Again And Again What Are The Facts

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

I’m so old, I remember when the Soviet Union fell. I also remember what happened afterwards.

I suppose it makes sense for me to be beset with this sense of deja vu right now, because we live in a truly bizarre time. I honestly feel like we’re watching someone trying to build the USSR after the Berlin wall has crumbled and as everyone is escaping in every possible direction, and some imaginary, in cars that were more or less made of cardboard and spit, and which they drove until they couldn’t drive anymore, which is why Portugal was littered with Trabants.

I know why I’m having that sense of double vision. I keep running into people who talk about our current Junta as though it were an empire for the ages.

Which it would be, if you didn’t take in account a) the quality of the people who have staged and are running this travesty of a farce of a comedy or a f*ckup. b) their knowledge of how society works. Or, you know, in what general direction reality might lie, up to and including where their food comes from, what humans CAN survive on, what it takes to run a technological civilization, etc. ad nauseum. With bells on. They know none of it, and don’t even know what they don’t know. And if you tell them, they’ll tell you it’s an aggression of some sort. c) that the regime they’re trying to install is not one that can survive anyway, not in a nation that is the economic engine of the world. d) that in their crazed efforts to install it they have in fact castrated or perhaps put a stake through the heart of those fields they control, including but not limited to education, Hollywood, the performing arts in general, traditional publishing…. pretty much, yeah, everything they control. some of these fields were already dying, and some would die anyway, but they accelerated that demise.

Put it another way, the system they are trying to erect — not the utopia, yeah, I know that never worked — the total surveillance/controlled information/collectivist/everyone in cities/everyone living or dying at the say of the government never worked very well. In exceptional circumstances and after a major trauma, like say WWI (there is no substantial difference between this partnership of would-be oligarchs and industrialists and that of Germany, except for national versus international. BTW, the international version is insanity of people who never even talked to foreigners outside a university and who don’t realize how little power they actually have.) And yeah, I don’t need you all to tell me that Hitler also had, at best, marginal contact with reality and resembled these twits to an almost frightening degree, from vegetarianism, to paganism, to bizarre hollow-Earth theories. And yeah, that lasted 12 years, but only because it first consumed the majority of its own wealth, and then the wealth of conquered nations. These ass clowns couldn’t conquer Mexico if they tried. Hell, they couldn’t conquer Canada. It’s highly doubtful they could conquer Tim Hortons, even if it’s owned by an American company. Even if they managed to get our troops to go to war and invade our nearest neighbors, they’d become moored down in fairness and hearts and minds, and who knows what else. Between all the time they’d have to spend making sure that our soldiers weren’t mean to left-handed Canadians of fluid gender, and trying to decide under what flag our troops would march, invading our nearest neighbors isn’t a thing. But if it were, what would these countries give us, that would keep the country going for any amount of time? Yeah, pretty much nothing. In fact they would take more from us than we’d get from them.

There simply isn’t enough wealth in the world to keep the giant going, once it collapses. So no, they’re not building the kingdom of a thousand years.

Now mind you, if they hadn’t had to employ the crazy measures they did all through 2020 to break us enough to pull their massive scam, this probably would have lasted ten or fifteen years, by which time we’d have been seriously broken and broke, and rebuilding the republic would be probably impossible. We’d probably have ended up as many separate countries, and maybe closer to Mexico than Canada in lifestyle, productivity and general creativity and stability. (Not that Canada will be much better than Mexico if it doesn’t have the giant to help support its deficiencies.)

But they had to try for something extreme. They had in fact to shut the world down to attempt to bring us to heel. That they had to do that tells you the level to which they had already lost.

It doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous. As I’ve pointed out before, there is nothing quite so dangerous as a wounded and dying wild boar. And these would-be oligarchs are closer to that than to any group of humans.

In fact the problem is they’re creating a lot of destruction, and the destruction will bring them down.

Again, I said this before, and I’ll stick by it, there’s an implosion coming somewhere between six months from now and two years from now.

No, I don’t think we can avoid violence. I don’t know if their fall will actually be sped by violence, but I suspect so, because they can’t leave well enough alone. They can’t be like other kleptocrats, fill their pockets and let us do what we can. No, they want to destroy us. Partly because they’re terrified of us. I’ve got absolutely no clue how bad the information is they’re trying to keep quiet, but it must be a heck of a doozie, because they’re convinced if we figure out what they’ve been up to these….what? 10? 20? 30? 50? years, we’re going to come for them.

They’re not precisely wrong, I bet you. I bet you, too, that the information will come out, and it will come in circumstances where they’ve done enough damage to the rule of law that instead of orderly trials, which might give them a chance to escape and live off the fat of the land in some third world republic, it’s going to get ugly.

How ugly? I don’t know. Look, until about a month ago I couldn’t “sense” anything ahead except a big break. And if you’re going to complain about that verb, no I don’t think I’m some kind of prophet, except I’ve read a lot, I’ve thought a lot, and I know — more or less — the shape if not the size of the corruption and scams these people have been running. All of which depended on a captive and UNIFIED culture, where all the information was fed from the top and where all the dissidents thought they were alone.

That’s broken, and the repeated unforced errors — of saying the quiet part aloud — these idiots indulge in is a sign of how terrified they are. They keep telling us we need “truth commissions” or truth and reconciliation commissions, and informing us that we all need to believe their dictated truth.

But there is a terrible quality to genii. Once we found out we weren’t alone, once we found out that after their massive “get orangemanbad” campaign orange man bad still beat them so handily they had to fraud obscenely, in plain view and in the light of day, none of us is going to believe we’re alone again.

I’ve said before, they can’t win.

The crash is coming. six months to two years, and I doubt we go to two years, though I think it’s going to start with isolated and spaced out incidents. “First slowly, then very fast.”

And they won’t win. In fact, they’re tarnishing their brand to the extent that “leftist” or “marxist” will be terms of opprobrium within this decade. The mush heads and loud mouths will turn on a dime. I’ve seen it before.

The problem, and what you guys might not even be seeing, is that every industry, every profession, every … routine of life has been infested by these people. Lefty insanity is a positional signal that the “upper classes” use to distinguish themselves from the peasants.

Yes, to a great extent this means they’ve made vast portions of our professional hierarchies and our industries and our fields of knowledge non-functional.

On the other hand, there is a hierarchy and humans live by hierarchies. And when those collapse….

It won’t be the first time. It won’t be the last.

But it will leave a vacuum of power. And more importantly, it will leave a vacuum of trust. And a vacuum of information.

Our likelihood of coming out of this a constitutional republic is still high. Why? Well, because societies under stress become more themselves.

I remember when the USSR fell. And out of the ashes Tzar Putin emerged, who is despicable, but not particularly out of keeping with Russian monarchy.

So, yeah, the pull of our culture will be towards the reestablishment of who and what we are and were: a constitutional republic.

But on the way…

Look, I remember when the USSR fell.

The people in the USSR knew they were being treated like mushrooms: kept in the dark and fed on crap. They knew there was truth in Pravda. But they were used to having certain information, and interpreting it.

And there is something worse than reading the news in totalitarianism. You can get used to interpreting the news, and knowing the shape of the hole of what they’re not reporting.

But once you realize it’s all nonsense, once the coherence of the news breaks — and it’s doing so now, earlier than I expected, with the Times article, with the New York Times admitting the protesters at the capitol didn’t kill the police officer — once there are holes, but they’re not consistent, or they’re consistent, but then contradicted; once the narrative changes almost by the week, to the point it can’t be ignored, that’s the dangerous period.

I know I joke that by the end of this year I’ll have to apologize to the lizard-people conspiracy theorists. But the problem is that the lizard people conspiracy theorists can acquire respectability and a strange new respect. Or something even crazier. Heck, a lot of crazier things.

To an extent the 9/11 troofer conspiracies, which yes, are crazy and also anti-scientific were our warning shot. That they flourished and that to this day a lot of people believe them means that there was already a sense that the news made no sense, that there were other things going on behind the scenes that we weren’t aware of.

It’s going to get far, far worse than that, as the actual elites, the top of various fields fall like struck trees in a thunder storm. There is a good chance that authorities you rely on for your profession, or just for your knowledge have been compromised. A lot of our research is tainted by china paying to get the results it wants, for instance. And there’s probably worse. You already know most research can’t be reproduced, and that’s not even recent.

As all this stuff comes out, the problem is that people won’t stop believing. Instead they’ll believe in all and everything.

I don’t know how much was reported here, as the USSR collapsed. but I remember what I read in European magazines and journals. All of a sudden it was all new age mysticism and spoon bending and only the good Lord knew what else.

And that’s what we’re going to head into. So, when you find yourself in the middle of an elaborate explanation that someone constructed, well…

First find the facts. Pace Heinlein: Again, and again what are the facts. Never mind if your ideology demands they be something else. Establish the facts to the extent you can. Facts and math don’t lie. (Statistics do. So be aware you can lie with them. And any metrics that involve intangibles, like intelligence or performance much less sociability or micro anything? forget about it.)

From the facts, deploy Occam’s razor. What is the simplest explanation?

Then remember that humans run at the mouth, and the more humans in the conspiracy, the more facts are likely to leak out somewhere.

And while we’ve seen a lot of Omerta among leftists, note that they’re all afflicted by evil villain syndrome. Sooner or later, they brag about how clever they were in deceiving us. So, if your conspiracy theory requires perfect silence forever, it’s probably not true.

Above all and more importantly, remember there are no simple explanations. Yes, we got here through Marxism, but to get where we are took almost a century of small steps with a lot of crucial slips and stupidity. (Like the elites buying into just-so stories that make them feel superior.) It also took the crushingly fast technological development of the 20th century, which both drove the growth of Marxist dominance and, ultimately undermined it.

And whatever happens remember physics don’t change. Not for me, not for you, not for anyone else. So, yes, jet fuel does in fact cause steel to bend if the heat is concentrated enough. And spoons don’t get bent by your mind, no matter how much you wish them to. We don’t advise using jet fuel to bend them either, mind. If you really want to bend a spoon, we recommend using pliers. But mostly we recommend you leave spoons alone.

It’s going to get very scary. And what will make it scarier is the fact that the barrage of false information from the top that we were subjected to all through 2020 is going to be joined by streams of information from every side, much of it incomplete, corrupt or outright crazy.

Take a deep breath. There are — probably — no lizards among us. (Yes, I know, that’s what a lizard would say.) I do realize the evil incompetence we’re subject to can make you suspect that there must be aliens bent on our destruction.

Well, maybe there are. But what would be different if there were? or if all we see were merely the incompetent malice of humans trying to be good social apes while the fabric of life twists and racks under them?

So, deep breath. Try to get the facts. Don’t rush to join any new and shiny theories.

Keep your head on a swivel.

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

620 thoughts on “Again And Again What Are The Facts”

      2. Saw an attempt at a leftist meme on Twitter. A photo of Trump, with a long, long sentence detailing his alleged “crimes.” I guess instead of one picture being worth a thousand words, they think you need all those words to explain the picture.
        Sheesh.

      3. Do you need contributions for the pile? I’ve recently been grabbing some that I especially liked.

  4. One has to wonder if Our Great and Glorious Dear Leader and Vice-Leader might not be concerned about the (real) workers rising up and starting some shit…

    After all, apparently they’re now planning to keep the various NG units in DC until the end of the year, why would they feel the need to do that if they are so beloved of the people?

    I can see a possible (and unfortunate in many ways) headlines now: “Right-wing extremist attempting to evade NG barricade into Capitol killed by NG” The details of course, being very vague in the attached article.
    Then…
    Then the truth starts coming out. The poor schlep wasn’t trying to “evade” but didn’t even realize it was there or such. The poor schlep wasn’t a “right-wing” anything (and heck, maybe was a Biden voter or even Bernie.) The poor schlep didn’t have anything more threatening on them, than their briefcase of paperwork.

    The situation in DC is definitely heading towards one ripe for just such an accident…

      1. I keep waiting for someone to realize the Guard aren’t doing anything and having them pick up litter and issued brooms so they can sweep Black Lives Matter Avenue… maybe DoctorBiden ™ will requisition another basket of cookies for a photo shoot.

        “Beatings will continue until morale improves.”

        I also note that 46 states still haven’t brought their guys back home.

      2. Some of the Republican governors are fed up enough that they were talking about recalling the troops they provided. I didn’t hear whether any of them actually did, though.

        4. Montana did, almost immediately.

          Friend who is first-name with the governor says “Greg met them at the airport”.

      3. Ya know, all they gotta do is get “caught” viewing right-wing media… damn wonder they haven’t yet conspired to get their collective butts sent home that way.

    2. Supposedly some of the DCElites are worried that QAnon will attack on March 4 (the old Inauguration Day). *rolls eyes* Um, right. Whatever you’re smoking, quit drinking the water.

      1. What the DCElites wish for is a straw insurrection that they can easily kick and stomp, with just enough bloodshed to provide them with a few bloody shirts to wave. So they’re trying to predict/provoke that into happening.

        1. I think this is why the extreme stuff is coming first.

          The complete ban on weapons–this isn’t much of an exaggeration–has been put into the public sphere for conversation. I think the enemy wants us to rise up so they can crush us. Everything they do suggests this.

          It’s like Nag and Nagaena in Riki Tiki Tavi: “Come closer. Come closer. If you move…. I strike. If you do not move…. I strike.”

          At least the Nags were classy.

          1. Thankfulness for small (but actually quite large) mercies: they are so incompetent that they are ensuring all of the enforcers they would need hate their guts.

        2. Yup. Definitely some kind of fake threat, that they can demolish before the tame media, and create a new Horst Wessel … and use that as a rationale for squashing/silencing the Deplorables.

            1. I think part of it is that they are trying to drive as many NG as possible to quit, both to weaken the overall military strength and so that replacements can be ensured to be “ideologically pure” wokesters.

              1. Funny, I don’t see those ideologically-pure wokesters clamoring to join the all-volunteer military… kinda beneath them, doncha know. Tho it occurs to me to wonder if that might be floated as the price for “forgiving” all those student loans they can’t pay off. Not that they’d be any more competent in uniform than they were at choosing a viable degree.

                Agreed, tho, it would be in China’s best interest if our military all quit in disgust.

        3. Its theater designed to support their “domestic terrorist” narrative so that they can move ahead with suppressing dissent.

        1. No need for an army. Didn’t you hear? By being at the Capitol they affected the quantum waveform!

          You know looking at the Capitol since then…….

    3. Yep, the Democrats have turned Washington into East Berlin. They’ll be putting in the guard towers and minefields in time for the 4th of July. They’re paranoid, so every event, and every non-event, feeds their paranoia. Look how they turned a ‘mostly peaceful’ protest into The Storming Of The Bastille. Every day that goes by without a massive ‘right-wing uprising’ just increases their terror of ‘the other shoe dropping’.
      ———————————
      Ma Lemming: “If all your friends jumped off a cliff into the sea would you…oh…um…nevermind.”

