Manning’s sanity, then or now, really isn’t relevant. Assange, being what passes for an internet news publisher, should have been protected under the same statutes as the Washington Post was for the Pentagon Papers (that does assume that Assange never paid Manning, nor provided him instructions on how to obtain those classified data, which would invalidate his immunity.) Snowden, being a contractor, should have had even more protection from prosecution and persecution.

            1. Yep– but they upset the WRONG people. Whistleblowing is not safe in the first place… and now with these examples it stops people who have “hostages” to fortune.

                2. The Dems and MSM (BIRM) have always been quite clear that whistleblower laws (like insider-trading laws and anti-rioting laws) are only ever meant to apply to Republican administrations. Such laws are never intended to imperil the Enlightened.
                  ~

          2. The Snowden thing was too much of a fuster-cluck, even given that it was at a Federal level. He should never have had access to most of that data to start with; he should never have been able to move the media in and out of secure facilities; he should never have passed a background check to start with; or why a contractor would have been doing that job at all… granted, watch any of those “why the airplane crashed” videos and you’ll see similar chains of events that shouldn’t have happened. But still, it’s awfully hard to swallow.

            I noted early on that almost everything I was hearing, I’d already read before, sometimes a decade earlier, on the comp.risks newsgroup, or it was common, if unproven, knowledge in the security community, and the rest didn’t seem particularly high-value. My suspicious mind noted the similarities to the Anatoly Golitsyn defection back in the 1960s, that turned the CIA, among other agencies, inside-out as Golitsyn burned a handful of provable low-level Soviet agents and a raft of CIA and FBI types who were abruptly unpersoned by the agencies’ “guilty until proven innocent” policies. While many people were questioning the value Golitsyn’s revelations, he was like an arrow targeted at James Jesus Angleton, the CIA’s counter-espionage chief. Angleton began sliding off the edge of sanity, chasing after Golitsyn’s phantoms.

            Unless the Fed starts claiming he was an agent, he can rot in Russia.

            1. I agree Federal levels really “f*’ed up with him)… he was an IT tech. He should not have had the clearances to even see half that shit, let alone walk off with it all. So more than one person should have been burned besides Snowden… IMHO

      3. (ahem)
        Something Vimes had learned as a young guard drifted up from memory. If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you’re going to die. So they’ll talk. They’ll gloat.

        They’ll watch you squirm. They’ll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar.

        So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.
        -PTerry

        They’re not going to do it quickly.
        They’re going to want to savor the moment.
        They’re going to want to see him broken, humiliated, made an example of, and preferably dead, without any opportunity to defend himself.

    9. Saaaay…part of their accusation is about his ‘baseless’ claims that the 2020 election was stolen by fraud. Might that give him an opportunity to drag the evidence out? Subpoena the election officials, impound the ballots and, especially, those Don’t-minion vote stealing machines?

      At least we can dream about it. Aren’t Dreamers supposed to be sacred or something?

            1. Yep and the effort to silence anyone who raises the issue is clear proof that such fraud did indeed occur.

            2. Clearing some old articles and came across this:

              “It’s one thing to have differentiating opinions but it’s another thing entirely to just say things that are false,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “So that’s something that we’re looking into.”

              From that Rand Paul interview:
              “I said it was a lie — that the election was stolen,” Stephanopoulos replied.

              I expect Scooter Stephanopoulos to have to answer to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez shortly.
              ~

      2. The Senate majority literally decides what evidence can and cannot be presented; they are literally judge, jury and executioner. They will decide to not only any “new evidence””, only what the House presents, and try to convict in summary fashion. They will not appeal to evidence but rather will slander anyone who is suspected of being a no vote will be accused of “colluding with Trump in insurrection and sedition” and threatened with removal from the Senate (which is a straight majority vote).

        The impeachment is not an effort to get Trump; that is a side feature; the real target is the Constitution, which they seek to eviscerate so they can not only have and maintain one party rule, but so they can “fundamentally transform America” into an identity-group Marxism state. It also has the impact of assuring that any Republicans who vote to impeach will be primaried and is intended to suppress turnout so the future fraud efforts don’t need to be so blatant.

        1. Really? It only takes the votes of 51 senators to throw one of the senators out? How many times has that happened?

          2. False. It take 2/3.
            Article1 Section Five:
            “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.

        2. I don’t think those 435 or those 100, save a bare handful, have any clue just what kind of a monster they are about to unleash.

        3. “The impeachment is not an effort to get Trump; that is a side feature …”

          The immediate purpose is to drive a wedge into the Republican Party, splitting it while the Dems consolidate their vote fraud machinery. It is an Apple of Eris, tossed into the GOP midst.

          No Democrat senator voting for conviction will suffer any political harm; no matter which way a Republican senator votes there will be political damage, posing fodder for primary challenge and general election attack.

          The only recourse is attacking the process, denouncing the wasting of time when there are people in desperate need of financial and medical aid which only Congress can authorize. The nation is suffering terribly and the Democrats want to stop the ambulance to stage a clown car demolition derby sideshow. Hell, they even want t take take precedence over the Senate’s duty to approve the nominations of the cadre of far left radical appointments Biden is attempting.
          ~

          1. Oh, I disagree. There are several Democrats in vulnerable places (as well as a few of whom are who are up for reelection in 2022) whose vote to remove (if that’s logically possible) Trump would not be forgotten. My guess would be at least 5 of the 50.

            1. Again, this is irrelevant if the fraud by mail procedures are in place for those elections, especially if HR1 gets pushed through Congress, and those vulnerable Democrats know that enacting HR1 is the ticket to losing that vulnerability. It will be fast-tracked to be enacted for the next set of state elections in 2021 in an effort to get it applied to state elections as well. Democrats intend to establish one party CCP rule not only on a federal level, but a state and local level as well. They do not want any restraint on their power whatsover.

          2. The nation is suffering terribly and the Democrats want to stop the ambulance to stage a clown car demolition derby sideshow.

            –
            Which is exactly why I want to see Donald Trump turn it into a full-blown three ring circus. The Democrats are not going to do anything good for the country, so the best thing Trump can do is tie them up so they can’t do so much evil. The Senate can’t even confirm any more of Biden’s cabinet corruptocrats while they’re beating the dead horse of impeachment.

            Every time they ask Trump one of their loaded questions, he should ask one back.
            “Why did you incite an erection, uh, insurrection?”
            “When did you know about the FBI’s lies?”
            ———————————
            It takes a LOT of education to make them that stupid.

            1. This is what I meant above. Two years. Four years. Whatever it takes to tie them up so they can’t get anyone confirmed or any of their agenda through.

    10. Samizdata Quote of the Day for Jan 21, 2021, as a response to “Why can’t the Left let go of Trump.”

      It is the same reason a certain ilk of Remainers can’t let go of Brexit, and why the Left in media & academia can’t let go of GamerGate. These were each a cultural Stalingrad, defeats that indicated the world did not work the way High Status opinion demands that you think & say it does. Hoi Poli keep throwing bricks through the Overton window & polite society really doesn’t like that.

      So the people invested in these High Status opinions (shared by everyone they know) are obsessed by the fact they suffered defeats when they are suppose to own the future. They may have gotten rid of Trump now but the fact he was elected in the first place gives lie to their comfortable “inevitable march of history” narrative

    11. Six months?

      At least 2 years until next elections for Senate and Congress! To get GOP majority in both houses.

      Sure that will stop Biden’s agenda cold except for EO. All his EO”s need to be litigated at the Supreme Court too. Won’t stop everything, but as much as possible would be great.

      Stopping Biden/Harris/Pelosi agendas for the next 2 to four years? Not seeing a downside.

        1. Depends on what your definition of ‘honest’ is…

          “Truth is that which supports the Party.”

          1. Complete purge and re-registration, WITH ID, at least 4 months before the election. If you’re too lazy to register on time, tough shit. You can vote in the next election.

            Why is being too late to register and vote in ONE election such an intolerable hardship for Leftroids?
            ———————————
            My grandpa voted Republican until the day he died — but he’s been voting Democrat ever since.

            2. Above, I referenced H.R. 1. The very first bill in the House of Representatives hopper.
              It institutionalizes every manner of vote fraud. If passed, any verification of identity, residence, or citizenship would be against the law. Purging voter rolls would be forbidden. Vote-by-mail would be mandated. And the list continues

              Here’s a link, so you don’t have to scroll up and search for it. https://patriots.win/p/11SJxqJtDh/-democrats-introduce-their-first/

          2. You fix problems with the voter rolls and counts at the state level, if necessary in the teeth of Justice Department opposition. I believe it was True The Vote (TTV) — or if not, then a similar organization — that successfully sued a number of states, including Ohio and California, into cleaning up the demonstrable duplicates from their lists. Nobody has complained about Ohio’s votes that I am aware of, including those in the formerly blue portion of the state, and California had reportedly removed well over a million illegitimate registrations off their lists before last November.

            As I recall, Ohio’s first step after reviewing TTV’s information was to send a notice to each of the names on the list that they were being challenged for legitimacy, and informed them that if they did not respond they would be summarily dismissed. I think they also offered state aid to help them challenge their deregistration, if they believed that it was incorrect, spiking the Democrat claim that the process discriminated against their preferentially poor and disabled voters. I’m sure Ohio’s Republican secretary of state (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_LaRose) would be happy to share the secrets of his and his predecessor’s success.

                1. They will kill the filibuster to pass HR1 in the Senate and get it through on a purely party line vote; they don’t need any Republican votes, ever, if they kill the filibuster, which they will.

                  HR1 is patently unconstitutional, as it usurps the state legislatures’ exclusive power under the constitution as to presidential elections, but given the Courts’ fecklessness in how the 2020 election challenges were handled, HR1 will almost certainly be rubber-stamped;. especially if Democrats pack the Court.

                  The republic was murdered in 2020 and the Democrats are building the funeral pyre.

                1. That would be my thought on where this is headed. There will be no legal avenues for change.

              1. …..AND checking signatures to ensure they match the signature on the voter registration will also be illegal.

                  1. The dead have been voting in Chicago for more than 100 years. Mail-in ballots would just make it more convenient.

            3. I think that lawsuits in Federal court targeted at the appointment of receivers to supervise elections in historically questionable places where the numbers don’t add up (Fulton County, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, etc.) could be successful. There is precedent with appointment of receivers over unions with mob ties and school districts that refuse to integrate.

        3. Well. We can hope they never give up. Therefore never get anything done. Which is better than them advancing their addenda.

    12. “As the defendant, Trump has some potent weapons he can deploy against them”

      As much as I would love to see that, the Senate is a kangaroo court, at best, which constructs its legal procedures ad hoc and as it wills. They grant the time permitted for argument and can decide when they’ve heard enough, so all of the ordinary lawyerly tools are unavailable. This is a tribunal, not a court.

      OTOH, it is a very public process nd that offers non-trivial opportunities. Trump can use the process to criticize the House and the MSM, showing alternate footage disproving their claims of mob violence, he can cite the NY Times and Washington Post articles working out the timeline of events and their evidence that the “insurrection” was planned well ahead of his address to the protests. He can even make arguments that the actual insurrectionists are infiltrators, agents provocateur using his supporters as cover for their evil deeds.