      3. And the really weird thing I just realized about it is, the country doesn’t actually require DC for anything. It’s just where most of not keeps it’s offices and the records. Congress could meet in an open are arena in Toledo tomorrow, provided it had a quorum and a stenographer, and do its business, just about as well as in DC (aside from the brass monkey alert they’d be under at just the moment, but that’s just logistics.)

        Burying themselves under land mines and barbed wire is just making them look even sillier than foam horns bison dude.

        The thing that worries me if they mine the place, they’ll probably get some of the NG folks killed, and they won’t ever safely be able to reopen the Smithsonian again. You can never get all the mines back up after planting them.

        1. I was in DC back in early 2002, when I worked for the Army. It was a raw, cold day ( much like today but with more wind and no snow) and as I wandered the area of the Mall, seeing the “tourists,” in their long coats and earbuds, that Washington had become an imperial city. It made me sad.

          1. I visited once for a week back in 1998’ish. I remember an odd, artificial feeling to the area. And everyone wore a badge on a lanyard. And that was out walking around on the sidewalks.

            Nobody looked at you or said hello, either.

            1. I’ve been to DC twice. Aug 2001 and Aug 2005. (Not my fault the travel company couldn’t get me out until following Tuesday after National Jamboree was out the prior Saturday 😉 Too many 40 unit contingents leaving over those days. (Also didn’t press the travel company to get me on a plane quickly either …)

              First time. Got to my hotel (early), got checked in, left immediately and walked to the monument mall. Ran into a “roommate” from the Jamboree. She hadn’t planned on stopping in DC. But had noted I was doing the tourist thing and decided “what the heck”, she had the time to spare traveling up the coast to her destination. It was kind of neat touring with someone who’d been there multiple times. I was able to get out to Arlington, National Zoo, and took in as many of the National Museums, as I could. Walked past the White House … First light to Dark full press. First night was able to say out lot longer because there were two of us, 40 somethings, touring together. Probably still not safe in retrospect.

              2005. Again, at hotel early. Did not get checked in early. But I was sooooo not leaving. *Humidity kicked my, tail. Got check in. Did laundry. Got other critical non-laundry-able (sleeping bag/pad) pulled out to air out in room. (Still warned TSA that I’d been at National Jamboree for 10 days. Aired stuff out at home again.) Didn’t go see anything until the next day. Re-walked the monument mall, saw the new Native museum, and re-did the Natural and Aeronautic museums. No way did I push as hard as the prior time.

              I can’t say anything about the people, either time, because, honestly, wasn’t paying attention. Did note both times the BSA units doing their DC tour after the Jamboree. Except the Vietnam Monument. You could hear a pin drop there.

              Have no desire to go back.

              * It was weird. 2001 sure humidity. Way more than I could expect or prepare for being west coast born and raised. But I handled it. 2005? OMG!!!! …. FYI. Yes. Oregon has humidity. It is called rain we don’t breath it!

              1. I went … to a mil-blog meet-up at a hotel in Arlington in…can’t find the year in my archives. The one time that I went to Washington DC. The bus driver from the airport to the hotel gave us the scenic tour. This must have been about 15 years ago, I think. Before my father died – he and Mom paid for my airline ticket. An old-time milblogger (Greyhawk of Mudville Gazette, which has gone silent for ages) organized it. A lot of us original milbloggers from the early years (2002) were the paid-for guests at this event. It was such a good event – a chance for a lot of us who knew each other online to meet in person. Curious thing – a lot of the early milbloggers were also writers at heart. Of that first panel of original milbloggers – all five or six of us also had books written. I now have more than twenty; the historical series, the YA series, the Luna City series… definitely – committed blogging led to books…

    4. I very much doubt that the Nasty Girls were issued ammunition.
      1) That’s how the military tends to dysfunction.
      2) There has been way too much forced humiliation for those inflicting it to want to see the NG armed.
      3) The Dems have already had a meltdown over how much they distrust the NG.
      4) The demographics that make up the NG weren’t (statistically speaking) Biden supporters.
      5) The election was stolen, everyone knows it, and “the wicked flee when no man pursueth”.
      6) The difference between a fortress and a prison, is which direction the guards are pointing their guns.
      7) I imagine that the bloody shirts the occupation wishes to wave, belong to the NG. (And if a false flag has to be resorted to for that to happen, it’s much less risk their assets.)

      1. I can grant you all of your points…

        And yes, #7 might be more likely then my scenario…

        It’s always funny how the Dems think soldiers (any branch) are mindless, follow orders and don’t think drones, yet are also nearly terrified of the military…
        If they’re such mindless drones, what’s to fear when the Dems are in power?

        1. Worse, they fail to realize that the military is an authoritarian institution.

          Reading between the lines, creatively misunderstanding orders, and “appropriating” needed supplies are core skills.

          There is absolute certainly that most of your chain of command is willing, even eager, to screw you over. That most of the information you’re given is false or deliberately misleading. And that fair fights are for suckers.

          It would take massive amounts of hubris and incompetence to try to sacrifice some of them for an info/psy op.
          (But given the competence and humility displayed thus far…)

    5. Meme on Peter Grant’s blog to the effect of, ‘If you need walls, barbed wire, and thousands of troops to protect you from the people, maybe you weren’t elected by the people.’

  5. “Again, I said this before, and I’ll stick by it, there’s an implosion coming somewhere between six months from now and two years from now.”
    There always was – no matter which party was ‘in power’ because they both destroyed the dollar. The printing is bipartisan and a classic end of currency run-away. Fiat currencies average 40 years before they melt down and are gone. Measuring from 1971 when Nixon closed the foreign exchange gold window we are well overdue.
    When it has collapsed, that doesn’t reverse all the damage – things will be a mess for a long time.
    My take is that the troops will remain around the Capital because they have a whole bunch of shit planned that they know will enrage people. Stay away. Nothing good will come of a direct confrontation. Be SUBTLE.

      2. I saw a Tik Tik video the other day where someone who has lost his job thanks to China Jo and the Ho was requesting that all truckers refuse to deliver anything within the I-495 ring. He had a nice map with the major roads outlined and commented that it looked a lot like an a$$hole. Which seemed appropriate.

  6. And meanwhile, the Hill was reporting a new poll shows Biden with a 60 percent approval rating and people agree his efforts at “unity,” are good. I wonder who they polled to get those results.

    1. FICUS Biden, VP Harris, Speaker Pelosi, Gov Newsom, Gov Coumo, Gov Whitmer, and a random sampling of 4 Republicans…

      1. AARGH! I can’t stand it anymore. I missed the place where FICUS is defined. I know a ficus is a potted plant, which is appropriate to the seat-warmer in the White house. But FICUS? Effing Incompetent Character Usurping State?

    2. That would be simple enough. Just select for non-political people and poll. I know you don’t want to hear it, but Biden, gaffs and all, does talk a good game on unity. Of course WE see through it, because WE pay attention to his EOs and the other things his administration is doing, but a vast majority of America just wants to enjoy the freedom and (relative) safety that living in the US brings without having to pay attention to politics and without having to dig for the truth. They trust the MSM to tell them what they need to know, and as you know, the MSM spent the last 4 years in an orgy of OrangeManBad, and has now flopped on their backs and are happily accepting belly rubs from the new administration. So Good ol’ Joe’s message of unity sounds fine to them.

        1. Near half of us think there will be a shooting civil war. And it’s pretty independent of party — UNITY!

        1. People don’t respond to polls.

          With these low, low response rates, it doesn’t take much to completely crater the results. Thus a majority of people naively optimistic and trusting enough to respond to pollsters are also naively optimistic and trusting enough to give Biden their approval and to applaud his efforts at “unity.”

    4. Both that poll and one purporting to show that people think Zhou Baidan is doing a good job on unity only surveyed 938 registered voters. That’s WELL below accepted minimum full responses for polls to be more or less accurate. And, I’m betting that the “registered voters” were majority D. This poll can be completely discarded.

      1. The poll that said more than 50% of the US wants a third party had only 902 polled. Pollsters are either lazy in off election years, can’t get enough responses, or both. I’m sure lack of funding will be mentioned as well as time if you ask one, though.

        1. Polls, if done right, cost a lot of money to design and then to administer. Plus you have the problem of “what does the person commissioning the poll want it to report?” Even something as neutral as the Pew Foundation social polls are tilted, just not as badly.

          1. One of the classic Yes Minister episodes. “So,Mr Woolley, what do you think about conscription?”

        2. Likely both. 1300-1500 is considered the minimum for “accurate” results…assuming the questions are leading, your sample is truly random, and respondents aren’t lying like rugs.

          1. I think enough people have caller ID that they’re staying away from picking up the phone to pollsters. We haven’t done a political poll since close to forever, and screened out polls when we got Caller ID. (Before, we’d just hang up or make a rude comment. Laughter helped, too.)

      1. Doubtful – I don’t think he could get more than fifty-five percent approval from them. Considering the ones who think he’s “too moderate” fifty percent approval might be a reach.
        ~

        1. Mainstream media “journalists” OTOH, probably give Biden eighty-seven percent approval, with fourteen percent undecided/declined to answer.”
          ~

    6. Speaking of “unity”, I was just thinking of how fun it would be to make and release a commercial described as “this is the commercial that Bruce Springstein and Jeep were going to put out had President Trump won the election” and have its theme be “The Australia outback is a harsh place, with difficult terrain, perfect for a Jeep”.

  7. Really need to add our mainstream media to that list of corrupted institutions dear heart.
    And in a somewhat related topic:
    Early in the pandemic of 2020 a governor was given credible information that his state would run out of hospital beds and ventilators which would make him look bad and threaten his chances for future political advancement. So he whined and complained to Federal authority, through our media of course. President at that time used his authority to ramp up ventilator production and addressed the bed question with a one two punch of a Navy hospital ship and what were essentially virus compliant MASH units.
    So when viral patients, mostly elderly folk and many from nursing homes, got treated in hospital and could then be released said governor had three options available. 1) keep them in isolation in hospitals 2) utilize the resources provided by the Feds or 3) issue a directive to force them back to their nursing homes.
    Option 1 was not sustainable given the predicted influx of new patients.
    Option 2 was rejected out of hand as it made his honor the guv look weak and beholden to a hated President.
    So option 3 it was. And the result was some 15,000 deaths from Covid for residents of that state’s nursing homes either there in the facilities or shipped to hospitals for their final days, but infected in those nursing homes which had always stressed that they were not equipped to isolate returned Covid positive patient from the rest of the residents.
    And now in the aftermath of all those deaths this governor’s staff initially tried to fudge the numbers, but once it became clear the totals would be made public and their necks were on the line, ratted their boss out. And his response, all those folk would have died anyway. It was staff who carried the virus into the homes obviously, and certainly not a result of him forcing the facilities to take in infected people they had no way to properly isolate from the rest of the residents.
    Bad judgement, partisan politics, and petty arrogance caused some portion of those 15,000 deaths. How many we’ll never know, but my guess would be from half to two thirds of the total were the direct result of that directive by his honor Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York state.
    It also occurs to me that there are 15,000 families who have lost a loved gramps or grandma with no opportunity to even say goodbye given Covid restrictions. And some of them may be looking as to where to express their anger and loss and who precisely to blame.

    1. Of all the tragedies occurring during the pandemic, losing a loved one who is forced to die alone among strangers is the one that causes me the most angst. I lost my mother (NOT due to covid19) who went into the hospital because of heart issues. I was not allowed to be with her. She was unable to speak on the phone. She died in the hospital alone. I will forever have the most difficult time forgiving those in positions of authority and power denying this most basic humanity to our family. We can’t even confirm that her care was everything it should have been. Those with loved ones who died in NY nursing homes must be feeling the same – people can only tolerate those kinds of feelings for a limited amount of time before they burst. When the burst comes, beware the flood!

      2. What the commies did to your mother, to other mothers and fathers, is evil. It’s outrageous that they did this, and continue to do this. I will see my father in person at the VA nursing home in a month, but I’m not allowed to hug or touch him even though he’s had the wuhan flu and had the vaccine. This is torturing for the sake of torturing. I guess there’s one thing commies excel at.

        1. I guess there’s one thing commies excel at.

          Anyone who tells you that Communists have no competencies is lying. They are artists at torture.

          Probably why their art is so torturous as well….

          1. They do not seem to see humanity as people but rather as “social constructs” and seem to lack basic human connections. People are useful or impediments but actual bonding outside their gang seems beyond them. For all of their psychoanalyzing of “Conservatives’ Flaws” I wonder what the research on them shows.
            ~

            1. They literally don’t.

              This is why they don’t agree with Free Speech: that isn’t an individual talking to them. That is an avatar of X ideology.

              2. So it makes sense that they’re all about the “identity groups”. Individuals hardly exist. All people are is instances of their groups. Pfft. I guess it’s a flaw in thinking that humans can fall into pretty easily. But some people at least (like Christians) struggle against it, whereas the left pushes people to indulge in it. I suppose like the left pushes people to indulge in a pretty wide variety of mortal sins.

                1. It produces some strange consequences. A Black person making arguments in support of self-reliance (you know – what got African-Americans through Jim Crow) are being inauthentic but any White person is required to denounce White culture, you know, things like getting mathematically correct answers (although I suspect this would make Black accountants and tax preparers unemployable.)
                  ~

        2. Just remember, patients have the RIGHT to refuse treatment; and a right to seek treatment elsewhere. And no hospital has a right to prevent you from contacting a patient who has listed you as a contact/visitor.

          1. Yes, and no.

            There have been instances in which hospitals essentially took away the patient’s rights, and forced them to stay “for their own good”.

            1. Again, do not let them. Not ever.

              They will bully you until your heart stops. They will surround you with everyone from the doctor to the security dude from the front door.

              Never, ever let the medical…. people keep you from what you mean to do. Not. F’ing. Ever.

            2. No, they didn’t take away that patient’s rights, they VIOLATED them. And broke the law too.

          2. The one thing walking with your Dad through the nightmare of pancreas cancer gives you is awareness of the medical tyranny.

            Do that, or struggle with any type of significant illness, and you will never, ever take “no” for an answer. From anyone in the medical profession.

            It also gives you really big emotions related to the topic. There is a woman I will tear apart with my bare hands if I ever see her in person–for what she did to my Papa? Yeah.

            Anyhow, scream, yell, and never, ever relent. Either they let you in, or you take her right on outa there.

            1. That includes making a 9-1-1 call while you’re standing there arguing with them. There’s a crime being committed–get help. Get ugly.

            2. I probably mentioned a couple of times over the years about how my brother and I broke my Dad out so he could come home and die in peace, surrounded by his family and dog. It was like pulling teeth, without anesthesia.