      Heck, he might even be able to present arguments supporting his “stolen election” claim, although that will probably be shut down as not relevant (which Trump could then use to depict the Senate as collaborating with the cover-up.)

      Done right, any conviction of Trump would also be self-conviction of the Senate (the House Democrats have already convicted themselves, pursuing vengeance more aggressively than Covid-relief for America.)
      ~

    14. I would suggest Mr. Trump to go, and every time they ask him a question or accuse him of something, he should respond with his wettest NYC raspberry (you know, that thptthptthptthptthptthptthpthtpt, with lots and LOTS of saliva…) Contempt of court? Abso-damn-LUTELY.

  5. Nice mugs. Alas, that shape and my hand equates to spilled tea.

    As to Obama, I don’t think he even pulled his OWN strings, let alone anyone else’s. Perhaps sometimes an unwitting puppet, but more often willing. And as I say, we *already* had President Hillary. Look for Soros (and a few others of his ilk), the Muslim Brotherhood, and Qatar behind the scenes, tho now being muscled aside by the CCP.

    Chris Farrell (Judicial Watch) rips the Swamp Things several new ones; back to the Obama era military, and gee, why is it that we can’t stop the flow of drugs and illegals from Mexico??

      1. When making a statement about the Harris/Biden executive orders, Obama practically used the royal “we” and his tone and words were clearly indicative that he considers himself to be an active participant in what was done.

        Can’t wait to see how they try to cover for Biden’s senility when he actually has to meet with foreign leaders. I presume they will insist on video conferencing in perpetuity, and that Harris will go to live meetings in his place. Perhaps he will appoint Obama as a “special envoy”.

        1. It would be “entertaining,” for values of “entertaining,” if the handlers took President for Life Whatshisname aside and told him not to pay any attention to the President, the real talks will happen off-stage with Harris or whoever….and President. Whatshisname furiously leaked it to the press to punish them for “not taking him seriously.”

        2. “Can’t wait to see how they try to cover for Biden’s senility when he actually has to meet with foreign leaders.

          Meh. World leaders are quite accustomed to meeting with senile counterparts – in fact, they often prefer it: less chances of surprises that way.
          ~

      2. Obama may be an intermediary, a glorified messenger boy: Boss man says do this.

        But I still don’t believe he’s in charge. How in hell would he GET in charge when he never really was before?? He just doesn’t have that kind of influence, no matter how much sucking up he did while in office.

        1. Yeah. I have mixed feelings on Obama and the behind-the-scenes thing. He wasn’t really in charge in his *own* administration. But I’m really unclear on who it would be. Valerie Jarrett is important of course. And there’s the power-seeking minions like Ben Rhodes. And the Wolfram and Hart firm (Perkins Coie). Plus a lot of high tech flunkies and lobbyists. Soros is certainly in the mix. And Pelosi and Shumer.

          I’m pretty sure that Obama is acting as though he’s in charge. But it’s not really his thing, in my opinion. To be honest, I think we’d be lucky if it were him. He’s kind of stupid and incompetent. And vindictive. But I suspect it’s more in the nature of the Totalitarian Left Council, with a lot of the big bad people involved, and it all getting funneled through Obama. We’ve seen this pattern before, in lots of fiction :). That *is* the point of fiction, right? To imagine what the secretive power hungry evil assholes are doing?

          1. Rhodes was almost certainly only important because of his brother, who was a vice president at CBS (iirc). Without that, I don’t know that he matters all that much. Also, one of his final acts as part of the Obama administration was to write an op-ed basically calling the Washington press corps a bunch of lazy, gullible idiots (the verbal gymnastics used by the press to “explain” this were amusing). That suggests to me that he didn’t think it important to preserve his bridges to the press.

            1. Why would he or any other Democrat care about burning bridges; the Washington press in particular are committed leftist partisans who will parrot and push the party line no matter how much they get crapped on.

              1. From Monday’s Washington Post Style section:

                Fox News is a hazard to our democracy. It’s time to take the fight to the Murdochs. Here’s how.
                I happened to be watching Fox News on election night when the network startled the political world by calling Arizona for Joe Biden.

                It was a weird moment, without the fanfare that usually accompanied the announcement that a state was being put in one column or another. A few hours later, the Associated Press made the same call.

                But many other news organizations, including The Washington Post, took days to reach that daring conclusion. For them, Arizona’s vote count simply remained far too close. Nate Silver, the data-oriented editor of FiveThirtyEight.com, even argued that Fox News should rescind its call, that it was too early to make the prediction.

                And Trumpworld was enraged. Losing the traditionally red state would make it that much harder to proclaim that the election was so close that it must in fact have been stolen by the Democrats. It would disrupt the Big Lie narrative. Former president Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, even called Fox honcho Rupert Murdoch to complain. But Fox News stood behind the call, which turned out to be correct.

                But a lot has changed since then. Last week, two key members of Fox News’s decision desk abruptly departed the network. One was laid off, the other has retired, and some insiders are calling it a “purge.”

                Apparently, at a network that specializes in spreading lies, there was a price to pay for getting it right. (“Fox News isn’t a newsgathering organization,” surmised press critic Eric Boehlert, arguing in response to the purge that its White House credentials should be revoked.)

                In recent days, Fox has taken a sharp turn toward a more extreme approach as it confronts a post-Trump ratings dip — the result of some of its furthest-right viewers moving to outlets such as Newsmax and One America News

                [SNIP]

                Even James Murdoch, while not naming names, blasted the harm that his family’s media empire has done. “The sacking of the Capitol is proof positive that what we thought was dangerous is indeed very much so,” he told the Financial Times. “Those outlets that propagate lies to their audience have unleashed insidious and uncontrollable forces that will be with us for years.”

                But it’s his father and his brother, Lachlan, who run Fox, not James.

                How to get the Fox News monster under control? I do not believe the government should have any role in regulating what can and can’t be said on the air, although I often hear that proposed. That would be a cure worse than the disease. But let’s not count on the hope that the Fox-controlling Murdochs will develop a conscience.

                No, the only answer is to speak the language that the bigwigs at Fox will understand: Ratings. Advertising dollars. Profit.

                Corporations that advertise on Fox News should walk away, and citizens who care about the truth should demand that they do so (in addition to trying to steer their friends and relatives away from the network).

                [SNIP]

                When you think about Fox News’s role in the 400,000 U.S. lives lost to the pandemic and in the disastrous attack of Jan. 6, it’s even fair to call it deadly.

                So if reality-based America wants to communicate clearly with Fox News leadership, they’ll have to do it in a language they understand. The language of money.
                [END]

                No link provided for that crap.
                ~

                1. It’s “interesting” that that piece of idiocy is in the “Style” section :). Because of course that’s what all that posturing actually is.

          2. Utterly unfair to Wolfram & Hart. They are far less evil and far more honest than Perkins Cole, even the senior partners are. And would Senator Brucker have been any worse than HarrisBiden?

        3. This is going to sound crazy and conspiratorial, but here goes. This all makes sense in terms of a classic Communist revolution. The Democratic Party, “peaceful” BLM, and the other ethnic/LGBTQ/women’s/etc. groups are the front organizations. Antifa, “non-peaceful” BLM, and the thugs recruited by the likes of Robert Creamer are the vanguard of the revolution. There is likely a small core group, possibly partially foreign, that engages in more direct violence as well as planning and organization of direct actions. So who is the Politburo/Central Committee/Revolutionary Council? I hesitate to name any names due to lack of evidence, but some of them had influence in the Obama Administration, while others have been ensconced in universities and left-leaning think tanks. There are fellow travelers, useful idiots, intelligentsia, all the trappings of the Russian Revolution (Cuban, Iranian, etc.)

          These people (including ValJar) are red diaper babies raised on this history. They intended last year to be 1905 — knowing they would not win, but they would use the street violence to create the seeds for the future victory. Instead, it unexpectedly became 1917, with Biden as Kerensky. Biden cannot last, as Kerensky didn’t and Bani-Sadr didn’t. For these folks, the next several months are going to be about toppling the Biden Administration, to be replaced with the equivalent of the “dictatorship of the proletariat.” Paradoxically, the weakness of the Biden regime works in their favor.

          The near-term program (“Five Year Plan”) is already laid out — Green New Deal, Medicare For All, student loan forgiveness, moratorium on evictions, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, confiscation of “assault weapons,” evaluation of economics on the basis of race, free college, etc., etc. The Bolsheviks were never more than 5 percent of the Russians, but they managed to consolidate power over about a 5-year period starting in 1917. It was a period of turmoil, but in the end they prevailed over the Russian Empire and maintained their grip for 75 years. These people are engaged in an enterprise every bit as bold as that one.

          1. They won’t succeed.
            As I said, it’s like watching them trying to establish the Soviet Union in 1980.
            But yeah, that’s the plan. It’s not conspiratorial. It’s a cult. They think if they follow these steps, it will work.

            1. Cargo Cult Communism?

              I’m hoping that the saw about history repeating first as tragedy and then as farce turns out to be true, because we’ve had the tragedy in the 20th century and I could really use a laugh now.

  6. Writing, writing, writing! Stories and blogs…One thing that just occurred to me is to create a list of books of American history and politics, and yes, EU politics, and post-communist politics, all of which do their damned best to tell the real story, and provide thoroughly researched details. And, I will disseminate that list as far and wide as I possibly can.

    1. Yes! Especially now that libraries are open again, but only for curbside pickup, which means you have to know how to find the book you’re looking for, instead of being able to browse.

      Right now I’m looking for a good narrative history of the American Revolution. I know most of the basics, but the memories are several decades old and from a child/teen perspective, which means I’m not always sure how all the events and personalities fit together.

        1. First I need titles and authors. Trying to dig through several thousand entries in the online catalog and figure out which aren’t full of Tranzi catbox scoopings is a monumental chore. But if I had bibliographic information to work with, I could put holds on them in a matter of minutes.

          It would be so much easier if I could just go inside, go to the appropriate DDC catalog number area on the shelves, and start scanning the books until I see something likely, then pull it out and leaf through to see if it’s suitable. But with them on curbside pickup only “indefinitely,” having some recommendations to work with would be so helpful.

          1. Why not go to archive.org or Gutenberg and read original sources?

            search terms: united states war independence
            sort by date publish, click the up arrow to get oldest first

            Here’s the first one I looked at, from 1834:

            archive DOT org/details/historyofwarofinhow02bott

            Dipped here and there, it seems fairly readable.

            Oooh. The first one on the list is John Adams’ “Letter to Samuel Chase dated Philadelphia, July 9, 1776” in original handwriting. Uploader: Boston Public Library. American Revolutionary War Manuscripts Collection… oh my goodness. Lots of firsthand and contemporary documents, what a source for flavor.

            https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Boston+Public+Library.+American+Revolutionary+War+Manuscripts+Collection%22

            1. Hillsdale College might also have resources that list books and other resources, given that they are one of, if not the last, colleges to avoid falling to SJW ideology.

                1. Liberty University was founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell. Hillsdale college was founder in 1844. It’s founding charter prohibited discrimination based race, religion or sex. They have been fighting the good fight for a long, long time.

                2. Patrick Henry College [ https://www.phc.edu/ ] was founded in 2000 specifically for home schooled students. According to thebestschools . org/rankings/best-colleges-homeschool-graduates/

                  PHC has already earned a reputation as a pre-law boutique through its award-winning students who participate in forensics, debate, and moot court competitions. Remarkably, 92% of graduates applying for graduate work have been accepted into their preferred school.

                  A headline on its website advises:
                  PHC LSAT Average Rivals Best in Nation
                  The 2019 PHC LSAT average displays a competitive edge against pre-law programs from Harvard & Yale.
                  ~

            1. Books for the writers to the right of Lenin list: Fred Pruitt writes charming novels with a bite, Sarah. Or perhaps biting novels with charm, it being a matter of proportion. Only his first novel is listed on Amazon (Phoebe Clayton: A Story of Love and Furniture https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008MO71QM/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title), which is also a thorough education in entrepreneurship; the rest of the series he sells on Smashwords, as well as three stand-alone science fiction novels, the first of which, Karl Redhand (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/610137), meets your cultural criteria. He feels very Heinleinian to me, though your mileage — and possibly his — may differ, as he has strong objections to a world government, given what the rest of the world is like.

          3. Take a look at LibraryThing – hundreds of thousands of books from private and public libraries, all over the world, with search available by subject matter and LCC or DDC – many of them reviewed by the owners, rating system, the whole nine yards.
            https://www.librarything.com/tour/1
            Enter American History in the “search site” box for example.

            Warning: dangerous for bibliophiles; you might not resurface for days!
            Legacy libraries is my favorite.
            https://www.librarything.com/index_catalog.php?search=american%20history&page=legacy

    2. Excellent idea! And look for places where people share homeschooling resources and get the list linked there.

    3. How about making a list, and volunteering to read and review the classics of Freedom and Liberty? We can post it on our own sites, and send a link to it here.

      1. DO IT. Send link to book promo or put it in links. I’ll promote them.
        …. look, there’s so much to do, I can’t even think of everything much less do it. So y’all get on it and I’ll megaphone it.

      3. Start with the Federalist Papers, and the Anti-Federalist ones too. Well, start with the Declaration of Independence and the actual Constitution.

        1. Meme on Power line today.

          Professor: And that concludes our look at the Bill of Rights.

          Student: But that doesn’t apply if I feel bad, right?

          (Feel free to quietly weep at this ‘joke’.)

  7. I was just thinking that it’s probably time to teach my seven-year-old grandson about the Bill of Rights. Of course he won’t get the full context, but after seeing how few of my contemporaries are up in arms about the current putsches, I feel it’s never too early to start teaching the kids the importance of freedom.

    I can, of course, talk about this for as long as he’ll put up with, but I’d like to have some books for him to read or for me to read with him. Not just about the Constitution, but American history – since it appears they will no longer be teaching that in school.

      1. Colouring books – with short paragraphs explaining what is being depicted: Washington crossing the Delaware, Adams exhorting the Colonial Congress, Lee presenting the Virginia Declaration …

        Colouring those in gives the pages an involvement and retention that mere reading cannot.
        ~

    2. My recommendations tend towards the high school/college/anybody looking to learn level (since that’s what I taught) and not toward younger kids. However, I do have a few conservative faculty friends with kids, so I’ll ask around.

    3. Have you seen the Tuttle Twins books? Pretty solid and the right target age. Not history so much but liberty and economics.

    4. Some years ago, Bill O’Reilly wrote a book on the Constitution for children. I looked at it at the time and thought that though simplified, he had done a good job. I looked and can’t find it on Amazon. It might be out of print.

  8. >>that got silly ideas in their heads

    A half-white, half-Vietnamese Millennial told me that he couldn’t live anywhere but deep-blue cities because otherwise he would be in physical danger – from all the racists. He was sad about it, but also accepting of his lot in life.

    He also had a weird … optimism? He was unconcerned about California banning gas-powered cars because scientists are on track to invent a cheaper replacement in less than twenty years anyway.

    There’s no way to disprove what will be invented in 2040, and even if he returns safely from an excursion into violent red-America, it is only because of luck.

    I didn’t see anyway to get through to someone like that.

    3. Offer to be his “escort” to some non-leftist area, just to experience the exotic human fauna there. Offer to take him to a gun range sometime. Heck, offer to pay his way here and back to east Tennessee and I’ll show him around. Physical danger from all the “racists…” Amazing. He’s never met anyone outside his reinforcing cohort, has he?

        1. Yup. Assuming it’ll be real this year, Ruby and I will definitely be there! Hmmm. Seeing an interracial married couple among all the red-state racists would probably throw him into brain-lock.

          2. Kid and I ran into a middle-aged gay couple year in 2019. Had a lovely time, but had to explain to one that “space opera” /= vocal music about sci-fi. 🙂

            1. It doesn’t mean throwing a particularly annoying group of performers out an airlock?

            3. Try to transition with Space Rock Opera with Queen doing the Flash Gordon soundtrack.

              (I denounce myself.)

        2. Start with the Federalist Papers, and the Anti-Federalist ones too. Well, start with the Declaration of Independence and the actual Constitution.

      2. Montgomery AL. It’s a great place. OK not as safe as it used to be. I found Alabamians to be quite welcoming. There were lots of Filipinos living in town when I moved there in 2001. Try the South. Also he could try suburban Dallas as a transition . Reminds me lots of NYC and I’ve never seen so many different nationalities of Asians in one area. The suburbs are conservative. The joke after I married Steve, was that my liberal friend thought the Klan would meet my plane. Wasn’t at all true. Texas has every kind of ethnicity you can think of. On Lone Star Law (TX Game Wardens) one civilian guy interviewed had been relocated to TX from Iraq. He was relocated because he’d helped the US Army and if he’d stayed the Iranians would’ve killed him…

        1. Huntsville AL. Second largest research center in the US. A place where you really could find T-shirts saying, “Actually, I AM a rocket scientist.” Plus the Space and Rocket Center. Smaller and nicer than Montgomery.

          1. I have serious Huntsville envy. When I lived in Montgomery I wished that I lived in Huntsville. Now that I live in a suburb of Dallas I don’t have that envy anymore.

        2. Em, Montgomery has slid off the cliff. It’s hard blue; the bedroom communities Wetumpka, Millbrook, and Prattville where my folks live would be better.

    4. There have been stories for decades about “magic carburetors,” or engines, that have 150 mile-per-gallon ranges or other “miraculous,” features. These things are supposed to not only exist, but be ready for mass production, but have been suppresses by, take your pick, Evil Oil Companies or Evil Automobile Corporations.

      1. I heard those stories back in the 60’s.

        The fact that there just isn’t that much energy in a gallon of gasoline, or that the thermodynamic efficiency of a piston engine is 18% AT BEST, those facts don’t matter at all.

        1. They’ll declare it, and it will be so. Or at least, everyone will agree and shout down any opposition, if they want to keep their jobs.

          “And *our* candles get *longer* when they burn!”

      2. You can make an insanely efficient carburetor by bubbling the air through a volume of gasoline rather than spraying liquid fuel into the air stream. The problem is that you don’t get much in the way of power from that. It’s not that the miracle technologies don’t work (well, most of them don’t work, but a few actually do what they promise) it’s that there are tradeoffs that are too high.

        1. “Emulsion tube” designs bleed air into the bottom of a fuel well, bubbling air/fuel mix up through, usually, a simple tube stuck out into the venturi. “Annular flow” designs meter fuel to a secondary or “booster” venturi with a step cut on the diverging cone. Liquid fuel is pulled out of the feed tube and is atomized by the shear from airflow over the step. Some carburetors do both. The very best 1930s technology, because there are only so many ways to skin that cat.

          There were some experimental designs in the 1970s that used ultrasonic transducers to atomize the fuel; what they found was that there’s an optimum droplet size for best efficiency, and almost all ordinary carburetors delivered that already. Had the transducers and control systems been cheap enough they might have seen some minor improvements in cold start and acceleration enrichment conditions, but by the time the price of the electronic bits came down enough to make it practical the market was moving to fuel injection.

        2. The part that left me darkly amused by those “miracle” carburetors was the idea that Big Oil was able to suppress them, using the Economic Clout of their Big Bigness to totally dominate and force their will on the little bouquet and mom-and-pop auto makers like GM and Ford.

          1. The market has preferred more fuel efficient cars since the Arab oil shock of 1973. If anybody had any miracle mileage enhancers those would be available long before now. The only reason a 50 mpg carburetor wouldn’t be in EVERY vehicle on the road would be if it so fouled the engine that a single tank of gas required a drivetrain rebuild.
            ~

            1. Fuel efficiency has been a selling point for much longer than that.

              “does 20 to 25 miles on one gallon of gasoline.”

              1. Yeah, but when at the pump prices for gas practically TRIPLED overnight it sort of convinced folks it was a problem that was going to be around for a while.
                ~

    5. Daughter (11) has apparently mentioned to Ex that she wants to emigrate somewhere when she grows up, because the US just isn’t safe for women or gays. Ngggg.

      She won’t talk to me about politics because I once said “the US is the greatest country on Earth” and that made her feel unsafe. I can’t Ngggg harder or I may pop a vein.

      You have to be carefully taught, indeed.

      1. Make her tell you in detail what she feels unsafe about. What does she think will happen to her for hearing those words? She’s just parroting what she hears in school, without thinking about it. Make her examine the meaning of her statements, understand just what she’s saying and how it doesn’t really make any sense.

        I know, it’s easy to give such advice when you don’t have to act on it. But the general principle is sound–try to force the leftist-dogma-spouting to actually think about what they’re saying and to defend it.

      2. Seven years before she grows up. There are going to be political changes in seven years, changes in narratives.

        She may well grow up to a saner perspective.

        I suspect that this cold logic is not comforting. I’m sorry I can’t provide better.

      4. You might observe that President Biden, in his inaugural address, declared America both “a great nation” and “systemically racist” and question which nation she believes (thinking clearly does not enter into this) preferable?

        As for the “not safe for women” you might well express sympathy for the plight of cis-women athletes being denied rewards for their hard work because of the innate advantages of biological men identifying – and competing – as women. It would be cruel to advise her to ensure her safety by a) learning self-defense, including armed self-defense and b) avoid being around liberal politicians.

        I guarandamntee you will find plenty of cause for criticism of any alternative she proposes. ALL nations look good when you know nothing about them.
        ~

        1. You know Balzacq, you could tell them about a friend of yours who comes from Portugal and how shocked her then teen sons were at the unthinking sexism. (Like women ride in the back seat even in their husband’s car, if there’s another male present. Opening doors for women carrying things is so rare, women think you’re mocking them. Etc.) And the racism is worse than that, btw. And Portugal is part of the EEC.

          1. Yeah, or since Ex’s highest principle is abortion rights, how abortion laws actually work in Europe.

            2. It is a father’s DUTY to ensure a daughter is aware of when and where her Reproductive Health Rights (spit!) are impaired.

              She could look those up on the internet and not just trust her reactionary da. While she’s at it she might want to review rights of free speech in other nations. It would be a terrible thing were she to voice a critical opinion of some official in another nation and find her liberty imperiled.

              Heck, Ken “The Black Avenger” Hamblin, the former talk radio host even wrote a book about it: PICK A BETTER COUNTRY: An Unassuming Colored Guy Speaks His Mind About America.