              1. I’ve not heard the story because I’m very new.
                I knew you were legit as soon as I saw your first comment on the topic.

                Just writing about this and imagining/knowing what you had to go through is making me verklempt. Well done, warrior. Those bastards have gotten too big for the f’ing britches.

                1. I remember one comment from someone back then. Just can’t remember if it was a neighbor of his or someone from his church, saying that, “Oh, you let him die in his home? That’s going to kill the house’s resale value.” Oh my God, I just can not believe some people’s value systems.

                  1. That person would be lucky to still have his teeth if he said it to me. And I’m the person everyone likes because I’m nice. I had a supervisor at the casino cage tell me that if she ever had to cast a Mrs. Santa Claus, she thought I’d be perfect for it.

                    Back in ’96 Portsmouth Naval Hospital did a damn good job trying to kill my elder daughter. They found me to be a total pain in the ass. [Base Housing in Groton found that out too when they cancelled our bathtub replacement “by order of the DO”, (no clue why the duty officer cared one way of the other about our bathtub) without bothering to tell us about it. I called them from work and screeched about how I couldn’t give my small children baths in it because it was impossible to get the tub cleaner out of all the cracks and pits in the enamel so they got horrid rashes, and that they were going to come and replace it or else. They finally agreed, probably just to get the crazy lady off the phone. When they came the next week they discovered that not only was the enamal coating rotted out, so was the entire subfloor, and if I hadn’t been a crazy lady, someone would have found themselves taking a bath in the downstairs half bath sooner rather than later.] I fought the first discharge for six straight hours before giving in. We were back the next morning with a kid sicker than when she’d been first admitted. Thank God got a different resident and appropriate treatment. (I was married to an E6 so of course I’m stupid and don’t know anything about medicine the first time in./ sarc) If they hadn’t done anything different the second time, they probably would have found me camped out in front of the Admiral’s office.

                    Between Portsmouth Naval, the subase clinic, and having lived in Ireland and used their version of the NHS, I have some extremely strong opinions about socialized medicine.

                    As it is, I remind everyone that with the cancellation of “elective” surgeries this past year, a lot of people have died from preventable causes who would not have died of WuFlu. My husband had open heart surgery just before Thanksgiving ’19. If his problems had been four months later, I’d be a widow now. He went downhill fast at the very end, and if it had been delayed even a week….

                  2. I think I saw that neighbor on my walk yesterday. It was sporting a vagina hat, and had the slave diaper securely fastened across its mug.

          3. My husband reported last week to me that a family was not allowed to rescue their mom from one of these death traps.The called the cops who refused to come. Kidnapping is sooooooo 2019. But then the *hospital* called the cops to arrest the family.

            Do not recall if it was in the U.S. or not though.

      3. I am sorry for your loss is never enough, but I am.

        I pray you will or have already forgive yourself.
        The impositions by our governors etc. — forgiveness there may be too much, but at least take care of yourself and don’t be consumed by hatred.

        I count myself fortunate when we lost our daughter in October, we were able to be with her at the hospice house (and have various visitors). It was expected for years, but still…

    2. I ran across one theory that nursing home owners lobbied to get those patients to get the Chinavirus bucks. Also ran across another theory that *somebody* wanted to maximize casualties to justify the lockdowns. Of course, with certain governors (looking at you, Despicable Kate Brown), lowish numbers still got us lockdowns.

      1. One nursing home refused to accept the incoming patients. When they were threatened with losing their accreditation/license, they held firm. May be the only home in New York with no covid deaths.
        Jewish nursing home. Another reason for antisemitic New Yorkers to hate Jews?

          1. Only the Hassidim and other Haredi, they tend to vote republican, though many are opposed to the state of Israel too so they ought to be on his side. Occam’s razor is useful here, Cuomo the Killer and his merry band hate their political opponents, nothing more is necessary.

            1. Oh, please. Ox not that slow. I’m sure you know what he meant.

              Now, dropping Liberators FROM Liberators might be hard to pull off these days… 😛

        3. “Another reason for antisemitic New Yorkers to hate Jews?”

          They do not need additional reason, they make up as many as are required.
          ~

        4. Yes. I can perceive that. If one group of people are allowed to rebel and save their beloved elderly while all the other groups get overridden by the PTB, you’re going to feed some *serious* resentment.

          Very useful, driving these hatreds (which are never completely shut down, mind you, just enough to feed more distrust and dislike of the boot on one’s neck). Which can be used to feed a carefully-curated paranoia and prevent the sensible and decent members of in- and out-groups from teaming up. See also: the vagaries of *which* police misconduct stories get national traction.

          Pretty much guarantees that the worst bad actors of both groups get a free pass.

          The two groups in the U.S. for which this is a solidly reliable playbook (other groups play copycat, but badly. You can tell by who/what ordinary people are allowed to criticize. Not just the flavour of the hour) are Blacks and Jews. Which is so weird. They do not appear to have much in common, and in an unguarded moment, you can hear individuals express contempt or loathing for each other.

          Figure out why it works so well and how to short circuit it and you’re in Nobel prize territory.

      2. Read the Aussie panic porn on cases.
        “hey, let’s put people in quarantine in a hotel and keep people locked down”
        Oh look, hotel workers are coming up positive.
        I keep seeing 1! 2!! or 3!!! new cases and “ohmergerd! we gotta close the borders!”

        1. The Glorious Leader of New Zealand has locked down their capital city because they found 3 cases.

        2. We had low reports, and Oregon Health sounded pissed. They’re claiming that it was due to the storm, but they’re doing their damndest to keep up the skeer.

            1. My grandfather told me that he was taught in college chemistry class (sometime before 1920) that US oil production would peak by 1970. In the 1960s I read that US oil production would peak by the year 2000. And here we are in 2021 having Xiden try to force US production to decline by illegal executive order.

              The lizards running the country have to use force to prevent the United States from exceeding all of their predictions. We must stop them.

              1. The price of gas has gone up $0.50/gallon in the time since the fauxnauguration. That’s almost 25%. Bless your black heart, Pretendsident Biden . . .

                What’s the over/under on $4.00/gallon gas by Memorial Day?

                1. $4? Shoot. We’re headed for $10 a gallon. On purpose.

                  When I had ration books for petrol in Germany in the 80s, real gasoline in Switzerland was just about that, a little over $10 a gallon.

                  1. You’re probably right, eventually. With the regime mucking up our energy infrastructure and the coming inflation, the sky may actually be the limit. I’m just looking at May 31.

                    1. Oh, for sure. I think your prediction is quite correct.

                      I would not be surprised at $7 by the end of 2021. Lots of variables, but it’ll be that or better.

                  2. I once worked in the accounting department of a company with administrative offices in NYC (in the Empire State Building, in fact) where one of the items we tracked was stipends for various commuter expenses: quarterly subway passes, bridge EZ Passes, parking … I expect we will see credit cards for gas stations which are owned by the employer, providing free gasoline to selected staffers.
                    ~

                    1. I expect we will see credit cards for gas stations which are owned by the employer, providing free gasoline to selected staffers.

                      –
                      Those are available now. Cardlock systems. Had them for the major company worked for in ’90s. There was a fueling station at the carpool area. Then when out, you used the distributed commercial fuel stations. Only place in Oregon where you can self serve. (Back when I had to enter the Odometer, I feel bad now about not being 100% accurate, usually when standing in pouring down rain or sleet, in the dark. Not that is a valid excuse, exactly.)

                      Governmental agencies use them too. My last employer’s software had a Cardlock data import and processing program. Getting drivers to enter the accurate odometer reading was a challenge. That wasn’t my problem however. Nor was it my business. My job was to ensure the program warned the odometer was suspect.

                      Both entities were tracking fuel used in official company/government vehicles, whether be logging, road equipment, or official use vehicles.

      3. You want another theory? All those nursing home patients dying means they keep the money and don’t have any more expenses.

        1. Fun fact: NYS is in a *gigantic* budget hole… much of which is because of Medicaid. Hmmmm.

        2. I had a similar wicked thought, involving pensions and stuff. Even if it doesn’t get grafted into someone’s pocket, it’s that much less unfunded liability.

          China has been rather more overt; they’re denying vaccination to those over age 55 (or 60, depending on the report). Not that this is so terrible given that their “vaccine” may be worse than nothing, but the obvious intent is “get rid of all those useless retirees”.

          1. I’m rather surprised that the Joe and Ho show is allowing anyone over 75 to get the vaccine, given that Ezekiel Emanuel is one of the advisors, and he doesn’t think anyone should live past 75. For that matter, he doesn’t think anyone over about 50 should get any “scarce medical treatment”.

          2. I gather that Britain’s National Health Service is denying vaccines (possibly all therapy – I don’t recall) to useless eaters the “developmentally disabled.”

            It seems as if that would cover all members of Parliament and most of the BBC’s news-readers, doesn’t it?
            ~

    3. but my guess would be from half to two thirds of the total were the direct result of that directive by his honor Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York state.

      –

      there’s an implosion coming somewhere between six months from now and two years from now.

      –
      Two are related. DC location isn’t going to be the implosion point. Grumblings are Cuomo is going to be recalled, or at least an attempt. Plus CA is attempting to recall Newsom. When both fail, due to massive fraud, one or the other, or probably both, are going to blow up. I doubt it’ll spread beyond CA borders. NY OTOH will take some of the bordering states, how far? IDK

      While Oregon has failed to recall Brown, no vote fraud, but the shenanigans/fraud preventing coming to a vote, haven’t triggered any blow back (other than gripping). As RCPete has pointed out, how Oregon works a successful recall just means we get a RINO to replace Brown, which won’t be an improvement.

      1. FWIW, the RINO wouldn’t have been eligible (has to have been an elected, not appointed official). OTOH, our new Sec State makes Kate look reasonable.

      2. On that note… Here is an excellent interview with Anne Dunsmore, the campaign manager for “Rescue California” (one branch of the recall Newsom effort).

        Notably interesting — near the end she points out that according to the law, IF the recall vote succeeds, it’s out-on-your-ear on the spot, and the next governor is elected by a plurality that may be as little as 20% of the vote. Which makes it a lot more likely that a “minor candidate” can beat the odds. That’s encouraging, since it might put a GOP in reach IF there’s a single well-backed candidate, and IF the Dem vote is fragmented among the most likely suspects (all of whom are worse than Newsom).

    4. You overlook the “Tent Hospital” put up in Central Park by Franklin Graham’s charity, Samaritan’s Purse. Not only did the NY politicians insult the aid workers, insinuating (and openly claiming) they were religious bigots who would discriminate against the gender-different, they taxed the stipends paid the workers.

      And sent NOBODY to the tent.

      Then there is the politically powerful NY Hospital Association which wanted liability protection for their treatment of WuFlu victims and wanted those victims O. U. T. of their beds.
      ~

      1. This, this, this. Follow the money, always follow the money particularly with Cuomo who is as crooked as a screw. The hospital thing goes back way before Wuflu.

        We spend too much time wondering why they do what they do. They don’t believe this BS. It’s all just corruption and holding on to office. The republicans are just their opponents, the lefties are their enemy. No republican is going to oust Cuomo or Nancy Palsy, or Gavin or any of the rest of that crowd but a lefty might. No republican is going to riot, at least in their mind, but the lefties will. They don’t fear the republicans, who would? They fear the challenge from their left. Think about what Occasional Cortex means to them. She’s an idiot who came from nowhere with nothing to primary a top, establishment democrat. That’s what they fear and that’s what motivates them.

  8. This is the kind of stuff that make people think of alternative ways to punish politicians. I can feel the anger and sometimes rage that is centered on the Federal officials. And who are these people who approve of Biden? Even his supporters that I’ve talked to here are really feeling betrayed that they are not getting that printed money.

  9. Part of the Progs problems are that they see organizations and government as top-down structures with themselves at the top , of course. This only works if everyone agrees to believe that it can and does work.
    The American Constitutionalists are not an organization, with a head which could be cut off, rather we are a people acting individually with a common vision.
    Trump is not actually our leader, though he is the means by which we became aware of how far our government has strayed from serving us and our nation. He c dragged the curtain aside, and that which has been seen can not be unseen.
    I believe that the Progs will force a violent confrontation and / or resistance, so they seem to think, to allow them to crush us at a single blow. That will not happen.
    We will not line up like the British at the battle of New Orleans for their dreams of slaughter.
    We will be the wasp, the sand in the gears, Kiplings “little folk”, and that which goes bump in the night.
    They act to purge our military of anyone who might sympathize with the idea of America, and in that, and in their treatment of those whom they have commanded to guard their usurped capital, they show their hatred of those whom they would use against us. This will not end well for them.
    The weather on the plains reveals a part of the systemic fragility of our just-in-time economy.
    Logistics is a bear, and cities are hard to supply and harder to control if the supplies are not there.
    Six months to two years, maybe.
    Rebuilding a Constitutional republic will be hard, but worth the effort.
    John in Indy

    1. They don’t seem to realize that their “purged” are a nice rich recruiting ground for such patriot groups as Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and Proud Boys. And no, none of those are the “militia” groups that they fantasize about. But they are real and (at least in some places) organized, and take their oaths very seriously.

        1. I can only assume you know nothing at all about Oath Keepers. I don’t have any personal experience with the others, but I do with them, and you’re completely wrong about that.

          1. The amounts of infiltration by the fibbers into PB and, as is coming out, potentially the OK, makes me suspicious of all such groups, including IIIper. Need I point out the amount of “foiled” jihadi plots, etc, along with such things as the “kidnapping”of Whitmer, that were instigated/heavily helped by the G’s?

          2. I have some experience with Oath Keepers’ members, and the press they’re getting about January 6th doesn’t fit with what I know/knew about them. What I know is the members are honorable, and have committed to America’s preservation and defense for their entire lives.

            Do you think the Oath Keepers were an active part of the trespass on January 6th?

              1. It isn’t as if we’ve any recent history of false flag, self-own racist/sexist/homophobic attacks. Smollettism is a thing of America’s dark past that never, ever, happened.
                ~

    2. The people who think they are at the top are usually the first purged. (real purge… not the digital kind). One ring rules them all kind of purge. They are always so blind about this and believe they are the ones on top.

        2. Perhaps even more pointed would be the fates of Benito Mussolini and Clara Petacci, or of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu.

          1. betting they weep for the Ceaușescus. The Bennie was much the same will slide right on past them because “Right Wing Fascist” is not an attempted “Marx’s obviously unworkable bits removed” form of socialism to their little minds

            1. They’re horrified by the Ceausescus. How could that happen?? You can’t just put the former president in front of a firing squad!! Even if he was an evil, twisted sociopath!

              I can’t tell you how many times I had colleagues tell me that when they learned what happened. When I reminded them there was no such thing as rule of law in Romania at the time, they didn’t really grasp it. They don’t understand the concept.