              ~

    6. “[S]cientists are on track to invent a cheaper replacement in less than twenty years …”

      He has no idea how rapidly an economy can collapse, has he? Nor how long “twenty years” actually is in scientific development. Five years means they have the technological ability to do it, given refinements. Ten years means they think it can be done if their projections are accurate (Hint: they almost never are.) TWENTY years? They don’t have the scientific principles nailed down, much less the engineerinng worked out. Pie in the sky.
      ~

      1. HOW long have they been promising us fusion reactors ‘within 20 years, honest!’? I’ve been hearing it for 50 years, anybody got that beat?

        1. At least as long as we’ve been “ten years away from running out of oil”.

          But the thing is, that they believe in magic. A powerful person has the ability to alter reality by force of will.
          We went to the moon, because JFK *told* us to go.
          Sulphur was removed from diesel because Clinton *demanded* it.
          Incandescent lights have been replaced because Congress *mandated* it.
          That the challenges were overcome, is an effect of the challenge being placed.
          And the only reason that so much unfairness and wrongness exists, is because nobody had been bold enough to forbid their existence. Ingenuity would find a way. Because Science!

        2. It would be interesting to dig into the nuclear physics literature, and figure out when the folks started thinking that they could build fission and fusion reactors.

    7. And out here in tiny $HOOTERVILLE… well, a few years back there was a nice bar/restaurant a few blocks away and one of the bartenders* was a gal with many tattoos, many piercings, who spoke of her wife… and nobody gave a damn. And the ‘her wife’ bit was real, not just a ruse to keep Bruce Barfly from hitting on her – though that was likely a benefit, to some degree. Unless someone is actively being a problem (my methylated neighbors… who are a ‘traditional’ family of pallor, fwiw) nobody cares. Nobody cares about color, orientation, sex (Make your own joke, Bub.) etc. Alright, there might be some jerk who does – but, guess what? He’s “that guy” and recognized as a jerk – at best.

      * Who tended to handle the scheduling and hiring/firing at least to a considerable degree – and had more sense of business than the owner did, which explains the verb tense.

  10. Scouting is also a good idea, if you get the right troop. Our troop has a former park ranger and cop trainer as its head, and among other things, he wants “good Eagles.” As in not “just do the work and you get the reward” but “earn the award and show that you’ve got the moral fiber along the way.” Oh, and don’t forget to have fun along the way.

    Mind you, they’ve made punkin’ chunkin’ illegal, but they said nothing about launching sports balls.

        1. Scouting has always depended on the troop and the parents involved. Been there done that. Parents have to be involved. But you can’t let the helicopter parents take over either. There are ways to deal with some. Especially since Outdoors hasn’t been removed from most BSA. Just suggest they go on a camp out, rarely takes more than one, especially in Oregon Winter.

          In our area alone there are as many different troops in how things are handled as imaginable. There are a few rules that can not be circumvented, and shouldn’t be, no matter how inconvenient. But others? Well put a bunch of 10.5 to 20.9 on it (Scouting and Venture level), and they will come up with *something.

          * Pumpkin chunking may be out, but tennis balls work. AS do water balloons, which can also be setup as water balloon troop/patrol competition with self built catapults.

          1. We didn’t do water balloons because we’d have to scour the area afterwards to pick everything up. 🙂

            One of the reasons we picked this troop is because they shoot for at least ten troop camping options each year. And one of the assistant scoutmasters is an NRA-trained instructor in the district Shooting Sports. (He’s also got the Archery certifications from whatever national organization does that.) Of course, the major reason we picked it is because they have lots of experience with autistic Scouts, like my eldest, and oh! it’s so nice to see the other Scouts include him on purpose.

            1. Troop we chose, eventually, (long story), had outings every month. Granted one month was summer camp, another was the high adventure extended activity (10 days, 80 miles, backpacking). Rest were weekends, regardless of *weather. All youth driven and planned (with guidance, obviously). There were youth on the spectrum autistic youth, our son wasn’t one of them, but his best friend, also in the troop, was (well still is for that matter, still best friend too).

              Our first troop a whole 10 scouts, of which 4 youth were on the autistic spectrum, 3 from one family, including one parent in particular. We were soooooo not prepared to deal with. Troop folded when for reasons beyond dealing with the family (they moved to their 4th troop, where finally they thrived … large troop and the one parent was slotted into volunteering at the pack level). Note. Family moved to our troop, their 3rd one, thinking they could come in and run things given our size and newness (they tried it on a number of other more established troops when they pulled their boys from our troop, just were told “no, not working that way” so they didn’t try. Stayed with 4th troop because council told them that was the last one.) They were wrong. They didn’t cause the troop to fail but opened eyes on maybe restarting the troop in first place wasn’t the best idea. It was an attempt to keep 6 others that otherwise wouldn’t have continued on, in scouts. It did fill a hole in upper level scouting in our area … but timing was wrong. Ironically, the troop that the smaller one merged with is now based out of the same area. Out of the 7 original scouts? Only one continued in scouting to earn Eagle. There were two out of his Webelos group to earn Eagle. The other youth’s parents we told them “you were right”.

              * Oregon has a lot of nasty wet weather when one is based out the Willamette Valley.

              1. My husband was in a troop in the Willamette Valley. He didn’t stay in once he hit high school, but the funny part was that his patrol was known for two things: campsite building and no-trace camping. So they’d build a requested site, then camp no-trace style off to the side. 😀

                1. Don’t remember the troop. *Applegate District Camporee up Wolf Creek. Would have been 2002 (?). Theme was No Trace Camping. This theme was promoted For Months at District Monthly meeting. The troop that won (that event anyway), we couldn’t even find their campsite!!! They’d packed up their tents, etc., and had them with them on the Events being done (or stashed in vehicles in cars), then reset after event portion was done. Naturally large troops complained that they “couldn’t compete”. Actually. They didn’t even try. They figured since they were the “big troop” they’d win, like usual. Same happened with the Patrol Events. Each station had been publicized since January (Camporee was/is May). Complaints that troops had their patrols practice. Well. Duh. That is why the events were publicized, printed, and distributed, in January, February, March, April, and May (Thursday before start of Camporee on Friday Night, but still).

                  First troop we were in, No Trace all the way. Not as good as the camp above that won. Second troop built cook stations with lashings. Meant carrying not only the rope but the right sized Alder poles every trip. About every 3 years would have to replace them with Alder saplings and sized. Son earned Eagle at 15 (just before he turned 16). Insisted he stay in as Assistant Scout Master until graduation. Then work and college got in the way.

                  Note, son getting the extra car, at 16, was determined on four things, only one of which he had no control over: 1) Driver’s License (duh). 2) Eagle. 3) GPA > 3.5. 4) Dad had have been transferred back home from exile. (Which is why we had an extra car. The gas costs saved paid for it. Dad put 48k miles on it in 17 months coming home on weekends. It took the kid 14.5 years to put the next 60K on it, even with commuting home from college on alternative weekends.) Dad was transferred home end of same month kid went before the Eagle Board. (In fact they surprised me. They’d left a note about having a golf tournament through the golf club dad plays, with an excuse of why they took the pickup. Next think I know they are pulling in front of the house with the pickup towing our travel trailer, which is where dad had been living. Did I say that his exile was in in-middle-of-nowhere-what-housing?)

                  * West Eugene through western Lane County. Southern Willamette Valley.

                  I understand not staying in Scouts once you hit HS. I didn’t (GSA, but still). The troop’s Scoutmaster didn’t, nor did my husband. They each made it to Life, but didn’t make Eagle.

                  1. I was theoretically in Girl Scouts through the end of high school, but I didn’t have a troop. We asked the council for assistance finding one and they said “IDK, maybe you could start one.” This is why I lost patience with the Girl Scout organization AS an organization, and it drives me nuts that one of my sisters keeps insisting that it’s so much better than the BSA and the NSA is “poaching” by allowing girl troops. (Oh, and they’re “mini-militia” or something. Did we even grow up in the same family?)

                    The amusing part for my husband is that three years running he was unable to get his First Aid merit badge at summer camp for medical reasons. First year, sprained one wrist. Next year, sprained the other. Third year, couldn’t attend the class because he was performing first aid on an idiot from his troop who put an ax in his foot. (Oh, the irony abounds on that one!)

                    1. unable to get his First Aid merit badge at summer camp for medical reasons. First year, sprained one wrist. Next year, sprained the other. Third year, couldn’t attend the class because he was performing first aid on an idiot from his troop who put an ax in his foot. (Oh, the irony abounds on that one!)

                      –
                      Had youth earn First Aid at camp. But we never relied on camp to get merit badges. Exception being ones that required BSA certified merit badge councilors. Even then a lot of those certifications were related to being able to run Camp Ranges, not inability to get merit badge outside of Camp.

                      As an adult leader I’d have taken youth to merit badge councilor and verified scouts account on why missed class; after emergency handled (may not have helped but scout would have known an adult tried). I mean come on. Dealing with that emergency had to have met or exceeded one or more items on the First Aid merit badge requirements.

                      GSA for me was ’60s. GSA was still offering outdoors as part of the program. I went to Trapper Camp 3 summers. Then two things happen, rather than go back to Trapper Camp as HS youth councilor, spent summers on Aunt/Uncle’s “Ranch” (Horses). Plus it was either Job’s Daughters, or GSA; I didn’t get a choice (ended up dropping Job’s too for reasons, before end of my Junior year). Not that I was going anywhere in GSA. I can’t tell you today what the rank levels were. Mom isn’t wrong that the GSA program implemented in our area was anemic; or at least the troop I was in.

                    2. Relying on the parents exclusively instead of having troops that continue on? Your troop is only as good as its leadership, and they’re all amateurs.

                      I did get outdoor camp certified so that my daughter’s troop can go camping. Not that it’s happened in the last year & change (the last time we were supposed to go up to the lodge camp weekend, it was canceled due to fire risk, and then everything shut down in spring.)

        1. I hope not.

          We haven’t been immersed involved since 2007, when our son graduated HS and left for college. Our son Eagle Class of ’05. We stayed registered and available to the troop through 2010 (or hubby was), dropping registration in ’12, but still available … haven’t been called on. 2010 hubby helped plan and implement their high adventure trip to Yosemite. That was our last activity.

          Neither of us had any desire to participate beyond the troop level and limited district level.

          1. I don’t know exactly how far gone the BSA is. But it’s worth pondering that the Latter-Day Saint Church was a *huge* supporter of the BSA, to the point where the Boy Scouts were literally what the teenage boys were supposed to participate in for their youth activities.

            And then just recently, the Church completely split from Scouting.

            1. Latter-Day Saint Church was a *huge* supporter of the BSA

              –
              There was another church domination that broke off earlier. LDS has been working to break off for a lot longer than publicly admitted. But that aside, as a non-LDS BSA leader I know how frustrating it was to have the LDS units (by sheer force of youth members registered, but not numbers participating) dominating district and council politics (we, hubby and I, don’t politic). Thus there was a lot of local policy (and I’m sure national) based off of a small percentage of participants because of paper participants based off of registration numbers. Some of it came down to “The LDS units won’t be there. They’ll miss out. Too bad.” Some was everyone was denied the option.

              Near as I can tell (at least from local level) the LDS split came down to 3 issues. Two of which were very well publicized. The 3 were:

              1) Unit leadership final say comes from veto power from BSA National and background checks. (Hmmm gee why is that an issue?) It is presumed by the public at large that BSA has always determined who locally could be in a leadership roles at all levels. Nope. Leadership is (was?) approved by the Unit Charter Owner (units, at least the ones we worked with appreciated the BSA background check reports, but they decided … one would hope had their been an issue, appropriate decline would occur). NOW, BSA has final say, regardless (never mind that problems can’t be detected if not in system, but there you go.) LDS unit leadership is determined by the Church, one doesn’t “volunteer”, one if “volunteered” (I’m sure there are stakes where volunteers were asked for VS arbitrarily assigned). LDS disapproved of the ability of women to volunteer in unit leadership roles beyond cub level den mother, or troop committee member, no matter what skills a woman brought to the troop (tend to child rearing and knitting); not even married couples. Trust me, I learned how to be very tone death to this issue and ignored it. They could grouse all they wanted. (OTOH I was a forester and computer software engineer programmer so being tone death to “you don’t belong here” was second nature.) Note, our council had troops that without moms in leadership roles, there was no troop in that area; Period. I do know that my participation convinced boys that if I could do something, so could they. In their view, a lower bar than men or older youth doing the same activity. Wrong view? Does it matter? In this case, results is what matters.

              2) Accepting of gay members. Or shall I say officially accepting. I can’t speak for other areas, but more than a few of the units in our area were of the “none of our business” who is sleeping with whom as long as everyone was of age of consent, it didn’t happen during scout or venture* outings. The issue of whether a youth would be comfortable discussing this with a (well two or more because no one had a one on one discussion with youth not your child) was also stupid. Youth were told they could talk to any (two leaders, and why this was important) on any topic. No judging. (* There were Venture crews that had married couples youth participants, with babies. They were > 17 and < 21. They didn't share a tent on Venture outings.) Heck there were troops where married leaders (above youth age of either scouting or venture) where the married couples couldn't share a tent.

              3) Allowing girls 6 to 18 (18 to 21 have been already integrated into Venture program, which LDS never used) to earn BSA awards. (Not sure this was actually a reason or BSA finally gave in because LDS was dropping the BSA program.) Note. This is not 100% integration. Cub units register both boys and girls into the same Pack. But, the Den's are NOT to be integrated. Troops are not to be integrated. Period. There are separate chartered troops for girls and for boys. Now does that prevent troops from working together? Not that I'm aware of. Hey, our GSA troop was partnering with BSA troop in the '60s, especially the high adventure activities. In small towns locally, GSA, BSA, partnered all the time. At 14, the youth also registered in co-ed Venture crews (or non-coed Venture crews depending on how chartered and why).

              Who knows. LDS might just have been mining the materials from BSA and setting up their own programs to share with other religious entities.

              1. The Latter-Day Saint Church had been closely linked to the BSA for decades. There was no “mining” going on, as the relationship was not a brief one. Again, the BSA was essentially used by the Church as the go-to activities program for teenage males. And in my area, the membership involvement was decent and not just “largely on paper”.

                2. “my area, the membership involvement was decent and not just “largely on paper”.”

                  I can only go on what was observed locally, and admitted by local LDS units. Not surprised different experience in other areas. I don’t think LDS mined for information either. BSA had a good program. It has been pivoting away from requirements slowly. There are Eagle requirements now that weren’t decades ago, as there are requirements that were required decades ago that aren’t now. Some the older requirements are still found in merit badges, rarely earned. Signalling or animal tracking for example.

                  One that I think has dropped off recently was building and cooking a meal on an open fire. I’ve seen some pretty awful meals cooked and consumed by scouts to get that one completed. But when they achieve it? Priceless. Knowing they have the ability, even if they never use it again? Priceless. I can only go off of the Eagle speeches I’ve heard at their court of honors. To a person that is a remembered experience. (The cook a meal hasn’t dropped off, I don’t think. But cooking a meal on an open cook fuel fire, wood/coal, they built, has, I think.)

  11. Oh, and as for meme-making, I jumped on the train of making Bernie memes. Only one person has commented, so far, about the one of him getting stared down by my Halloween decoration of Death, but nobody’s commented about me putting him on the throne of the Mikado. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to to find the best scene in The Gondoliers, the one that ends with the line “if everyone is somebody, then noone’s anybody!” (They’re all my photos, so I had to work with the shows I had.)

    Nobody said you had to be obvious about your jabs.

        1. They seem to get better all the time LOL I’m thinking they want to get Biden, but Bernie is more easy to mock. He is turning into the symbol of them. It’s funnier that all sides are doing this too

  13. “It Could Be Worse”

    Words every newly married couple needs to remember.

    And how very appropriate for a (much) belated gift.
    ~

          1. There are times I’d like to put up a big poster of Ian’s icon warning of “Unconstrained Murphy” at work. There’s one piece of equipment (and it’s not a copier or printer or such) that is easy to jam up, and the jams can be avoided with a less than a second’s worth of thought. At ox speed of thought, mind. But so many seem to either not think at all, or figure they’ll save themselves a tiny amount of time – and thus cause others to spend considerable time undoing their stupidity.

      2. The Law of the Unspeakable:
        If you speak of the bad, it will come; if you speak of the good, it will leave.

        1. The Law of Expectations:

          Negative expectations yield negative results.
          Positive expectations yield negative results.

                    1. It has been said of my IRA great-grandfather that he loved America, the Red Sox, and Katie (me great-granny), to which she would often reply, “And it that order!”

                      Sláinte mhór. We’ve turned from the land where it was strange but happier land into the a land back under the thumb of the Saxons.

                      No longer are they content to make us “civilized”, by taking away our music and our language, they will kill us for not being like them.

                      *Spits*

                      God in Heaven and all the Saints, we left Clare to live free! To live away from the Saxon boot on our neck! We survived the Hunger! And now my own kin are the Saxons, and they celebrate it!

                    2. “they will kill us for not being like them.”

                      As if being made to be like them wouldn’t be the death of us.
                      ~

                    3. Wait … special sheep liniment is whiskey?

                      I feel dumb. I thought it was some kind of infused turpentine. I’ve never spent time around sheep, okay? Horses, cows, chickens, rabbits, ducks, even a few goats, but no sheep.

                  3. In fairness, she did not actually assert you have any endearing qualities, merely that some of your qualities are less un-endearing than others, with some of them being least un-endearing.
                    ~

          2. Ah, but give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day.
            Give a man to Cthulhu and he’ll be eaten for eternity.

      4. Back when I was a hotel night auditor, responsible for cleaning up all of the daily hotel transactions before they went to the accounting department I learned to never grumble that so-and-so was a desk clerk so vastly incompetent that management could not possibly find somebody worse — because management would inevitably prove they could indeed.

        NEVER challenge management ability to hire and mis-train incompetent co-workers!
        ~

  14. I will say that if you raise your children, you will actually like them a good percent of the time.

      2. FICUS is also a useless potted plant – also rather like the usurper occupying the White House.

    2. Fraud in Chief, or Faker in Chief, or Fraudster in Chief. Potted plant implication for extra fun 🙂

  16. Book, e-books, storage and accessibility when the fit hits the shan:

    I’ve over 600 e-books stored in a file on my computer, the majority downloaded from Project Gutenberg.

    I’ve been thinking about e-paper readers such as those in Kobo’s line; not too expensive, from around $80 on up, battery life measured in weeks, not hours, 8 or more GBs of storage (My 600 some odd e-books take up 1.1 GB storage space.).

    Hardcover, paper, books will be, of course, best if we lose power grids, etc.

    E-books on my computer and Lenovo tablet might be reachable for a while feeding current or charging with a gas powered generator but, run out of gas and I’m out of information access.

    The e-paper readers however need very little power to operate, a 20 to 50 buck camping solar charger could keep such running happily and 8 GBs storage could keep, perhaps, 5,000 books available.

    I do enjoy my computers, my tablet with color screen and all the bells and whistles but I think I’ll soon purchase a plain Jane, black and white e-paper reader, backup all my e-books therein, just in case.

      1. Yes, been looking at reMarkable 2, (Found out about it at Sarah’s Diner) over 400 bucks but looks like it’s well worth it it you want or need the additional functions.

        For those interested, purchase includes 30 day trial, free return and full refund.

    2. Supposedly you can run a laptop off the better portable solar chargers.

      At the very least, you can use a solar unit to charge a car battery, and run a laptop off an inverter, say, the kind that plugs into a cigarette lighter.

      But agreed, if Things Fall Apart, only paper copies will be routinely accessible.

  17. Because what we’re seeing makes no sense at all and has the feel of a double exposure.

    It is my contention that this is what a timeline split feels like – the “Wait, that’s not right” reaction, which everyone experienced on election night no matter for whom they voted, but which all the three letter media has been working oh so hard to stamp out, is the residue of such a large inflection point that ended up splitting the timeline.

    I wish the other me over there in the other branch well dealing with all the BLANTIFA riots and uprisings and secessions and open insurrection by the deep state, but I still envy him.

    3. Scott Adams had (has? Haven’t seen in a while.) the idea of “One screen, two movies.” which makes ever more sense in a horrifying way. Leslie Fish’s post on the coverage of 06 January 2020 shows how some of it works: Sans sound, the news video shows mainly people milling around. With sound, there is the Narrative of “riot, insurrection, invasion” and such – and for all too many, the Narrative get swallowed, despite what the eyes (ought) see.

      1. There were still Christmas decorations up in the film of people moving around appearing to pull drawers open supposedly on the 6th of Jan. Think of the meticulousness of Mrs MT and ask yourself, was this filmed earlier for a narrative?

        1. On Epiphany? What’s the issue?

          And indeed the “take them down on Epiphany” is a nineteenth century innovation. Middle Ages, you could leave ’em up until Candlemas.

  18. Has anyone seen Fluffy? I was wondering if he was related:

    3. One of the Far Side strips featured a yard with a sign saying:
      “Beware of Doug”

  19. I couldn’t agree with you more about getting involved with your children. From 6 months old on I put my boys in backpacks to take them hiking and roaming the way out there. Always involved with their schools, teachers and homework. (The math in highschool kicked my ass but I studied too) Best of all they were internet junkies at 4 years old. ( Ill never forget my eldest yelling at me “Daddy, how do you spell hotwheels dot com?” and watching him type it. Middle 20s now and good, bright kids with fast working minds that see the bullshit plainly. Im doing the same with the grand kids too, tho it involves more dirt bikes, ATVs and tractors and of course tablets.
    Our legacy is our offspring, NEVER let that leave your thoughts.

    1. getting involved with your children. From 6 months old on I put my boys in backpacks to take them hiking and roaming the way out there. Always involved with their schools, teachers and homework.

      –
      Ditto. Didn’t have to worry about the math being a problem for us. Hubby was planning on being a math teacher until he did his first teaching practicum early ’70s before switching to Forestry.