              1. No, they really don’t. Even people who were living in L.A> during the riots still don’t, unless they were actually in affected neighborhoods.

                1. I lived in Long Beach during the riots. Mobs got really close. I had National Guard troops patrolling my neighborhood and we were under curfew for a few days. Good times, good times…

  10. They’re not just going after the military. I browsed over to the NYT website to see if I could glean some details about the Capitol police officer killed and saw this headline.

    Capitol Riot Exposed Long-running Problem of Extremists in the Police. At least 30 police officers from around the country took part in the rally on Jan 6. Many are now being investigated.

    So being part of the 30/150,000 who attended the rally makes you an extremist who must be rooted out. We knew that but now they will attempt to purge the police as well as the military.

    1. Purging the police, or at least encouraging good cops to leave, has been going on for a while. Look at the various attempts to prosecute police whenever a situation doesn’t go well for the perp. Michael Brown comes to mind, but I doubt it was the first such incident.) Then you got Portland and Seattle this year, and the good cops are looking to bug out, leaving those waiting for pensions and the woke-cops who’d go along with the marxist plans. And now we have Soros DAs who are more interested in putting police in jail than felons.

          1. Hallelujah! Where are you, again?

            Edmonds is two-diapers about 25%, diapers nearly 100% everywhere.

            1. I saw several two-diaper folks in the grocery store today. To be fair, two were a couple in their 80s, so I give them some slack. But the rest were clearly just sheeple.

                1. I have to turn into someone else to go into the public sphere.

                  I’m naturally friendly with strangers. Not anymore. I don’t look at anyone. I don’t talk to anyone. I don’t say excuse me or anything else. I do not “distance” and you can F*CK YOURSELF while you cower and shake as I walk by.

                  By the time I check myself out I’m ripping my bandana off and my chest is vibrating with outrage. My whole self is “grrrrrrrr”ing.

                  1. A few weeks ago we walked into the grocery store, yes, properly diapered, and a woman in front of us (not a line just the usual scrum of people trying to get carts) glanced back at me and put out a hand to warn me back. She said something as well, but I didn’t catch it because face diaper. But my response was a hearty, “Oh, chill out. I’m way back here.” I got a fist bump from hubby. She gave me another glance and walked faster. Fine with me, get outta my way.

                    I’m like you, Kathy. The mask goes on as the first foot steps into the store, and comes off as soon as the first foot steps out.

                    1. Well done! I’m glad your husband supports you.

                      This will develop my character in ways I didn’t think I need, so there’s that. 🙂

                    5. Someday, maybe we can sit next to the fireplace in Sarah’s house and you can tell me your 9/11 story. I’d love to hear it.

                2. I was walking around at an outside shopping center a couple of weeks ago, unmasked (quelle horreur) and a double masker told me “yo, mask up dude”). I told him, “oh, f-ck off.” I will treasure the shock in his eyes for the rest of my life. He was your typical 30’s male Karen. When, inevitably, he reported me, I told the resulting security guard that I wasn’t breaking the law, nor was I violating the Gauleiter’s executive order, so he should just leave me alone Alas, my wife finished shopping and we had to go.

              1. Not to mention no state income tax, home to several Bourbon distilleries, major center for country music, and home of Ronnie Barrett’s handy tool for reaching out and touching folks.
                I believe then have an interest in horse flesh as well. (riding, not eating, to be clear)

                  1. Just stay away from the Greater Nashville area. That’s Tennessee’s version of Austin, TX.

                    1. Memphis is about as bad. Was when I went through there. But then I’m a country boy and don’t trust cities much, so take that as ye will.

                    2. My sister and her family lived in Memphis until they could escape … nothing she said about it made me want to visit, much less live there.

                      I gather the portrait of Memphis depicted in The Blind Side is cleaned up quite a bit.
                      ~

                    3. Haven’t seen the movie in question. Well, I haven’t seen a lot of movies period in the last decade or two. But there are parts of Memphis that are not very good at all, from what I gather.

                      It’s a shame, because there are good Tennesseeans stuck in places like that, in Memphis and Nashville. Texans in Austin and Dallas. Floridians in Miami, and so on. Something about living all on top of each other seems to bring out the worst in people.

                      That last is one thing that makes me worry about space travel and the like in the future. If such is a feature of human nature, then space stations and colonies are going to be rough places to live.

          3. We’ve got the shields in place, and maybe a third of the businesses will let employees bypass the cover. Submission went up when Kate (spit) Brown insisted on outdoor use “if you are within 6′ of somebody else”, and a fair number or people stay in the cover.

            I use the transparent shield; it’s OK here, and I’ve been known to shove it high on my forehead. Some people (small number, but growing a bit) use the chin-balanced spit shield. I have a pack but haven’t tried it just yet.

            I had to convince my wife that the face diaper is flat out dangerous to me. After nearly passing out with a general dust mask, if I have to use a mask, I go with either a medical mask or the thinnest bandana I could find. OTOH, I look like a bank robber on my bad days, so I try to avoid it.

            On the gripping hand, that’s what I’m using this evening. Ham radio license exam(s), going to try for the zero-to Extra trifecta. Lord, pleeeasssseee?

            1. I ran out of hands, but passed all elements of the test (made minor history, 100% with one or two guesses).

              Thanks, Lord. Could *not* have done it without you.

              1. Congratulations!

                I’ve just started studying for the exams, since radio communication is one thing I can do in an emergency/shtf situation even with my crappy knees. And even if the politics stays sane (yeah, right, and I live in CT) we get interesting hurricanes every few years, and good ol’ Neversource (formerly CT Light and Power) doesn’t seem to have figured out how to get the eastern half of the state up in less than a week.

                1. First item on the list is to spend more time with $SPOUSE. 🙂 Daily or more tests for a month, plus reading all three of the ARRL license books (available on Kindle–$20 each, though you migh be able to borrow atext copy) means there’s a bit on unwatched TV that we normally see together. Our 16 year old Lab Aussie wants to see more of me for pets and treats, too. Sweet girl(s). ❤ ❤

                  Seriously, it's building the station. I have most of the bits (if FedEx can undo the logjam in the northern part of the state it will be enough to get on the air) and can do the lightning grounds if the earth isn't frozen too hard. Have to make up coax jumpers, then move bookcases to get the equipment where it needs to be.

                  With a working station, I'm going to check out the non-contest digital modes. JS8Call looks attractive; one of the VE's showed off his setup (internet to his home PC, though I tend to keep my computers fairly well firewalled–not going to duplicate *that*.), and there's an organization I want to check out (AMMRon) that uses that mode.

                  As it turns out, the rancher across the highway is an active ham, and I know him slightly. Likely a leader (if not already) in the Deplorable Defense Corps for Flyover town, Flyover County. My body isn't suited any more for running around BFE (and we *are* BFE), but I'll be able to help with comms and whatever.

      3. Gascone, the Soros DA in Los Angeles, is getting quite a lot of pushback. It’s encouraging to watch even judges basically say, “No, the law doesn’t allow you to do that,” to this creep.

      4. It seems the Minneapolis city clowncil, which spent last summer nattering on about ‘defunding the police’, is now going to spend six million dollars to try to recruit for the *severely* understaffed PD,

  11. On an almost daily basis someone I used to respect says something like “the right is suffering from a serious delusion and conspiracy theory–they think the election was stolen!” This from Jordan B. Peterson, Douglas Murray, et al. Apparently we’re all insane because we believe what we saw. Of course they have no explanation about the militarization of DC or anything else; but of course, we’re all crazy.

    People here (near Seattle) wear two face diapers, outside, in the snow, alone. Everyone (but me). I got so mad yesterday on my walk I threw a sawhorse with the ‘Rona distancing signs over a fence.

    Living through a slow descent into insanity is destroying my sense of wellbeing and ability to adapt and overcome. I was stationed in Germany just before the Wall fell, and went back for REFORGER just after. I f’ing know what tyranny does to people, I’ve seen it in their eyes and their cities, dirt gray and barren.

    Oh, and that comment that those of us stuck in urban areas are screwed? Yes. We are.

      1. Everything in me screams to leave. Circumstances seem against that right now.

        I’m living in my sister and brother in law’s spare bedroom, with my two cats. Unemployed because my crappy retail job forces me to wear the slave diaper, which I can’t do, so I’m on a leave of absence. Collecting unemployment. Life crashed and left me holding no savings, no financial nuthin’. Thank God for a lovely sister. I have two brothers I won’t speak to again in this life that made things immeasurably worse.

        So, anyhow, I’m working to think creatively about how to pull my financial self together and find employment or a situation way the hell away from here. Trying not to adopt the victim mantle. Trying to be optimistic about my ability to adapt and overcome.

        So I’m learning how to make yogurt. And trying to keep my spirits up so I can think clearly.

          1. I’ve got a copy on order now. 🙂 I’ll spend more time in the Word. Thanks for the reminder. I have to stay connected to the Source if I’m to honor Jesus’ sacrifice, and honor my place in the world.

            Thanks. I feel really good right now, stronger.

    2. Acknowledging the truth of the stolen election is painful and causes cognitive dissonance as you’re forced to re-evaluate decades of political history. Some people can’t tolerate going through that pain so they resolve in favor of “it’s all a conspiracy theory”. And of course the left relies on creating the narrative/consensus for a lot of their power. We have two competing realities here, and people who still yearn to be accepted in the warm bath of social approval — particularly if their social circle tilts left — are going to go for the more comfortable “reality”, even if it’s not reality at all but an elaborate fiction.

      1. In this mess, all paths are stressful and disordering.

        One of thing autistics are known for, especially when overwhelmed by sensory input, is called stimming. In American culture the stereotypical stimming is rocking back and forth. In Japan/asian cultures, the stereotypical stimming is using a finger to trace patterns on the floor/ground. Can have a wide variety of forms, varying from individual to individual.

        Right now, we are having information available that is both too scary to be ignored, and too complicated to fit and be understood with a simple theory.

        So people who can usually function normally are broken by it, and falling back on which ever coping mechanism comes closest to hand.

        Repeat an assertion from some consensus is a coping mechanism, a form of stimming.

        It is a fight between more than two perspectives. People are fragmenting in their own individual way. Aggregating again back into consensuses is going to be a function of healing after things stabilizing, unless a stable place of injury is found.

        I’ve spoken before on common lawyer mindsets driving a common tendency to a form of madness.

        Psychologists probably have something similar going on. In their case, a lack of answers for when they personally are out of their minds. See AVI at Chicagoboyz.

        1. This really helps, Bob, thanks.

          Thank goodness my creative art session was cancelled this morning. I was going to have to share some ugly and I don’t have the energy for it.

      2. I see the truth of what you’re saying, I just cannot fathom the “how” they get to that point. The desire for social approval is so strong you do stuff that’s bad for you (two face diapers)? Your desire for approval is so strong that you refuse to look up to see the truth, even when you’re being tyrannized?

        Ach, it makes me want to not be around people at all.

        1. Compulsive behavior from stress doesn’t need to have a special path, or any logic to the specifics.

            1. My resolution is to write fluffy happy escapist stories. Of course this has always been my resolution: IMHO we already get too much grimdark in our reality and I for one do not want or need even more grimdark in my entertainment. But after 2020 I’m doubling down on that.

              “Look, I ain’t in this for your relevance, and I’m not in it for you, preacher. I’m in it for the fun. I expect to be well entertained.”

              Also, “NO deconstructions.”

        2. Well, cults exist. And the people that tend to be cult members exist, as do cult leaders. That’s the sort of people I see as the loud leftists, the maybe 2% of the country that is active and prolific on Twatter.

          For much of the rest, it ain’t nearly so bad. They hit the “D” when voting not because they are hard leftists. They do it because it is the easier thing to do. They do it as a duty, because grandad always voted and always voted “D.” They do it as a social chore, because all their friends do- and they don’t want to think too much about it. they vote “D” because that’s what they did the last time. They vote “D” because it’s not nearly so important (in their minds) as paying the wifi bill and getting the kids to ballet and baseball practice.

          These people are the Normies. The folks who aren’t aware of how politics affects their lives. Who don’t see some dirty politicians’ fingers every time they look at their paycheck. Politics is *invisible* to them. The “other side” is unknown and unknowable- see the increasingly insane conspiracy theories about us. We are about as mythic as the Lochness monster, and terrifying as a snake in the toilet bowl. On the little map in their heads, we are the monsters in “Here Be Monsters.”

          There aren’t *two* sides in their heads. There is just one, and everyone else is either a Russian asset or one of the crazies. And this isn’t a well thought out, reflected on and reasoned position. It’s just there because they never really look into that part of themselves.

          When politics *does* finally register in their attention they usually go one of two ways. Going with the herd is the easier option, and allows them to mentally forget about all the messy political bits. On the other hand if there is *enough* of a shock…

          Look into Candace Owens and how she became a conservative. Dave Rubin, too, though I don’t think he’s quite conservative, just off the Democrat plantation. Two things have to happen to escape the default: left. One, enough of a shock that you recognize politics happening in your life. Two, you have to go looking for answers and do it seriously.

          Those two steps always lead to a more conservative, less leftist/Marxist/Socialist/Democrat position, in every case I am aware of.

          1. There are other categories besides hard leftists and lazy leftists — though I might be splitting hairs. My BIL is a retired teacher/teacher administrator, and irl a lovely, warm person. He follows politics — on MSNBC et al. He’s a leftist because the Dems are his team, and he’s a team player. And since he only reads leftist news sources he’s barely aware of the arguments on the other side (though I do believe he has a few friends who edge toward center right).

            And yet he posts stupid memes on Facebook. The latest was “Why do Republicans always have money for war but not for those in need? – Bernie Sanders”, which is just eye-rollingly stupid. The Democrats are more in favor of war than Republicans these days, particularly if you compare Trump to the first 2 Obama terms. (And I’m sure the current 3rd Obama term will be even worse.) And the second part about “those in need” is just weaponized compassion and a lie. Republicans give much more to charity than Republicans. It’s just “government money to those in need” that they’re talking about.

            I’m sure if he were asked he’d be in favor of “unity” and getting the country more together, but he just can’t keep from posting divisive memes because he’s in such an echo chamber that he doesn’t even realize they’re divisive. It’s just “common knowledge” to him.

            1. I agree, there are indeed other categories. The two are just the simplest and broadest cut between the two. We could pull up the Jungian archetypes and split further, too. *grin* No real need to right now, though.

              Your BIL is closer to the hard leftist, since he follows politics. Not the rabid kind, I gather. It’s “common knowledge,” as you said. Near everyone he knows agrees with him, and I’d say the people he respects most tend to reinforce his opinions. Teachers unions run the gamut from soft left to Great Zeus, that is *INSANE!* left.