      Son was camping at 6 weeks. Only reason we waited that long is we had to be a MIL every weekend. We took one weekend off (caught hell for it from MIL) to meet grandparents for camping (my grandparents, son’s great-grandparents). By the time he left for college, not counting scouting camping and trips, he’d been to Yellowstone/Tetons 3-times, Glacier, Banff/Jasper, Rainier, Helens, Olympia, Cascade, Crater Lake, Sequoia, Redwoods, Rocky Mountain, Dinosaur, etc., at least once. Taken the “Freedom Trail” tour eastern US, twice (tour national jamboree council contingent did in 2001 and 2005). We installed our version of environmentalism long before he got to school or involved in scouts. This doesn’t count sports coaching, or reading to him every night.

      Had him on the computer as soon as he could sit there. He never got into computer programming, but he build his own gaming computer from scratch. Did all the research himself, bought the components, put it together, keeps it maintained and updated to his wants. Recently did the same for an A-R-something (without spelling it out).

      Kept up with what was being taught and how in school. Let him know the difference between opinion and fact. Discussed our view/opinion on topics. Taught him how to “not argue” with TPTB graders, but still get the wanted answers on tests. That included some topics related to scouting. Kind of like I do here (I share a lot. I don’t share everything.) How to respond to NOYB questions without actually saying that. We were on call if he got cornered. We never got called.

      I think a couple interactions we had with teachers summed it up.

      1) Teacher’s statement that “OMG you followed through!” Made kid redo a rejected homework on computer because his handwriting is so atrocious then turned it in early (which caused other problems easily straightened out).

      2) Teacher telling us it wasn’t fair to others that we double checked son’s homework and or tutored. Especially math and programming. Glaring at husband. Me: “I can tutor the math too, but that’s his thing”, pointing to husband, “I do the computer stuff. I write software. We’re not stopping. Deal with it.” Granted his HS freshman year I might have coached it more politely “What? You want me to take away their phone bonding time?” That was when hubby was exiled for work during the week, due to distance, only home weekends and vacation time. They were going over homework over the phone.

      He isn’t a big conversationalist (oops?) but when he does participate, I think we spawned and grew someone at least not liberal.

    1. Greenwald is puzzled why the enemy of the people is the lapdog of the elite, and acts like it.

      Clearly Greenwald is a terrorist. Send out the FBI SWAT team for a no-knock 3am raid, and grab a throwdown from the bin over there so when he and his family is all shot they can show the gun he pulled on them.

      Just a few months ago that would have been over the top.

        1. He better be careful. Question a few more narratives and he’ll be suddenly turn into a neo-Nazi homophobic deplorable who Must Be Silenced For Democracy.

      2. Greenwald lives in Brazil so he doesn’t have to be as “careful”. I don’t know if it’s just because his husband is there or if it’s also a strategic choice.

        2. That doesn’t mean he’s safe. The Swamp knows where he is. They could buy a hit on him for pocket change.

          2. This is Obama term 3, and Barry was the drone-strike-on-American-citizens-overseas guy, so…

    2. Glenn Greenwald has to be feeling disoriented. I give him credit for not giving in to the cognitive dissonance.

      2. Back in the Cold War many on the Right (and, I guess, the Left) overcame lesser disputes to come together in their views on the USSR. Greenwald likely understands the threat posed by corporate cronyism is greater than any other present threat.

        Heck, as noted elsewhere this page, even China is realizing that ceding control over the internet to someone you do not control is allowing a knife at your throat.
        ~

    3. “We need to disarm you because we’re about to do something to you that you would legitimately want to shoot us for doing.”
      I can’t see any other reason for the gun grabs.
      John

      1. Yep, even lawful petition drives are now being denounced as “coup attempts”. The California State Democratic Party chair denounced the recall petition against Gavin Newsome as being a Republican ‘coup attempt” meant to empower radicals and white nationalists. Never mind that given the populace quite a few Democrats must be among the over one million signatures gathered so far in the recall effort.

        When leftists that Democrats support riot while chanting “no USA at all” that is peaceful protest that is encouraged. When non-leftists exercise their lawful and constitutional rights, doing so is deemed insurrection, sedition and coup attempts.

        They want to disarm us so they can subjugate and kill us. It is rather clear.

      2. It is obvious to me that the China Joe Muppet Show scriptwriters obviously believe gun issues are indeed still the energized third rail in political terms, as all of those first day executive orders completely avoided coming anywhere near firearms restrictions.

        1. Nah, they’ll wait a few months for the FICUS to wilt, then have the Red Queen do it. “Off with their heads!”

  21. May I pick up on your comment about all the “Federalist Society judges” that Trump appointed and how well that worked out? Just before COVID broke out, I had the dubious opportunity to get up close and personal with our system of justice while backstopping my daughter in her divorce / custody battle for my baby granddaughter. From my observation, judges are more likely than not to follow the path of least resistance, which means they often favor the side that will make the most noise if things don’t go their way. But that’s not all…

    Your typical judge could make quite a bit more money in private law practice, but instead of money they get “power” and “respect”. A judge works hard to maintain his/her “reputation” and to project “studied judiciousness”. Many courts (especially in smaller towns) resemble a medieval baron surrounded by his local nobility (also known as “attorneys”) who take turns bringing in cases for the judge to decide. Most of those attorneys are well known to the judge, so they often get away with ignoring or bending procedural rules while demanding that the rules be strictly enforced against the “outsiders”.

    I would venture a guess that most of the Trump election lawsuits were defended by local “insiders” given that the Democrat party was already geared up to defend the fraud-enabling rule changes. On the one hand, a judge could choose to throw out cases and ignore/minimize evidence, thereby keeping his local reputation intact and gaining the applause of the leftist media chorus. On the other hand, the judge could take the evidence seriously and rule in Trump’s favor, thereby damaging his reputation and getting blasted by the media. In either scenario, the decision will be appealed and then decided by a higher court. So any act of judicial integrity accomplishes absolutely nothing other than destroy your judicial career and your standing in the local community once cancel culture gets to work.

    Which option would you choose? The best thing a judge could do for Trump is to throw out his case quickly so he can get the appeal going. Much more damaging would be to open up the case to discovery and testimony with the first hearing scheduled for January 7th. I am surprised that even a single judge ruled in Trump’s favor (and she is probably suffering for her decision that was overruled by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court due to “laches”).

    1. Keep in mind there was a lot of forum shopping with the election cases, and the Judges who heard them on a state level were almost exclusively Democratic Party appointed apparatchiks. Likewise, many of the Federal Judges were not Trump appointees, and even those who were often rejected hearing the cases out of deference to the state courts or to stay out of a “political dispute”. In several cases, the Judges took the position that “there simply is not enough time”.

      When you add that it would have taken multiple cases in multiple states to throw out the fraudulent electors, some of the Judges also considered that even if they ruled in favor of throwing out the electors dor for other remedies, that the end result would be the same because of lack of action in other states, and they would face immediate impeachment by a vindictive Democratic Party House and persecution from the usual sources. Keep in mind that if forced off the bench in these circumstances, they would be rendered unemployable by the cancel culture mob.

      1. Pretty much my thoughts. The only court that ever really mattered in this case was SCOTUS and they punted. Given my expectations of judges going forward, no matter who appointed or elected them, I wouldn’t count on getting a fair shake from courts on anything that touches on the left’s agenda.

  22. “Dying Europe threw over their heritage for socialism) in a hundred years our grandkids can colonize Europe. It will be mostly empty ruins and howling wasteland. They forgot how to have babies.”
    Well, first you will have to wait for the immivaders to run out of food and treasure. They haven’t forgotten how to have babies or how to use “white guilt” to get free stuff.

    1. Oh yeah, I did make a page of recommendations on my blog. I’m still futzing with it but it’s there and it’s up. Now to get to the other stuff.

    2. Oh, and! I have a 17 year old and a 10 year old. While it is still in the realm of science for me to pro-create again… no, just no. I’m fairly certain my teenager would kill me and my parents would have me committed. I will, however, mentor, teach, motivate and learn and build new things.

      …perhaps even include 30-somethings having children in some of my books. I know! Crazy, right?

      1. You could have had one 15 year old, and two year-old twins, or singleton. Son had classmates whose older sibling were 15 years older. It was nice having other parents who were older than us. Sadly, there were the parents who were even older yet, who were raising their grandchildren.

        Dad was 16 years older than his youngest sibling, who was 18 years younger than their oldest sibling. My husband is 11 years younger than his oldest sibling, and 4 years younger than his next oldest sibling (of 4).

        I was 32 when our son was born. I have gladly gotten pregnant again. Alas it wasn’t meant to be. OTOH birth control was cheap ($0) … silver lining, I guess.

        1. Honestly, the two that I have were considered impossible at the time and they both tried to kill me on the way out. Love them to pieces but with the amount I work anyway, it would literally be taking my life into my hands to try it again.

          My parents were both the middle of 3, one my grandfather was the youngest of 9, with 14 years between his next closest living sibling. My grandmothers on both sides were only children, actually, which was highly unusual at the time.

          1. Paternal grandmother had 6, two years apart, then a 5 year gap, two more two years apart, an 8 year gap, and then two more two years apart. Shows the years grandpa, and engineer was working away from home, and not home often.

            Maternal grandmother had 3. Two 3 years apart, the youngest when the older two were 12 and 9.

            Don’t know of how many they lost, either to miscarriage or early infant mortality. That was never mentioned (for paternal grandmother, guessing none of the latter, or they’d be buried in the family graveyard).

            OTOH of my paternal grandfather, he is the only one of 4, two sets of twins, who survived to have any children (7, dad has an half sister). His sister’s twin died in infancy. His sister never had any children. His twin brother died without issue (or marrying); was lost from a ferry on Puget Sound.

            My grandmothers on both sides were only children, actually, which was highly unusual at the time.

            –
            Because they were the only surviving? Or as we think of only children today?

        2. I have a sister who is 21 years younger than I am – she’s exactly 4 months older than my first son – and I’ve got another sister 23 years younger than me. We’re all full siblings too, no step-anything. It kinda runs in the family, my dad is 19 years older than his sister.

          1. A friend of mine has nieces and nephews older than her. She is the progeny of a widow and widower who married. They thought they were too old to have children. She was quite the surprise.

          2. Hoyt’s Huns has had this discussion over on MeWe … Inter-generational families. I have 3 Uncles, 6, 8, and 10, years older than I am. Two Aunts, married to the Uncles, that are 20 to 36 months older than I am, which makes them younger than my husband who is 3 months short of 5 years older. Cousins that are barely older than my son (14 months). Had a friend who’s uncle is 3 years younger than she is (haven’t heard from her since her family moved away when we were in HS).

            Not having inter-generational families is relatively new (how fast the idea has become strange unless a member of one) with the ability of contraceptives, delay of childbearing years, and knowing that one doesn’t have to have baby after baby to insure that some survive infant, toddler, and childhood in general, to adulthood. That children are a resource drain not free needed labor on the farm and ranch.

      2. Well, barring some really good bio-engineering I can’t have kids ever again.
        However, anyone have extras, I’ll take them! 😀 (What? I enjoyed raising kids.)
        I’ll also take extra non-shedding puppies (not because of clean up, but because son is allergic) or any little orange kittens. AFTER we move.

        1. But you are relocating to the town of Undisclosed Location, so arranging transfer of surplus kids, dogs or cats will be much more logistically fraught.

              1. we have to. If we delay not only does our location become precarious financially (Polis is doing state medicare for all starting mid this year.) BUT I’m afraid we won’t get our investment out of this house.

      1. No, no, see, they don’t want to defund the schools, they just want the schools in your nice little town to be a crappy as the ones in their urban hellhole. Equality, doncha know.

        1. Their problem isn’t really with property taxes per se; it’s with the entire idea of private property and ownership thereof. Property taxes derive from private ownership of property,. They want to eliminate private property entirely.

          1. So then… who pays the property taxes??

            They sure don’t think these things through, do they…

            1. They will replace them with wealth confiscation of course. The fact that they will destroy the wealth they intend to confiscate is a something that Marxists blithely ignore.

              1. and we will be happy little NPCs that do NOT have to worry about such worries as property and ownership. We’ll dance and sing like little bunnies

        2. The schools give money to the teachers who give money to the unions who give money to the politicians. No, they don’t want the school system shut down.

  28. Had kids, raised kids. Eldest daughter has some mixed-up thinking, but at least she’s got a job, and she still loves us. Youngest daughter is ready to settle down, just has to find the right person, not an easy task right now. Would love to write, but I also create. Definitely living my best life. Trying to help a friend whose stepdaughter has some issues, partially from parents’ divorce, partially from dad, partially from whatever. There are so many people out there who need stable friendships, and someone to listen to them.

  30. I was literally on a vacation to figure out if I should try to just have a kid without a Father (I am just too shy and autistic, I knew when I was 18 that the best way to help the world was to be a homeschooling Mom with five kids) or if I should trust that God would send a husband. Thought the message was wait on a Father for your child. And then you post this… 😩

    2. Kids need fathers. Kids without fathers are a great deal of why so many are messed up. You’re a sweetheart (and oh my, the cooking resume) There’s a good man out there looking for a girl just like you… just gotta cross your paths. He’ll be hanging out somewhere you already enjoy.

          1. LOL. Don’t piss off Sarah to the Banning point. Demonstrate a minimum of sanity. (Don’t eat own fingers, don’t poo on the table, don’t vote socialist.)
            Send me an email, tell me age and what you’re looking for.
            SERIOUSLY we need an Almac’s for Odds.

                1. Well, I can, but it would be easier with some company. Besides the cats, I mean. Watching a movie with a cat is almost the same as watching it alone. They don’t even get the jokes. 😛

              4. Becoming the Team Mom carries risks. A moderately smart enemy will notice that and paint a target.

                A very smart enemy would exclude that target on the basis of not wanting to commit suicide-by-retaliation.

                    2. While they are liars (for the best of reasons in their minds), I submit that they are fools as many of them Believe Without Reason that they are Highly Intelligent. [Sarcastic Grin]

                    3. They keep bumping their pointy little heads and believe the result makes them smart.

                      Oh, for a nun of the old school to take a ruler and really make them smart!
                      ~

              5. Sigh. A matchmaker is a shadchanit. A yenta is a gossipy old woman. (Obviously, these two concepts can have some overlap.)

                1. Eh. In the US a yenta is a matchmaker.
                  Actually funny as I have absolutely no time to gossip and am very little interested in people’s lives. I used to gossip about publishers when they had a hold on my career. Self defense. But now even they don’t matter.

            2. Don’t eat own fingers

              …….

              DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!

              Email sent. Though there isn’t much need now, you see I just got my first Nigerian Prince* email so pretty soon I’m going to be wealthy enough to have a pick of supermodels.

              * actually Cambodian/Venezuelan Bureaucrats, but it is the thought that counts.

          2. I’d add myself as another one seeking, but I know I’m much too defective a human being to meet the minimum standards.

              1. [looks in Rolodex] Nope,not there!

                Weird things in my collection: Ann Margret’s Rolodex.
                (Yes, really. It’s full of dead people.)

      2. A great deal is also caused by prenatal exposure to drugs.
        It’s a bad thing.
        A really bad thing.
        (There’s exactly one reason I wasn’t in Dizzy City on the 6th. She’s 12. And $#_&ing scary.)

    1. Believe me when I say that the regular readers of this site have a different definition of “long shot.” My wife and I are still shooting together for nearly 20 years.

  32. Mrs Hoyt. Let me change your mind about Henry the 8th. England had come through 600 years of civil war and they wanted no more of it. Without a male heir , that’s what they faced.
    Elizabeth 1rst notwithstanding, as one sees w Mary Stuart and that war.
    The Catholic Church ( my church) said “No”, to divorce( and I’m against it)
    The Church said Yes for other monarchs. But no to Henry because they wanted England to fall. The deep state of the day si to speak.
    Henry said no to that.
    Moses said yes to divorce because it was the lesser of 2 evils. Better than killing your ex. Jesus said so. And between bad and worse, Jesus picked neither. He picked the good.
    Henry had access to more women than you have had , to say, grilled cheese sandwiches.
    He shagged for England. Not prurience
    Henry , not being Jesus , did his best.

    1. <Rolls eyes.
      I KNOW all of this. I spent years living IN Tudor England in research.
      I also know that the Tudors killed as many people per capita as Stalin, some so young they toddled to their execution.
      And the uprooting of religion in people's lives was beyond bizarre. And the state ran on expropriated property. and the violations of liberties was BIZARRELY intrusive.
      We've given Henry VIII a lot of passes because of what came after and because, hell, they had Shakespeare as a propagandist.
      There might not have been a better way to modernity, but still horrible.

    2. Henry is a classic (pun acknowledged) of good intentions – establishing an acknowledged successor to the throne – gone awry. Good intentions badly implemented equal disaster.

      He gambled with the kingdom and rolled multiple boxcars. He’d have done better to select a likely young man, declared him his son and slain all disputing the legitimacy. Wouldn’t be the only bastard king.

      I am sure we can all agree that seizure of Church property for the crown was just a happy byproduct of nationalizing the Church and in no way a welcome bonus.
      ~

    3. Meh, the Church didn’t want England to fall — he was a valiant defender of the faith against that rabblerouser Luther.

      The annulment was denied for two reasons: one, Henry had already gotten a papal dispensation to marry Catherine in the first place. The papacy is not a fan of overturning prior decisions, and granting the annulment would open up a huge can of worms. Two, Mary’s nephew had just sacked Rome and had Pope Clement VII basically under house arrest. Obviously, the army outside one’s door will have a greater influence than someone hundreds of miles away.

      No, it wasn’t really fair that bogus annulments were granted to everyone but Henry Tudor, but there were strong reasons why the Pope couldn’t grant him one.

  33. “… the ideal of rocks and empty space the left embraces is pretty”

    No, it isn’t “pretty” it is merely there. Aesthetic evaluations like “pretty” require human perception to exist.

    What the Left likes about such “spaces” is that they occupy a moral void. Imagine there’s no beauty, no ugliness beheld. No humans to impose their values on the world.
    ~

    3. “WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HADN’T SAVED HIM?
      “Yes! The sun would have risen just the same, yes?”
      NO
      “Oh, come on. You can’t expect me to believe that. It’s an astronomical fact.”
      THE SUN WOULD NOT HAVE RISEN.
      …
      “Really? Then what would have happened, pray?”
      A MERE BALL OF FLAMING GAS WOULD HAVE ILLUMINATED THE WORLD.”
      ― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

        1. Picking a favorite Discworld book is like picking a favorite child, but that scene is one of the greats in human literature.

  34. “If you can in any way have children. ”

    There is more to this than mere biology, of course. Many of we Huns are Heinlein’s Children. Tell tales, teach values, encourage self-sufficiency. If you simply mix sperm & egg and leave the results to be raised in government creches you haven’t really had children, have you? Do not let those leftwing cuckoos steal our children, let’s steal theirs, instead.

    After all, we offer a far more marvelous future.
    ~

    1. Okay, that’s actually just a condensation of several of the options Sarah presented – here’s oone she missed: Mock.

      Mock the bastards, joke about their hypocrisy, their vanity, their pretentiousness, their ambitions.

      It’s easy and it does more to harm them than about anything else you could do. It encourages allies and potential allies and discourages their supporters.

      And it is so, so, so very easy to do.
      ~

      1. Well, I don’t know, sending the Wild Hunt to Washington is starting to sound pretty good right now. :-O

          1. Haven’t heard of any being called the “Hanged One” especially one associated with the Wild Hunt?

            The question is “do I want to”. 😉

            1. I suspect you’ve heard of but aren’t recognizing this being. He does go about in disguise a good bit.
              He’s the guy with one eye and two ravens.

  35. Reziac, thank you for the complement, I’ve waited for that man for a long time. He never came. I’m 42 turning 43 in April. I’ve been looking into fertility for the past week or so, I have very good genetics and life style to likely still have good fertility until 44. People think I’m 32 not 42. I debate the father issue with myself. I can’t find a timeline where I can get to know and prepare to marry someone before kids are a long shot. I don’t worry about taking care of the kids in my old age. My family is usually physically active into their early 80s. This is maybe too much information. I’m currently hanging out with wonderful science-fiction reading Catholic guys in their 28s. I am going to have to tell them my age soon. So I’m considering just having a baby on my own, if I can. 🙁

    1. Well then… probably better to preserve your genes. 42 is getting risky but when you have that much desire… give those guys a chance. They may not care so much about your age. Maybe even level with ’em and even if they decide it’s not a marrying thing, they’ll be around as that adult male that your kids need.

      Best of luck!

    2. While not the same thing as passing along your own genes there is no insufficiency of kids in want of adoption or fostering. Small comfort, but better than many an alternative.
      ~

  36. About 30 years ago, after a divorce from someone whom I should never have married, and a couple of years of disasterous dating, I decided to stop looking for a relationship, andbto just do the things I found to be fun / rewarding.
    I thought that eventually I would notice someone else doing similar things, and if we then got together, we would at least have interests in common.
    Priscilla and I will be 20 years married in May, 28 years together in June. We still like each other.
    John Sage

  37. “In other words, by swallowing a lot of crap from increasingly inefficient and out of contact with reality academia, people became convinced they should destroy the American system which is indeed an abomination to the rest of the world, and instead build a clockwork technocracy.”

    This has been building since the Industrial Revolution got into full swing … our neighbors have been led to revere the possession of formal education so much that we have put the “educated” on pedestals of worship … and also led to consider themselves unworthy to leverage their own experience, closer-to-the-problems insight, and common sense in questioning whether the pontifications of these notable humans are worthy of acceptance, let alone incorporation into public policy.

    The corrosive politics we see now, is enabled by this passive acceptance. Part of the efforts you have described need to be directed towards leading people back to questioning the pedestaled, instead of f_____g up and trusting them in grand Flounderian fashion.

    That is where my focus will be, for the foreseeable future, in both my informal commenting and in more formal efforts I anticipate undertaking.

  38. I recently reread Space Viking by H. Beam Piper and that bit about taking over Europe in a hundred years reminded me of that.

  39. Got a question. I have finished a story. First story (other than fan fiction) I’ve finished in ages. Now, what do I do with it? I have no experience with Amazon and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t sell to an existing magazine.
    It’s a rather gentle fantasy.

      1. Put on the back burner and life intervened. I really considered before mentioning it. But it was a step up from not doing it. Now I have to pull up the umph to do the next bit. (For Mary, @$!! WP).

  40. Finished as in “put on the backburner, revised it in cold blood, run it by beta readers, and revised in light of that”?