              As for the meme posting, there’s a psychology to group dynamics that fits. Dopamine hit every time he gets “likes.” Sort of like the gambler’s addiction, I think,- I am not an expert. People in general want to be liked, understood, and accepted by their peers. We are social apes.

              Being ostracized sucks for us humans. The fear of losing that cozy, warm place of acceptance is real.

              2. “Being ostracized sucks for us humans. The fear of losing that cozy, warm place of acceptance is real.”

                Yep. I’ve read that this is because, way back when, being ostracized could be deadly: a lone hominid is screwed. (I’m very inclined to believe this, but I’m also cautious of just-so stories.) Either way, though, shunning hurts.

                And the left weaponizes this. In social justice circles (these are the form of the left I’m most familiar with), someone who’s ostracized for wrongthink is thoroughly cast out, often to the point that anyone quoting, talking to, or vaguely associating with them will also be shunned. If you’re, say, an arty sort or not straight, this may mean losing your entire social circle. In an environment like that, even the people who aren’t hardcore SJ-bots will internalize the idea that dissenters are Just Bad People – and when they don’t, well, fear does a wonderful job of keeping people in line.

                1. Yep. I’ve read that this is because, way back when, being ostracized could be deadly: a lone hominid is screwed. (I’m very inclined to believe this, but I’m also cautious of just-so stories.) Either way, though, shunning hurts.

                  True even today if someone is young enough and gets ostracized by their family.

                  fear does a wonderful job of keeping people in line.

                  Which is why they are so freaked out at the idea that people might be able to talk somewhere that is outside their control. It isn’t just their totalitarian nature driving that. It is also the knowledge that if you can go somewhere else and be happy the ostracism won’t work.

                  1. “It is also the knowledge that if you can go somewhere else and be happy the ostracism won’t work.”

                    Yep. Also, if the Bad People are talking elsewhere, it might provide evidence that they’re not actually so Bad after all…

                    1. It is almost becoming cliche at this point to draw parallels between leftist totalitarian behavior and abuser / narcissist behavior.

                      Sadly cliche doesn’t just spring up out of nothing….

                    2. Honestly? From having been surrounded by this stuff for well over a decade now, my conclusion is that a lot of social justice is flat out emotional abuse, period. Not “similar to,” but genuine abuse. That far too few people on the left seem to realize this is incredibly dismaying, and a testament to the power of propaganda.

                      (Once I get up the courage and emotional wherewithal, I’m planning on doing a series of little comics/visual essays to that effect, directed at people still stuck in there.)

                    3. No question.

                      (Once I get up the courage and emotional wherewithal, I’m planning on doing a series of little comics/visual essays to that effect, directed at people still stuck in there.)

                      👍

                    4. “Once I get up the courage and emotional wherewithal, I’m planning on doing a series of little comics/visual essays to that effect, directed at people still stuck in there.”

                      Go for it. Human being *need* hope to live. One thing someone feeling lost and alone, trapped into faking their way through an increasingly stressful situation needs most next to a way out is hope.

                    5. Thank you. It’s hard, because I’m so close to the subject – plus I really don’t want the inevitable torrent of abuse. But writing and art are the only skills I have (as lacking as they can be), so I figure I’ve gotta take a deep breath, suck it up, and do what I can. It’s time to be brave.

                    6. Courage, girl. If you’ve followed any webcomics, you can see how Hoard Talyer (Schlock Mercenary), Rich Berlew (Order of the Stick), and Doc Nickel (The Whiteboard) started, and evolved over time. Frank Frazetta didn’t start out making masterpieces. Jim Zub didn’t either. We all start at unskilled and work up from there.

                      The thing about criticism is that yeah, it can make you feel lower than dirt. But sometimes people don’t like something because it simply isn’t their taste. That’s something you can’t change, no matter how excellent your work gets. There will always be people that don’t like the taste of chocolate (heathens!) and people that prefer different styles and subject matter.

                      Constructive criticism is gold, though. That’s the stuff that can help you get better. Every person experiences art differently, some slightly, some bizarrely. I *guarantee* you that the artists and writers of the classics we enjoy today didn’t consciously intend even a tenth of what people got out of them.

                      Good art always creates a reaction in people. Some folks I know don’t even read their reviews, but have other people they trust do it for them. Others know the audience that they are targeting the work for, and carefully look over those reviews to gauge reactions. Neither one is “correct” and the other “wrong.”

                      Who knows? What you create could be just what someone needs at some future date.

                    7. Thank you! In this case, this is less an art project than a propaganda project (though I do have some actual, non-political writing I want to do). I hesitate to call it that, because it’s not like I’m lying, but there’s no better word for little infographics comparing social justice allyship to domestic abuse. They’re pieces designed solely to effect political change by pushing people’s emotional buttons. Propaganda.

                      So in this case, it’s less the usual artist/writer worries of “what if I get it wrong and everyone laughs at my stupid nonsense that I was too stupid to even know were bad,” and more “what if I get it wrong and drive people to the other side.” Also, publishing anything like this will just invite a mountain of invective and harrassment from the SJ-bots. I spent years living in fear of that, so I’m not really looking forward to it. But, as I said, it’s time to be brave.

                      I will definitely keep your encouragement in mind when I get around to my non-political stuff, though. 🙂

                    8. I hesitate to call it that, because it’s not like I’m lying, but there’s no better word for little infographics comparing social justice allyship to domestic abuse. They’re pieces designed solely to effect political change by pushing people’s emotional buttons. Propaganda.

                      Consider that a well written character will among other things be designed to “push people’s emotional buttons”. It isn’t even that rare for a story or character to be the exact tetris piece that resonates with a person’s mind to completely change their outlook on something. “This X changed my life” is often *not* an exaggeration.

                      Is that “fake”? Depends on what question you were trying to ask. Narrow it too much and 99% of life is “fake”.

                      Given the existence of this power and the impossibility of not triggering it the question becomes “how can this ethically be used?”. A cult leader pushing the buttons to make his subjects bow before him is pretty obviously bad. A writer pushing buttons that kick someone out of a depressive rut? That is a little different.

                    9. Thanks for the clarification. I would not be looking forward to that either, but those folks? That’s on them. The invective and harassment says more about the speaker than their target.

                      Well, to a rational person it does. And people don’t think themselves out of a position they emoted themselves into.

                      I think your heart’s in the right place, so I hope it helps some people out, what you intend to do. May it reach the eyes of those that need it, and may they find the courage themselves to be free.

                    10. Thank you. And yeah, it’s my hope that it’ll just plant a seed. I don’t imagine it’ll change anyone’s mind outright: things rarely do that under the best of circumstances, and the cult-like nature of social justice is hardly that.

                2. “a lone hominid is screwed. (I’m very inclined to believe this, but I’m also cautious of just-so stories.)”

                  Me, too. It works the same general way in non-human species that are pack oriented. Lone wolves tend to have short, brutally tough lives. A wild horse separated from the herd tends to end up rather badly off as well. Lone monkeys are easier targets for predators.

                  Shunning is like moving to a new city and immediately offending your nosy neighbors. They learn everything there is to know about you and now they hate you. As a side note, this is yet another point in the favor of country living. *grin* Nosy neighbors, should they exist, aren’t within shouting distance.

                  1. “They learn everything there is to know about you and now they hate you. As a side note, this is yet another point in the favor of country living.”

                    Or for staying off Facebook and Nextdoor (aka Karen.com). 😉

                    1. Heh. There’s wisdom in that. I suppose it’s like the internet equivalent of “Don’t go stupid places. Don’t hang out with stupid people. Don’t do stupid things.” (quoting John Farnam, firearms instructor).

                      I get why authors like our host here have an account, and that it can be used to keep in touch with family, friends, and fans. There’s just too much stupid quotient there for little old me. *grin*

                    2. Hey, I still have my Facebook account – I even posted anti-BLM stuff on it under my own name – so I’m hardly immune to the stupid.

                    3. No worries. The day we stop committing stupid acts is the day we die- though that’s not an admonishment to perpetuate stupidity. To be human is to be limited- limited attention especially, and limited knowledge.

                      I used to pick fights with leftists and argue till I was blue in the face. Other than momentarily increased heart rate, I don’t think it did me any good. I was almost married to a woman who in retrospect would probably have ended up murdering me in my sleep if we’d stayed together. *chuckle*

                      Wisdom comes from good decisions. Good decisions tend to come from bad decisions. Or so they say. We live and learn.

            2. “Why do Republicans always have money for war but not for those in need? – Bernie Sanders</I?”

              War – or rather, the Commo Defense, is a Constitutionally assigned duty of the Federal government. Helping those "i need" is not an authorized activity of the Federal government, not even in the General Welfare” clause (which, technically, forbids any benefits not universally provided.)

              Thus Republicans (who surveys indicate) give more freely to charitable efforts, tend to treat “giving to those in need” as an individual obligation, best processed through Church, Charity, Local and, when necessary, State governments.
              ~

              Why do Democrats, who got the US into WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War*, talk about “giving to people in need” but mostly fund bureaucracies?

              *Also, arguably, the Middle East when Truman recognized Israeli independence.
              ~

          2. I understand. I guess I’m just shocked at the number of people for whom a representative democracy / republic means zero responsibility. I grew up with the idea that you had to engage with politics and world affairs because to do otherwise was to be a poor citizen. Like, you can’t just live here, you have to work to make things better and keep things good.

            Now, most people don’t give a crap. Just want to be told what to do, and increasingly want to force other people to do things they *don’t* want to do.

            It’s just a shock. A huge shock, how people mindlessly wander about, doing what they’re told.

            1. Yeah, I get you. People that abdicate that area of responsibility in their lives is extremely disappointing and sad. It was a shock to me when I had it explained to me like that some decades ago- and it has gotten worse.

              It does make one want to crawl in a hole and avoid all humanity sometimes. *chuckle*

              But it’s not all bad. As our host said, “societies under stress become more themselves.” I may not live to see it, but I have hopes that my godchildren will. They will have their own battles to fight, because the cupidity of man for power over others never sleeps.

              A Republic, my good lads and lasses, and for your own good you’d bloody well better keep it!

            2. We don’t really know anything about /most/ people.

              The greater population is large enough that we can only estimate it from samples, and the left has been deliberately contaminating a lot of samples. We can tell that weird stuff is occurring, that is throwing off our ability to judge how representative our few independent samples are.

              This leaves us guessing which first principles are still valid, and trying to reason from them. Which is a seriously crazy making place. Thing that has been letting me stay sane enough to keep nose to grindstone is remembering that even if I don’t really know it is safe, I also don’t really know it is doomed.

              Fads could be pretty nuts even without stress. With stress, the people of the group have a strong need for not giving off the signals that would put them at the bottom of the pecking order. Which means preference falsification, creating the possibility of a later preference cascade.

              Getting unnerved because of crowd behavior isn’t a useless instinct, but it may not be correct. Sometimes, you really do need to get away from that collection of people. Sometimes the information putting the instinct over the threshold is basically noise. Right now, things seem to be pretty noisy. I’m in a conservative state, but my baseline levels of isolation are such that I am also feeling very concerned.

              1. I think what you wrote is why it’s a great, and very difficult time to be alive.

                Things have to be extreme for things to change.

            3. For a different perspective: I grew up with the idea that politics is a waste of time and *nothing* good ever comes of it. That the people at the top don’t want your activity and will annihilate you if they see fit.

              Needless to say I don’t have a whole lot of shock. In fact even with as bad as things are as the world is still a much better place than I expected.

              (for additional humor: I was pretty much told that I was nuts when I said things on here a couple years ago that were derived from those ideas (admittedly not well, and with a great deal of reeeeing). Being right at the wrong time is still wrong.)

              1. Thanks for the perspective. What a change!

                I think you were right to stick to your guns on the ideas, even if they were premature. Da Vinci didn’t wait, and people thought he was crazy, too.

            4. Conservatives just want to be left alone; they’re not interested in bossing other people around. Unfortunately, that means they’re much less likely to participate in politics than Leftists.

              1. And why some of us are getting prickly at being yelled at from every corner “run for office run for office run for office or the republic will die!”

                1. Well, they do have a point. If you won’t fight for it (And running for office beats the hell out of driving to Washington and trying to gun down the Congressional Softball Game), then you may as well fasten the chains on yourself. I know, not everyone is suited to lead. But everyone is suited to do something. There’s over half a dozen boards in town that need volunteers to help them; not just select folks to run them.

                  Let’s see if the links work the way they should.

                  1. An Uncle has ran for office; didn’t succeed. State level. A Willamette farmer. Another uncle a contractor, southern part of state, talked about running for Governor but in the end didn’t. It would have been bad. He had 5 bad years, teen to early 20’s. Doesn’t matter what has happened since then. You can guess what the topic would have been.

                  2. Excellent persuasion on your part. Great.

                    I think the reason I get angry is because I know I have to do something or I’ll…. I have to do something. I could run for office and do better than anybody else once I got in, but damn, I’d kill people. I just know I would.

                    Maybe volunteering for someone like you is the ticket. I’m not forcing myself into a path of action just yet.

              2. The realization that they will never ever leave us alone unless forced to has driven much of my recent depression.

                2. This. Me, too. And it makes me so darned mad.

                  If I have to use this shotgun against somebody they’d better hope they die because I hate that kicking SOB so bad I’ll use it to beat their skulls to mush.

            5. Why? Fourteen years of indoctrination and programming (considering so many school systems have rolled kintergarten and preschool into the curriculum), it’s a wonder they don’t drool too much.

              They weren’t born stupid. They were *made* that way.

              1. I hadn’t realized how bad the education system was until I started having to work with recent graduates.

                They cannot write cursive.

                1. They cannot write cursive.

                  –
                  Cursive writing was taken out of the curriculum before my son was out of HS. His class (2007) had to earn his “cursive” certificate. Not that it helped. He has his dad and grandfather’s “engineering” tendency to print. Reinforced by college. He prints. He can sign his name in cursive, but it is horrible. Not any worse than his dad’s (who is 69 Friday), and grandfather who printed his name and legally got away with it.

                  Anything son had to fill out (like his Eagle Application) was typed on the computer, the cut out and taped into place. College and Scholarships were online input, and then printed (thank goodness).

                  To this day. Anything that has to be filled out, hubby has me do it. My handwriting is at least legible (spelling OTOH … but that is rarely a fill-in-the-form problem).

                  Also. To this day. I print – Tivoli. No cursive. No matter what. Try it … (Twoli is the result).

                  1. People who’ve had kids have the most interesting stories. I’ve never had them and it makes for… informative reading!

                  2. I learned cursive (but then again I was also schooled by me mam), left it alone for years, and am using it again for some things. MOre and more things really. But my signature is … not cursive. Because signing my name, with my finger, on a touchpad at home depot, every fecking day, is carpal tunnel. So there’s a sqiggle. That, if you’re drunk, tired, and squint really hard, looks like First Name Initial vomiting my last name.