  42. The Capitol on the 6th was a trap, and
    Trump deviated from script as much as his followers.
    He started late.
    He spoke longer than expected, and much more peaceably.
    He intimated that he would lead the march to the Capitol (but then didn’t).

    I’m pretty sure that the script had him playing the role of Tiberius Gracchus, and dying; if not precisely on the Senate floor, at least on the Capitol grounds.
    The expected “insurrection” didn’t occur, but they had all the reactions queued up and couldn’t really change the marching orders on such short notice. So they’re trying to brazen it out and support one Big Lie with another.
    Despite the silencing of dissent and the entire choir singing from the same hymnal, it’s not really working.

    About the disturbance at the den of thieves and whores I have but one question: Who killed Ashli Babbitt?

    2. “The expected “insurrection” didn’t occur”

      I disagree – the insurrection did occur, and was successful. It is simply that in its aftermath they leaders of that insurrection blamed the losing side of having risen up.

      The Left succeeded in stealing the vote, obstructing the investigations, and neutralizing the president.

      You got a better explanation for Schumer’s “erection” Kinsley gaffe?
      ~

  44. I have another constructive suggestion. I know I am not the first to think of this, but I don’t hear it being stated openly by Conservative thought leaders (although Denis Prager recently came close): the Great Migration. We need to consolidate in Red states to maintain and build numerical superiority and then actively work toward the Great Divorce. We cannot coexist with the Fascist Left or it’s useful idiot enablers. You are right that there are VERY bad times ahead, but we don’t need to voluntarily subject ourselves (and more importantly, our children) to that fate. We can build and create in our own states and fight to defend ourselves if necessary. You are confident that what the Fascist Left is doing is unsustainable, that it will collapse, and that the people will somehow throw off this yoke of despotism. You may be right and I hope to God that you are—I believe you are—but we cannot afford to gamble on how long that would take and in what form.

    1. “then actively work toward the Great Divorce”

      The problem is what to do about all the people who will work to make a peaceful “divorce” impossible? Some of them like to quote the relevant passages of Texas v. White. Others will point out that even Scalia said the issue was forever “settled at Appomattox.” They’ll say that “one Nation… indivisible” means *indivisible*, no matter the reason. I’ve seen more than one individual, when the topic is raised, point out that Lincoln didn’t fight the Civil War to end slavery, but to “preserve the Union,” and that they, too, pledge to fight and kill for that very same cause against *any* attempt to divide the indivisible Union, no matter the reason why.

      1. Except … I’m not sure how many people, Red or Blue, would actually want to fight a war at this point to preserve the union. If Texas were to secede, I can see 90% of Democrats say “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” (The remaining 10% would be the inhabitants of Austin and a few real patriots who still vote Democrat because that’s what their families have done since FDR.) Likewise, if the Left coast decided to secede, the only Republican concern would be for the people more than 50 miles inland who don’t want to be ruled by the people of San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle.

        I’ll grant that it won’t be extremely “peaceful,” between the redrawing of state lines, which side gets which assets, and a mass migration that will make the India-Packistan split look like a minor holiday, but I honestly think most Americans don’t actually have the stomach for a war against people who don’t want to be Americans any more.

        2. IIRC, Texas and/or California have the right to exit the union. Each had unique bargaining advantages at the time of their joining and one, if not both, reserved a right of secession. Further, California has the option of subdividing into up to four states.

          Seceding, as such, is likely to provoke military action, but bringing suit to enforce their right to secede might well succeed. There would, of course, be considerable haggling over portion of national debt, infrastructure assets, military bases and federally owned land. And yes, relocation of “loyalists” could prove problematic.
          ~

      2. In theory I’m not against splitting the country, but the problem is where to split it and how. I live in New Hampshire which is a purplish state in the middle of blue states. We currently have a nominally Republican governor and Republican legislature. But last year the legislature was Democrat. And for some reason 2 Democrat senators and Democrat reps. And if the country were split, my guess is that New England would all go to the Blue half. Which would suck.

        And as the map shows, most states that are by fraudulent votes considered blue have large areas of red. Pfft. There is no good solution.

  45. Nice article over on PJ Media this morning. It kind of hit a nerve. The one thing that stuck in my mind is that the Democrats, and their Prog-Soc followers and backers, are the bullies of our political system. One other “truism” that I took away from reminiscing about The Karate Kid, we are going to get seriously hurt before we manage to take down the bad guy. Accept that, and move forward.
    https://pjmedia.com/culture/bryan-preston/2021/01/22/cobra-kai-turns-bullying-on-its-head-and-back-to-things-we-all-once-understood-n1406201

      1. No, no, no.

        youtube DOT com/watch?v=Fhop5VuLDIQ

        Tho I think our current situation is rather more like..
        .

      2. If you’re going to play those two, you need to play this one:

        Denizens of NC will attest to the accent’s accuracy.

        It’s never too late to start drinking
        To get out and have some fun
        The sun will be just
        As shiny in the morning
        As the first day the world begun …
        ~

  48. “He was born. He lived. He died. The end”. That seems to be all that is allowed anymore. But now it would be, ” They were born. They lived. They died. The end”. Then if there is any understanding of the non PC English language, the question arises, “who were they? ” It also seems that unless the entity in question will meet the proscribed narrative, will there even be any birth? Followed by any life and later death? Or only death before life is really started because of not fitting the PC proscribed narrative? Is this the Matrix? Or to quote words from a song, ” Is this the real life? Or is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality. Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see. “…. Gotcha singing yet? What ever happened to “live and let live”? Who decided the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was no longer ok? We need to open our eyes, stand up and see that no more of the basic inalienable rights given to us by the creator are taken away.

      1. And of course the author of the piece works in Beijing. Pure CCP propoganda that will be touted by the Democrats.

  51. The real fear of Trump was/is that he was not ‘owned’ by any group, and not beholding to any of them.

  52. Already posted a version of this in the vignettes post, but have developed on the theme:

    Q: If a cancer patient can’t pay for treatment in the Biden economy and commits suicide what did he die of?

    A: toxic masculinity; he used “he” as a pronoun. Unless he was an f2m trans, then he died of covid.

  53. Power Line (which seems much more comfy with a Democrat Administration to critique) notes one problem with keeping 20K National Guard on standby in the Capitol: they write letters home and elsewhere.

    A GUARDSMAN AT THE CAPITOL
    Apparently having passed the necessary vetting, a long-time reader writes from his unit guarding the Capitol:

    My guard unit was called up last [week] to help secure the Capitol and has been providing security since [January 16]. In 48 hours of on-duty security I have not seen a single protester — only one drunk guy who cussed my 2nd platoon (which raised morale for a good two hours – soldiers like and respect fluent profanity).

    Last night I saw probably 2000 riot-prepared soldiers unload from buses and enter the perimeter. This level of military involvement surpasses overreaction, skips past overkill, and pegs “insane.” Whoever ordered this response is completely out of touch with reality.

    [SNIP]

    May I just say, if you had any respect for the FBI or any belief that it was not a fully partisan organization, you were completely wrong. If there was any “credible intelligence” that there was enough of a threat to require 20,000 national guard troops at the Capitol this past week, then the FBI is completely failing. The fact that the alleged credible evidence was clearly inaccurate tells me that I should not ever trust the FBI with anything I would give a 19-year-old soldier…
    ~

    1. What is the over/under on how many days until :Operational Security” demands a clampdown on all NG letter writing and internet use?
      ~

    2. Oh dear. Someones getting investigated by the FBI.

      I wonder what they will drop on him to make the case stick. Trump memes? Or perhaps go straight to the child porn.

  54. Noteworthy – some of those Peking Ducks are coming home to roost:

    China Joins Push to Rein In Big Tech Companies
    Beijing recently unveiled guidelines for competition, adding to efforts in Brussels and Washington to curb the power of digital firms
    [SNIP]
    In November, China unveiled its first draft guidelines overseeing competitive behavior by digital giants. The proposals include blocking companies from crunching consumer data to set discriminatory prices, or selling products at prices below cost to gain market share. This month, it heightened scrutiny of electronic-payment companies, warning that nonbank payment firms, if found to be dominating the market, could face antitrust investigations.

    China’s moves come as the European Union and the U.K. pursue similar efforts. In December, an EU bill was proposed to oblige major digital platforms to refrain from many potentially anticompetitive actions, such as promoting their own products over those of competitors. The U.K. plans legislation empowering a new digital-competition unit to enforce codes of conduct for companies that dominate strategic digital markets.

    Driving the proposals are a growing number of policy makers, competition specialists and smaller tech rivals in Europe, Asia and the U.S. who say fresh laws are needed to ensure that new tech rivals can emerge to challenge the digital giants.

    “With each passing year, it’s increasingly clear that the platforms are very entrenched and that absent a policy change that’s unlikely to change,” said Jason Furman, a Harvard University economist who led a panel that provided the road map for the U.K.’s digital-competition proposals.
    [END EXCERPT]

    Paywalled, although standard advise that a GOOGLE search on a key phrase might turn up an available version of the article.
    ~

  55. Perhaps the reason Dr. Fauci is so cheerfully reporting actions of the Biden Administration, such as rejoining the WHO are best understood as being grateful the Covid Detectives are no longer on his trail?

    No, Fauci directing $$$ for “gain of function” research (banned by the Obama Administration) on the coronavirus in the Wuhan lad probably has NOTHING to do with things.

    Of course, if he imagines the present administration will protect him if a human rights crime gets started he has no appreciation for the value this administration places on its used tools.
    ~

    1. I just saw that, too. Not only did Fauci fund development of COVID19, the money was funneled through the same Peter Daszak of The Lancet’s article denying that it came from the Wuhan lab. And who’s in charge of investigating the origin of COVID19? That’s right, Daszak. And Fauci is Biden’s brand-new chief medical advisor,

      All of the perpetrators are being rewarded for providing the Democrats with a perfect crisis they could exploit to gain unconscionable power.
      ———————————
      How can Leftroids create a better world when everything they do makes this one worse?

      1. It is sort of as if Dr. Mengele were put in charge of investigating camp conditions at Dachau, ain’t it?

        “Nein, Nein, nichts zu sehen hier!”
        ~

    1. I can’t be the only one who thinks “the Erection Insurrection” would be a good name for a rock band, can I?

  57. The book in question is probably Shakespeare: Invention of the Human, by Harold Bloom. It has a prominent place on the bookshelf in my living room — one of those books that I hope people who come over will see and ask about, but nobody ever does.

    I read a fair bit of Bloom’s stuff 15-20 years ago in college & grad school. He was a Yale professor who fought tooth and nail (ultimately unsuccessfully, of course) against what we’d recognize today as SJWs, but back then went mostly unrecognized. Also had the audacity to write a book on the Western canon called The Western Canon, and my, did the politically correct proto-SJWs ever hate him for that one.

  59. Oregon has been trying to float this for a while (to make up for gas tax loss thanks to their pushing electric cars): it would require every vehicle have an onboard GPS to calculate your mileage, and incidentally report everywhere you go:

    https://granitegrok.com/blog/2021/01/bend-over-here-it-comes-biden-plans-to-punish-rural-america-with-transportation-mileage-tax

    Punish rurals? Been there, done that, folks… seen gas at $6/gallon, naturally when I was having to tramp back and forth across California…

Comments are closed.