                    1. Several years ago slashdot had a story about a fellow who decided to test if signatures were even looked at AT ALL. He started signing his credit card payments ‘Albert Einstein’. As I recall, it was about a *year* before anyone asked him _anything_ about that. Secure? Riiiiiiight.

                  3. When I worked at convenience store, it was interesting as one thing I needed to fill out, I did in cursive. And I’d see in the records that it stayed cursive – mostly. Capital G, Q, and Z were converted to block by whoever did the next entry, as I recall. Now, Z is certainly understandable, and Q I can sort of see. But G? Huh?

                2. Cursive is now a secret code for us old people. I started writing my grocery lists in cursive just for the practice.

          3. “They do it as a duty, because grandad always voted and always voted “D.””

            The GOP needs to run an ad campaign on the theme of “These aren’t your grandad’s Democrats” … and match it with a “We’re not your grandad’s Republicans” — print and broadcast.
            ~

          4. Earlier this week Dave Rubin accidentally said something like “I’m a conservative”. So he’s slipping. 😀

          5. An interesting book They Thought They Were Free by Milton Mayer. Life under the Nazi regime among the low-ranking Nazis. Not cult members.

        3. Last year brought me to the world of online gaming. While it’s not particularly constructive, I have “met” a few like-minded individuals and whilst we’re running around fantasy worlds killing monsters, we can vent to one another. It’s helpful. Oh and “face diapers” made me giggle.

          1. Thanks, it might be a good avenue for me.

            A young guy at the last place I worked has kept in touch. He’s a sweetie. All he does is game–he’s got mild cognitive issues, I think, that make him unable to drive and funny. I think he’s a little bit on the autism scale as well.

            I’ve been dreading going to his place because games just aren’t my thing. But now I’ll take another look. He’ll lose his shiite with happiness if I suggest a game. And I want to stay in touch, I really like him.

            1. If you’re talking about tabletop games (RPGs, etc,) and you’ve got more than just the two of you, suggest a round or more of “Exploding Kittens.” Easy to pick up, fairly quick to play, and quite amusing.

              For something a bit more involved and VERY warped, Munchkin by SJ Games…

              1. Thanks, I’ll recommend these as fun regardless.

                He’s got some adventure game lined up, computer variety. But he’s chill and open to anything. And exploding kittens makes me giggle a little. Just don’t tell my two…

              2. Other fun games are Deadwood Studios, Kill Dr. Lucky, Lord of the Fries, Give Me the Brain!, Stuff and Nonsense, and Unexploded Cow. All from Cheapass Games, and yes, it’s a plug for my brother-in-law who created all of them. But they really are fun, and have won awards and stuff.

                2. We’re *supposed* to advocate for loved ones. I’m happy to choose these games first. Thanks!

                1. Oh man, Guillotine! A friend of mine introduced us to that game ages ago, we played quite a few times, but then work kept getting in the way!

                  Time to find a copy!

                  1. May I suggest this?
                    https://www.incelriot.com/virtue-signal-the-game-of-social-justice/

                    In Virtue Signal you play as one of several different social justice warriors. The object, simply, is to attract a coalition of NPC followers to your cause, whatever that is. The first player to 15 is the winner.
                    Virtue Signal simulates the power struggles and one-upmanship that goes on between activist groups. The issues themselves are of little consequence, they are merely useful tools to get leverage over others.
                    May the wokest warrior win.
                    A microaggression is a bizarre infraction against your progressive piety that hurts your reputation and makes it harder to grow.
                    Microaggression cards are played on an NPC card in a player’s coalition, making it useless. An NPC with a microaggression card on it cannot be added to, and it does no count toward the player’s score. In most cases it also cannot be destroyed or stolen.
                    Microaggression cards are removed by virtue signaling. A virtue signal is some overt display of progressive piety that make you seem like a better person, but which doesn’t actually help anyone or accomplish anything. To remove a microaggression, one must play a virtue signal of the same alignment as the microaggression card. Red for red, blue for blue, etc. Pretty simple.

                    Microaggressions include Minority girlfriend, Chicken Sandwich, Third Summer House, and Russian bots, while Virtue Signals include AIDS Quilt, Hipster Keffiyah, Enthusiastic Forum Moderation, and Minority Girlfriend. (Flavor text: “No one said this had to make sense”)

                    Such a fun game.

      3. Acknowledging the “validity” of the election seems to be the ante to enter public discussion — recall how George Stepalloverus lectured Rand Paul on that, demanding the Senator “Say it! Say it!” before letting him say anything else.

        Any similarity to past religious tests is purely coincidental (that’s their story and they’re damned well sticking to it.)
        ~

        1. One additional thing: it is necessary that the 2020 electoral validity be affirmed because if they let us challenge that then they have a problem with upcoming elections. THAT cannot be allowed, any more than a couple married in a Vegas chapel can question the validity of their 20-year-old vows – to do so would entail full-scale re-evaluation of too many fundamental life choices.

          IF the 2020 elections were not valid, then NO election can be credited as valid, and that would mean the foundations of our system are sand. Next thing you know, “Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!” … why, people might even challenge the words of experts on television!
          ~

          2. Gee. They never seem to understand the consequences if we questioned the validity of the 10 Commandments.

    3. Peterson is in no way surprising; remember that he agreed that people should have been suspicious of his claims of corruption on the trans language incident because things are mostly working. He still doesn’t realize the depth of the damage, and there are also elements of America that he doesn’t grok.

      Default skepticism when someone says “everything is horrible” is a good position to have, but taken too far it leads to a certain blindness.

        1. Peterson’s greatest value isn’t even in the specific ideas, but that he translates between different worlds.

          He can show the religious how the brutal grinding logic of biology affects things. He can show atheists the value of religions.

          1. He’s mostly a right thinker. His book changed my life for the better. And the translation you speak of is huge–his audiences are looking for true things, and they come from everywhere.

            But when he doesn’t get it, bucko, he really doesn’t get it.

            1. *grin* He’s also the one I stole the idea of intelligence falling in love with its own theories from, and defending them to the bitter end. Man is fallible. But if you relentlessly pursue the truth, ruthlessly discarding all falsehoods (and that is *hard* to do), then you are on the right track.

              1. Boy, that theft was timely.

                I still adore the man and respect his work. I don’t expect him to be perfect. Just silent, until he figures things out.

                1. But then I think that’s a crap way to be. Peterson gets to flail verbally like everybody else. He’s wrestling with junk he doesn’t understand as well.

                  1. Yes, and he also said talking is how we think. That’s why it’s good to get the dumb ideas out there, so they can be shot down. Don’t be afraid of saying something stupid, be afraid of *staying* stupid. Or something to that effect.

                    1. Exactly!

                      As soon as I read what I wrote I thought “that’s nuts!” We have to work things out verbally.

                    2. “I think perhaps the most important problem is that we are trying to understand the fundamental workings of the universe via a language devised for telling one another when the best fruit is.”

                      -pterry

                2. In this case I think it’s just ignorance. Peterson speaks as tho ALL he knows about the American election debacle and the Capitol Events is what he’s seen on the mainstream media. He does not, to my knowledge, pursue alt-media sources. I don’t think it’s belief, I think it’s literally lack of facts and failing to recognize that the MSM lie about everything, so he thinks he HAS facts (and it’s not his field of interest, so hasn’t pursued it beyond that). I did want to smack him the other day when he was on with Gad Saad… finally ended up turning it off midway.

                  I’d say “email the man with sources” but I vaguely recall him complaining that he gets thousands of emails daily and can’t keep up, and that was early on when he was just getting known.

                  1. I’ve turned off the Murray interview and the Saad interview so far.

                    Completely agree that he just is ignorant. If I have a chance I may send him some information, but probably not. I’m done with intellectuals who can’t take the time to do their own research.

                    Plus, he’s rising up from a couple years’ nightmare. I’ll let him be. If he ever looks, he’ll see truth.

            2. And the translation you speak of is huge–his audiences are looking for true things, and they come from everywhere.

              The vast majority of explanations of Complex Issues are done by people who have never met someone who doesn’t understand, for people who have never met someone who doesn’t understand.

              Which sucks if you happen to be one of those people who doesn’t understand and is trying to see if there is something of value there. Because all you will find is a bunch of unsupported nonsense floating in mid-air, and a bunch of people who think you are a terrible person for not already knowing it.

              People like Peterson can anchor all those floaty bits and show how they connect. And why anyone should give a shit.

                1. A really good example of this that doesn’t step on too many toes is Autistic Children and Politeness.

                  An autistic child (or one growing up in sufficiently unusual circumstances (like a Logic Uber Alles home (which never is (guess how I know?)))) will eventually — probably somewhere around the puberty upheaval — start rejecting the idea of Politeness as being irrational and ritualized lying.

                  This is not them just being a brat or an idiot. They are asking important questions, and not getting answers that fit together.

                  The response to this is never good, because every single person around them imbibed politeness and then never questioned it, so they have no idea what they are doing beyond vague feelings of friendliness / rudeness.

                  What the kid actually needs is explanation of the mechanics behind politeness, and that will almost certainly go down the rabbit trail of the what and why of emotions. Which is another thing most people don’t know how to explain because they buy into the Emotion vs Logic false dichotomy and decided to back Team Stupid.

                  That “common knowledge” often has many wrong things in it complicates the problem even more because the questioner can’t just adopt whatever they are told. They have to do the hard work.

                  Needless to say I’ve spent a lot of time on these problems. Almost everything that most people take for granted I learned the opposite of…

                    5. “Spectrum” doesn’t mean “wrong” in comparison to “neurotypical”. Any sort of label, of course, limits the incredibly wide spread of human behavior. But from my experience some people labeled “spectrum” are more concrete thinkers, more appalled/disrupted by lying, and less susceptible to “social consensus” distortions. So in times like today some spectrum people may be seeing things more clearly, because we have a huge breakdown in social consensus.

                    8. I didn’t think I was on the spectrum at all. Now, I don’t know.

                      –
                      Compared to those I’ve been exposed to? Six youth (3 from the same family) and 4 parents, of the three families (one of the parents who we suspect was shorting whatever the kid(s) were on to take themselves). I’d say “Oh. HELL Heck No!” Now? IDK, either. OTOH, in my case, age fixes everything. As the saying goes “My give a damn darn, is busted.”

                    10. Hmmm. You could be. You don’t happen to occasionally identify as a middle-aged Mormon man do you? 😉

                    11. occasionally identify as a middle-aged Mormon man do you?

                      –
                      To be fair. Ms. Hoyt has never identified herself as a middle-aged Mormon man (with a good rack), but has noted others, of the woke persuasion, have identified her thus. Never directly owned it. Mocked yes. Owned, No.

                      (I may be wrong … But …)

                  2. This really illustrates my struggle to understand things sometimes.

                    Sometimes when you don’t “get it,” you REALLY REALLY don’t understand.

                    1. Sometimes being unable to understand something is a consequence of it having absolutely absurd premises. This is the case with most Marxist, Critical Race Theory and Woke arguments.
                      ~

                    2. Yes. Trying to sort through what’s mine to own and what’s an external mess is making me near-grumpy constantly.

                  3. I get it. I went through my mask period where I told the truth no matter what and ripped off the mask. I think in my early thirties and after I found my husband, I learned why politeness was necessary. Having a partner changed a lot of things for me and rubbed off a lot of the sharp corners.

                    1. Any reasonably attentive student of History should be aware that people who insistently and consistently tell the truth are not particularly welcome in this world. I find politeness (mostly consisting of not informing people what degree of idiots they are) an acceptable alternative to late-night trips to bogs to dispose of inconvenient corpses.
                      ~

                  4. Unless you’ve prepped them for it, by telling them why the rules of politeness exist since they were kids. (Eldest is on the spectrum, at a level where people who don’t know anything about autism are surprised, but people who know spot it within 30 seconds of meeting him.)

                    1. Truuuuueeee……. but that is the original problem.

                      First you need someone who understands those things. Who also knows how to translate it to something a child can understand.

                  5. And all too often the societal answer is, “You’re stupid and unloveable, no one will ever do more than tolerate you for what you can do for them”. Which doesn’t answer what manners are and why you do them at all.

                  6. It seems very simple to me. Being rude to people pisses them off. Don’t be rude to people unless you want to piss them off.

                    People won’t want to do anything for you if you piss them off, either. You’ll get the minimum amount of grudging cooperation possible. Being polite doesn’t cost anything, and will make your life a lot easier.

                    1. Underlying that is an assumption that emotions should exist at all, let alone that you should actively lie to people to coddle them.

                      (as seen from the side you don’t understand)

                    2. No, do not agree with.

                      Most of the folks here understand it, and recognize it as false.

                      It gets pissy about other people being allowed to have reactions that don’t match the “why manners” side, and responds in an extremely emotional manner to actively choose “truths” in a manner that will get a strong reaction…then is upset that the reaction is strong, because what was said was not completely wrong.

                      This is where having parents who do their job, and reading fantasy/ character focused scifi, can be a really big help.

                      It can help you get “into” the head of someone who is not you, and identify the (emotional) water you’re swimming in, which allows some idea of understanding those who do not respond as the model in your head projects.

                    3. No, do not agree with.

                      psssst; didn’t say I did. I was describing from the perspective of someone trapped in that problem.

                      Both you and Imaginos are missing the forest for the trees; this was one example, chosen for simplicity and not being overly likely to offend any sacred cows.

                      Other examples could be given… veneration of a flag… cultural “duties”… voting as something of value… etc, etc, etc.

                    4. No, we’re not missing it, we are correcting the falsehoods that keep them trapped.

                      Hm, I wonder if this connects to the popularity of forced helplessness in Prog Approved stuff…..

                    5. No, we’re not missing it, we are correcting the falsehoods that keep them trapped.

                      That isn’t what I said you missed. As I said; it is a simple example of the phenomena, with a simple solution. The “missed” part is over focusing on the details of one example and missing the general problem.

                      And this is hardly an isolated issue, or Peterson wouldn’t be needed.

                      Hm, I wonder if this connects to the popularity of forced helplessness in Prog Approved stuff…..

                      ???

                    6. You’re assuming your conclusion, Ian.

                      I know that I’m fully able to see it is an example, while also fixing the problem as best possible.

                      That’s the same error as “how dare you care about (thing), instead of (other thing), where the only evidence is that they did an immediate, and simple, fix on thing one.

                      **********

                      ???

                      Folks are trapped into that mindset. Both by being warehoused into it, and by being told that people pointing out errors in it must be ignored, rather than answered/dealt with.

                      Folks who are locked into eternal victimhood are pretty dang ineffective. DAngerous, yes, but ineffective.

              2. Yeah, translation of that sort is a hugely difficult skillset.

                You need to learn a lot about how different perspectives and specialties think and understand.

                Which tends to mean a mindset that looks at a lot of fields, starting from the basics as selected by consensus. Learning even the basics of several unrelated fields is a little bit challenging. It takes much more work to chase through things if the consensus basics are subtly flawed. Where many fields have deep flaws in the consensus, such a translator is going to have issues, period.

                Peterson has the further difficultly that he basically started in the humanities, and that psychological research is not a good field to develop deep numeracy from. Beyond that, he is Canadian. There are Canadians who have a pretty good understanding of American culture. There are also Canadians who have deeply flawed understandings of American culture, and are convinced that they have a complete, sound understanding.

                It is possible to reason out from the outside what is going on within American culture using theory when the written forms of the agreement are holding. When the written agreements aren’t really holding, even those inside of American culture are confused.

                When someone does something really impressive, it is tempting to believe that they can do all of the impressive things. When you pay closer attention to how they accomplished the really impressive thing, it becomes apparent that some sorts impressive things may be doable for them, and others are probably not.

                Folks here are impressive in a lot of ways, and may have clustered here from shared interests and abilities. Not a fair standard to judge all humans by.

                1. I’m learning to not put such a heavy weight of admiration on people. It sets too high expectations, and is too heavy for humans.

    4. I don’t think you should be so harsh on people outside the US who weren’t here and can’t really understand how bad US elections are in general. They only know what the media tells them, and they have no baseline of local experience.

      Did you see that Trump’s impeachment lawyer himself believed the Fine People Hoax until researching Trump’s defense in the fraudulent impeachment? Until then, even he thought Trump had not unilaterally vocally repeatedly condemned white supremacists but said they were “fine people”.

      The media is extraordinarily powerful with it’s narratives. The only way not to be suckered is to not watch it at all.

      2. My outrage isn’t personal against regular people. The gaslighting is insane–who can withstand it?

        Peterson is a public intellectual whose business it is to know whereof he speaks. If he wants to venture into American politics, there are things about us he doesn’t understand. If he admits that and doesn’t have an opinion until it’s an informed one, well done. If he bleats ignorance into the public sphere? I’ll walk away from it, out of respect for his other work, but I don’t cut him intellectual slack.

        You want to bleat? Know what you’re bleating about. I welcome outside opinions on American politics; I don’t welcome outside ignorance.

      3. I wouldn’t put the understanding of a lawyer under useful evidence.

        Over the last couple years I’ve learned that the normal case for lawyers is sub-zero IQ incompetence. I’ll take a programmer who has read case law over a lawyer kthxbai.

        1. The bar associations are rife with leftism. You know what this does to competence and common sense.

          I know a few good lawyers that know their case law, and are Trump supporters. Smart guys. Absolutely *hated* by their peers, though. *chuckle* Especially when they win.

          1. Are you well-versed in Bierce’s Devils Dictionary or is this parallel evolution?

            Lawyer, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law.
            ― Ambrose Bierce

            Other definitions therefrom:

            Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.

            History, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.

            Neighbor, n. One whom we are commanded to love as ourselves, and who does all he knows how to make us disobedient.

            Quotation, n. The act of repeating erroneously the words of another. The words erroneously repeated.

            Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited.
            ~

            1. In this case, parallel evolution based on present observation, but possibly with seeds in antiquity.

              Altho I’ve read the Devil’s Dictionary, that would have been ca. 1975, standing in an aisle at my university library (having been distracted from whatever quest I was on by the interesting title). Yes, I remember reading it, if nothing specific that was in it. But clearly it imparted wisdom that persisted even unto the end of days!

      4. Speaking of foreigners, it has occurred to me that the National Guard deployment might at least in part be theater for foreigners who only know about it through what they see on TV.

      2. It was this video, a recent discussion between Peterson and Douglas Murray. https://youtu.be/g_RrYz85E1A. Around 30 minutes in, Peterson begins the discussion on “… what happened in America….” the “rats nest…” He starts with his misunderstanding of the 2016 election at 33 minutes. I can’t listen to any more of it ’cause it’s infuriating, but this is about where it begins. I think.

        Murray makes the statement at about an hour in “… I have a good idea of what’s hiding in the woodshed in America….”

        I watched until I couldn’t watch anymore. And because it’s a hair trigger issue for me, I may have been too harsh.

          3. He’s also uncritically taking information from corrupted sources. If those sources were truthful, his logic would be sound. They are most definitely not.

            He misses the establishment resistance to Trump, which was not insignificant. He underestimates the amount of corruption in the American political system in general. He appears not to be even aware of the massive amount of red flags that demand investigation that has in many cases not even gotten started yet.

            If you aren’t aware of the long history of corruption in American politics, and the very real and mind boggling stupid things that have occurred (the full list of just the examples we know of would break the blog), then things look much simpler. It isn’t that Trump is the only reliable politician and everyone else is lying.

            It is that it is in the interests of quite a lot of powerful people for him to lose, and by any means necessary. It isn’t a conspiracy where a few cigar smoking men met in a darkened room to plot nefarious things. More that there were thousands of motivated people in the wrong places that took measures where they knew they’d be covered to tilt the results *further* towards fraud, corruption, and disarray.

            There is no act that would get/keep Trump out of office that would make the left feel shame. If nothing else, that fact should tell you just how far things have gotten.

            1. “There is no act that would get/keep Trump out of office that would make the left feel shame.”

              This. I have lefty friends and relatives who are nice, well-meaning people, and yet I’m sure if I tried to point out the errors and corruption they would shrug and say “but Trump”. Trump was uniquely bad — according to all of the propaganda that they’ve ingested. And if I tried to point out out that all of their news sources are also corrupt and in on it, they’d accuse me of a conspiracy theory. The scales have not fallen from their eyes. They are nowhere near getting red-pilled. They know that their “half” of the country is the good, true, and right half, and my half is the bigots and racisssssts.

              Sigh. It makes discussion about politics close to pointless.

        2. Disappointing that Peterson says that he can’t believe the GOP nominated judiciary has become corrupted to the point they’d throw the election.

          2. It isn’t that the GOP nominated judges are corrupt; it might merely be they do not have a death wish. We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg of threat the Left is willing to bring to bear on lawyers foolish enough to represent Trump, it seems certain that they can easily defenestrate any judges who forget their places.

            I’m minded of what David McCullough said about Judge Truman playing ball with the Pendergast Machine, deciding cases on their merits 99% of the time and only deciding for his bosses when necessary … until he rose to the presidency and could reclaim his soul. The problem with deals with the Devil is by the time you can reclaim your soul it isn’t often worth having back. It is easy to believe you can do enough good to offset the little bit of bad demanded, but that is a hard road to go down.
            ~

            1. Anyone can hold out then they’re the ones being threatened. It’s a whole lot harder to hold out when it’s your wife and kids being threatened. If I were the Left, I’d steer well clear of Hawley’s place and family. But then I don’t think the Leftists have enough brains to do that.

        3. A few things from a Canadian about Jordan Peterson. Before things blew up for him he was teaching at a very leftist university (University of Toronto). I believe he was a Canadian Liberal, definitely not a Conservative party member. Had a friend in Toronto that knew him very well and would have lunch with him on a regular basis (she worked in the administration side of the school), and she was very left in thinking and ideology. We all have an idea how Peterson rose to prominence, I won’t say he’s red pilled just very vocal about his beliefs. I would say that he’s a classic liberal in thought and action.
          Now if he does watch the news channels there are no right wing news cable shows. They go from left to far left. The CBC is mocked as the “Communist Broadcasting Corporation” by conservatives here. Being a good Canadian he probably watches it and gets his news dump from it.

          So he’s basing a lot of his opinions of America from MSM that’s further left then CNN. When he’s talking about his areas of expertise he’s good, like any good professor.

          1. Thank you, northern friend! The details help me make sense of his position, and it helps me feel compassionate for him and for others who may be in the same situation.

  12. I’ve got absolutely no clue how bad the information is they’re trying to keep quiet, but it must be a heck of a doozie, because they’re convinced if we figure out what they’ve been up to these….what? 10? 20? 30? 50? years, we’re going to come for them.

    In fairness, degradation of official new sources begets rumor. They may just be afraid we will believe Qanon, without there being any truth to the claims.

    Yeah, I don’t believe their concerns are so innocent.

    There is a good chance that authorities you rely on for your profession, or just for your knowledge have been compromised.

    Yup.

    And what will make it scarier is the fact that the barrage of false information from the top that we were subjected to all through 2020 is going to be joined by streams of information from every side, much of it incomplete, corrupt or outright crazy.

    Last possibility is situation normal coming from me.

  13. > I know I joke that by the end of this year I’ll have to apologize to the lizard-people conspiracy theorists.
    —
    We will be gracious.

    On the one side, we have a vast multinational conspiracy that has taken over the schools, the colleges, every HR department of value, corporate boards, and now the US Government, that can’t quite decide if it wants to titter and give us the finger or keep skulking in the darkness, and wants to destroy the very society that provides its comforts.

    On the other side, lizard people.

    Occam’s Razor favors lizards…

      1. Saw something unusual at the store this morning.

        Now, I am used to seeing, at least once in a while, warning labels ‘NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION’ (That is, humans are not to ingest such). This was the first time that I can recall a label proclaiming, ‘FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION ONLY’. I don’t recall exactly what it was, but I took heed of the warning and left it be.

        2. Chocolate? Humans only. Very bad for dogs, cats, ferrets, bears, and probably cockatiels too.

      2. Me too. The thing about the qanon guy is how accurate he seems to be. There was a guy who used to distribute handwritten flyers about how McCarrick was a pedo and all the bishop’s were in on it or knew. We all said, “what a crazy man.” Turns out he was entirely right, in detail. Since every time we turn around we find another pedo, I’m just going to be le I’ve that all of the ruling class are until proven otherwise.

        I think there’s a core of satanism involved here, though that might be unfair to satan since Pratchett and Gaiman have pointed out that we get up to most of it on our own.

          1. I didn’t say Qanon was right, just accurate. It may be a scam, probably is, but the pedos keep turning up. The crazy guy and the bishops was right, if anything he understated it.

            I do believe that there is a core of devil worship involved. You pointed out how many of them look possessed. Think of Schiff or of Podesta and his pagan feasts.

          2. QAnon looked to me like modern-day Nostradamus/palm-reading. Maybe occasionally pointed up something one should look at, but mostly what-they-want-to-hear mixed with enough facts to sound credible.

      3. I, for one, am not going to apologize to the lizard people. They got us into this mess. They should be expelled from power, and replaced with people who wouldn’t create these kinds of messes!

  14. Y’all it snowed in Texas and Louisiana over the weekend; and not just enough to look at. Popping over to NOLA.com to fix my spelling of the state, I see that it’s 26 degrees. Unless, that’s suddenly Celsius, that’s cold for the Pelican State. I am contractually obligated (well, kinda) to remind some of you of signs and wonders and it would be a good time to burn your ticket on the long black train (to mix the original and the modern). I got somewhere to go when it really all comes apart; you should too.

      1. Ouch. I looked this morning and saw that Houston, TX was about the same temp as Detroit, MI…

        We’re (sort of) used to it and ready for it, Texans? They’re tough, but they ain’t ready for that sort of thing.

        1. My agent in NYC once asked, “But what about the snowplows?” Ha. What we have is a couple of trucks full of sand.

          My new granddaughter and her mother are in a hospital several miles north of here and I haven’t been able to hold her yet. On the plus side, the hospital has emergency generators. On the minus side, they want to discharge her tomorrow… to go home to a house without power.

          2. In a pinch road graders can be pressed into service as plows… BUT… drivers need to know how to drive in snow (ice is simple: DON’T) AND.. there have to BE such available. I suspect the best choice unless travel is *essential* (Emergency Medicine) is “wait it out.”

            And then, look into “camping” supplies. Ones that last. Maybe you won’t need them the next 25 years. Good. But if you need them, you REALLY NEED THEM. I admit I’ve been remiss (and also damn lucky) for ages, and FINALLY have a backup heat source and grid-free cooking ability. Been lucky in not *needing* such… SO FAR. Under ZERO illusion that Ma Nature is apt to administer a narsty dope-slope the moment I get complacent again.

            1. I have a propane BBQ with a burner and a griddle accessory – set it up on the porch so at least we can have something hot, if the power goes out again. Also, a propane-heater, which we can fire up for a few hours at a time to keep at least one room somewhat warm. Very grateful this last weekend for having bought all that, and a four-pack of propane cannisters some years ago.

            2. down that way, it is almost ALWAYS rain, freezing rain, then snow. When it isn’t it rained a week ago and it froze and snowed on an off for that week so ice hides here and there where it can be “fun”

            3. Right now, if it really came to it for us, we’ve got a camp stove and 3 full bottles of propane for it plus a gas grill with a nearly full propane cylinder on it.

              Keeping stuff cold if the power goes out? Stick it in the cooler then out in the backyard, it’ll probably freeze before midnight…
              🙂

              Plenty of candles, plenty of batteries, and plenty of flashlights, plus a solar panel battery charger and a couple battery packs for it, that we could plug our cell phones into to charge up.

            4. You can survive in an unheated house at -10 degrees with the proper gear. It won’t be fun; well, not likely, but you can survive until power and fuel are restored.

            5. Road graders are standard winter plows here in the Northern Wastes. They’ve got a lot more power than a truck-and-blade, and are a lot more tolerant of rough roads. Pretty much all the unpaved roads that get plowed in winter are done with a grader, not a truck-and-blade.

            6. Ice on the road is no joking matter.
              SE Minnesota… we have the plow/sand trucks – 20 ton dump trucks with bow and wing blades – And even they are daunted by ice.
              About every 5-10 years we get a southern style ice storm, and then the plows are backing up and down the hills treating the major roads. They back-up so that they are driving on the sand they spread.

          3. I’m reminded of a story I read years back…
            A guy who grew up in the northern states moved down to Atlanta for work. Comes the day, they got snow, the night before it was his turn to be the carpool driver. It was only about an inch of snow, so he thought nothing of it and he headed out to pick up his first passenger. On the way, he noticed how empty the streets were. Gets to the first pickup, honks the horn, and it surprised when the rider comes out in his bathrobe and asks him what the heck he was doing there, everything was shut down because of the snow!

            The wife and I poke fun at people on some of the shows we watch, when they’re in big puffy jackets, in California / LA area, that it’s probably all of 70F and they’re bundled up like that…

            The folks down South right now, though, yeah, we’re feeling sorry for them…

            2. Fair enough. Texans derive amusement from reading British mystery novels where “the heat was stifling and the thermometer moved inexorably up until it was above 70 degrees.”

                1. It’s amazing how we acclimate… had lived some years in the desert. Spent all day working outside, got done, was thinking… “What a nice day!” then got back to the house and saw this:

                  So now that I’m back in the Northern Wastes (apparently I live only in extreme climates)… Yesterday when propelled by sunshine it crawled up to +10F, I found myself thinking, “Not so cold. Nice day!”

                  Head. Examination room. Thataway.

                  2. Temp rose above 0 degrees F today in Minneapolis, with little wind. After the last week, it felt like a balmy day in May.

                    And perhaps the coldest I ever felt was the night I left Saudi Arabia back in ’91. 2:00 AM waiting on the tarmac to board our freedom plane, it was 90 deg. F and I was freezing my kiester off . . .

            3. I live in the middle of California (can’t say “Central California” because that’s SOUTH of here…) and people make fun of the freeze warnings we get. But what they don’t realize is there’s a lot of agriculture around, particularly citrus, and knowing when a freeze is coming can be all that stands between a useful crop and a trashed one.

            4. My sister observed it was just as well, because NO ONE knew how to drive in the snow. And in one very snowy winter, they learned nothing all winter.

          4. I grew up in Utah, and I always thought it was weird that the South couldn’t handle 1/2″ of snow. It was while I was in Albany, NY, and saw the giant snowplows that fill dump trucks that create piles of snow that last until August in out-of-the-way places that it occurred to me: the South can’t handle 1/2″ of snow for the same reason that Salt Lake City can’t handle 3 feet of snow: they don’t get that kind of weather often enough to be prepared for it!

        2. it freezes there often (I got cool pics of motorcycling in half a foot of snow) but this has been a bad one with the collapse of the power grid. T.Boone got his money though.

      2. Some of the imgurians are blaming Texas for not being tied into the national electric grid (so they aren’t subject to Federal regulation). Seems too that ice-resistant wind turbines might be needed in the southern mid-west.

        1. not connected but sending power to California from time to time. hmmm
          Wind and solar are nice additives (when you can keep them from killing the fauna) but they are in no way a reliable source of power. Would love for them to be ground into shards and stuffed into pillows for Haavahd Boy’s woke pillow company

          1. #1 Daughter used to love seeing wind farms when we drove across the state “because they are so good for the environment.” Now I want to send her headlines about the iced over windmills and say, “THIS is one reason I don’t like wind farms.”

            Oops, on second thought it would be best to wait until she recovers from the C-section. One issue at a time…

              1. They destroy endangered raptors especially. Which is what we need to remind them when they say “Yer kat killz berdz tooo!”

                1. They’re hell on bats, too.

                  “One bat can eat up to 1,200 mosquito-sized insects every hour. In a single night, a bat will eat a lot of insects: 6,000 to 8,000 mosquito-sized insects each night! Mosquitoes their primary diet, which make them a great natural mosquito predator.”
                  https://endmosquitoes.com/how-many-mosquitoes-do-bats-eat/

                  Wiki says: “Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes include malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, chikungunya, yellow fever, filariasis, tularemia, dirofilariasis, Japanese encephalitis, Saint Louis encephalitis, Western equine encephalitis, Eastern equine encephalitis, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Ross River fever, Barmah Forest fever, La Crosse encephalitis, and Zika fever, as well as newly detected Keystone virus and Rift Valley fever.”
                  ~

                  1. You want to destroy an ideologue? Show them this data, and make them sit with it long enough to understand. Watch their face.

                    They will break in one of two ways: oh, wow, I was wrong. Or…. they gaslight themselves.

                2. my cats are A: indoors only, and B: no danger to an Eagle, Hawk, or Osprey. If they got a few Starlings, that’s be a good thing as they are invasive.

                    1. Our cats have always been indoor/outdoor, eventually. Kittens, at 9 1/2 months, aren’t yet. Will be. Almost sorry we’ve missed out on snow here in southern Willamette Valley. OTOH dad wants to be home when we start the first forays outside without being on leash. Pouring down rain works wonders too, teaching cats to stay close to the house.

                      The cats do hunt. They are no danger to Eagle, Hawk, or Osprey, let alone Owl, wild Turkeys, Doves, Bats, or even Hummingbirds, unless they are suicidal (there is NO way a 20 year old frail cat can catch a Hummingbird, unless said Hummingbird is suicidal). They don’t catch any of the native song birds either. Starlings OTOH they catch regularly. As already stated, Starlings are Invasive. We’ve seen few mice or snakes left as gifts; and no rats, at least at our current location. We’ve been here 32 years.

                      FYI. In my experience Raptor bird classes and wild Turkeys are more dangerous to cats than cats are to them.

                    2. The cat-raptor connection is often raised by communist-environmentalists. They say “Well, your cat kills x-hundred birds in its lifetime, these wind farm disasters are no different! So there!”

                      That’s when you tell them that cats kill little birds, and wind farm machinery kills endangered raptors, including bats.

                      Then they bleat and gaslight.

              1. Yet if you or I did that, we’d be fined into the poorhouse.

                And where I used to live is now surrounded by scorched-earth black blots AKA solar panels (which raise the ambient temperature about ten degrees for 10+ miles downwind, as I discovered firsthand when one was built upwind of me). Completely destroys the desert environment. Makes me gnash my teeth and long to use a solar tower to roast the peccable officials.

                Yeah, solar panels are WAY worse than windmills, which at least don’t cook the ground all around them.

                1. Oh, gosh, I didn’t know about the hot air, but of course. Totally destroying the local ecosystem.

                  Solar and wind are meant to warm my face and cool my brow.

                2. This is why I have issue with huge concentrations (or concentrated..) solar. Putting a few panels an an *already* dark rooftop as a backup/boost/whatever… well, that’s a personal choice and doesn’t really change anything overall. The “backpack” phone charger (see: BOB)… Go for it!

                  1. issue with huge concentrations (or concentrated..) solar. Putting a few panels an an *already* dark rooftop as a backup/boost/whatever… well, that’s a personal choice and doesn’t really change anything overall. The “backpack” phone charger (see: BOB)… Go for it!

                    –
                    Yes. Exactly.

                    We ever build, we will add solar with some storage. With the ability to feedback excess into the grid, as well as use the grid (Oregon. Although it is surprising how much sun we get all year). With our current vehicles, the “backpack” charger isn’t as needed. OTOH as they keep coming down in price, there is the “cool tech” factor. I’d even use them at home with sun through my southern windows.

    2. Rained all day yesterday with temperatures below freezing. I expected sleet. Today it’s iced over with topping of snow. Projected high 25. Not a normal winter day in extreme southern Tennessee.

        1. I am also. This blog group might help members who are in distress . And the times we are heading into may bring unbelievable amounts of trouble.

      2. Find a realtor in NYC or ‘frisco. Tell them you’ll allow them to list your house – as-is – if they give you a $25K “listing bonus.”

          1. For the last year the inhabitants of those cities have been fleeing and buying everything they can find. Great position to be in if you are selling.

                  1. I wouldn’t know; I know nothing of realty.

                    Also I don’t know what the demand is like now. Just under a year ago was the perfect time with the initial rush to spread as much plague out of the cities as possible.

              2. Zillow is sometimes weird. We just closed on this house last March (contract was signed the previous October) and they already have our house up $50k, despite the fact that it’s way out of line with the neighborhood and the “facts” they show you to explain the estimate are $40k less.

                On the other hand, it’s USUALLY not too bad of an estimate. They’re kind of setting the market in a lot of places. So congrats on the extra $100k 🙂

                  1. So much sympathy. I did that with the house we sold. It took me 2 years!! Including a shit-ton of plastering. (Could not hire contractors for anything. I tried. The only competent ones were booked up for a year. And most of them refuse to plaster anyway, they’ll only gut and sheetrock. And the WHOLE HOUSE needed it — 150 year old Victorian– so we just couldn’t do that.) And I still got complaints about the condition. I was so exhausted for that last year. Every day hours of fairly hard physical labor. I’ve been lazy ever since.

                  2. Sarah would have to find one of these mythical out of town realtors.

                    I asked in a private chat which contains a few people in Evacutropolises. Will relay if there is any data.

                  3. Check. At forty something and working part-time or one job I ripped out old bathroom and replaced the flooring (ok, unemployed then—and never put the tub back) glued CPVC pipe under the old house (maybe unemployed then too; can’t remember), sistered floor joists under breakfast nook (replacing the window was later and sorta unfinished), and patched the floor by the back door. Now I don’t even change the oil in my car.

                    Cousin’s son is suppose to come and fix the hole in the sheetrock ceiling now that the roofers got the roof fixed of the house we’ve (basically) inherited. He’s busy working day and night; dude had his months old baby with him when he came to take a look at things.

                    And my back hurts at the very bottom; I don’t know why; maybe it was moving a new mattress for elder offspring or tugging on 1/2 ton of sand (just a bit—it was on a dump trailer). But I blame it on squeezing into a love seat watching the Chiefs and Buccaneers. (Y’all see that picture of Kansas City’s plane landing? Caption: The only touchdown the Chiefs made in Tampa Bay. Ouch.)

                  4. Take the true market value, bump it 30 to 50%, and it’ll still look like a bargain if you list it in the right market.

                    Right now, you don’t *need* to sell, so you can ask for the sky. If nobody bites, you’ve lost nothing.

              3. From what I’ve learned? You’re sitting on a gold mine, and you can ask for the moon and get it.

                People who don’t know what Denver *was* don’t know what’s happened to it.

                  1. Exactly! I mean, what’s not to love? Proggy central right there in Downtown Denver. Great food. Those mountains to die for. Lifestyle, people!

                    I hope Sarah makes them pay and pay and pay.

                    2. I’ll pray for one to alight on your doorstep. Other than that I think you’re on your own. 🙂

                  1. … can’t hurt to ask. Friend actually got offered about 30% over what she was expecting. Took the money and ran.

                    And you might be net no worse off than if you put more energy, time, and money into this one.

              5. They ain’t fleeing NYC, they’re fleeing this:

                NYC public school asks parents to ‘reflect’ on their ‘whiteness’

                and this:

                Two masks now required to enter Manhattan federal court buildings

                and this:

                ~

  15. I suspect this week will take any remaining bloom off the Green Energy/ Green Nude Heel plans in TX/NM/LA. And wherever else car-gas prices skyrocket, because the refineries are shut down because of the lack of power and the cold. Right there, you have a lot of otherwise Progressive people who are going to fold their arms, set their feet shoulder-width apart, and snarl, “Right. Pull the other one. Then clean up my house after the pipes burst and my fish-tank froze because I had no heat for a week, and the water main broke and ruined the street.”

    1. Want to bet on that? They’ll claim that the power company (or whoever installed the now-frozen windmills) should’ve PLANNED for something like this and installed windmills that would keep working! And they should be sending guys out to the solar farms with brooms or leaf blowers or something to clear off the panels, too!

      If the government(tm) had run the power company they wouldn’t have had this problem because the govt would’ve done everything RIGHT! (OK, I just threw up in my mouth a little)

      1. Hehe. It’s like those Amazon product reviews where some idiot complains about the way that physics and materials works, and demands that the manufacturers make devices that never wear.

      2. Coal makes it spin.
        Oil makes it spin.
        Gas makes it spin.
        Uranium makes it spin.
        Hydro (even in FROZEN CANADA) makes it spin.
        Wind… occasionally MIGHT make it spin.
        Solar… ahahahahaha!

        1. Solar makes it hum? That sounds cool until you remember that humming is what electric motors do when they can’t start.

    3. I imagine that the sales of new Ford F-150 pickups with integrated generators will skyrocket in TX.

  16. And in case anyone thinks Sarah is being hyperbolic, you guys currently have officials who say that people who want such extravagances as cars that run and homes that are warm during the winter must “have their wills broken” (their words).

    1. If anything, Sarah doesn’t go far enough.

      That quote isn’t the only person who is openly calling to destroy us.

      1. I’d say they were trying to send us back to the Dark Ages, but people in the Dark Ages were still allowed to heat their houses.

          1. Nope, just a religious belief that they must destroy our current culture in order that TRUE SOCIALISM™ shall rise as a Phoenix from the ashes.
            And of course they shall rule with a wise and benevolent hand for they are the smartest people of all. It’s intuitively obvious to the casual observer don’t you know.

        2. Well, not really; gathering fuel from milord’s forest was a privilege not often granted….

  17. Regarding, the authorities in our fields bit…
    I stopped listening to the “authorities” in my field 20 years go. I’m perfectly comfortable walking my own path. And now, I _am_ one of the authorities in my field. I just have to survive the purge and I’ll be able to build things back better than before. I’m sure I’m not the only one here…

    1. I bet you are one of the ones the kids in the field go to, saying “Is this crap for real?” *chuckle* I have hopes for the new generation coming up. There are some good ones there.

      1. This year has been the most horrifying look at the authorities in my field you can imagine. Somehow, I thought that medicine would be immune to the crazy. I know; naive. Now I watch the CDC and the WHO and NIH and I’m gobsmacked. No idea where to go from here.

        2. The CDC and to a greater extent the WHO and NIH got O’Sullivan’d hard. The little I know about the inside of those organization gives me chills, Doc.

    1. That is exactly the kind of exchange you’ll see from people who invade a Capitol building with the intent to overthrow the Government!

      /sarc

      (And Sarah’s right about technology: I am happy I was able to see that video, but I would have never seen it without things like this blog existing.)

    2. Down the page, something much more uplifting:

      And that’s just spontaneous turnout.

        1. Gleefully. 😀

          And I’m sure they’re wracking their little brains trying to discover a statute to criminalize this unseemly admiration of one who is not the FICUS.

  19. Yep I remember the fall. I was part of a Citizen Ambassador group visiting the USSR in 1989. I took a couple of cartons of Marlboroughs along. 2 or 3 packs would pay most traffic fines, on the spot, when stopped, often, by the cops.

    Traded used Levies for just about anything.

    Local engineers took me to a bar one evening. Paid 3 traffic fines with packs of cigarettes on the way to bar. In the bar. Told me if guy(s) in leather coats show up I should act Russian. Asked them how. Told to frown and not talk.

    In an airport, middle of nowhere,to fly back to Moscow. Plane delayed 4-6 hours, Pilot told interpreter to tell us bad weather in the mountains, in Moscow, whatever we’d believe. Real reason for delay? Moscow airport, some dignitary flying in, closed to normal traffic.

  21. I’d never heard of the Trabant, but…. EEEEEE!!

    https://fee.org/articles/the-worst-car-ever-a-brief-history-of-the-trabant/

    “…debuted in East Germany in November 1957. Initially, the car was not a disaster, at least not entirely. In fact, it had some enviable attributes for its era. Its much-mocked duroplast body was an innovation at the time of its introduction. The vehicle’s front-wheel-drive transmission system and independent suspension were also modern advancements, one Trabant driver notes.

    That, however, is where the vehicle’s virtues stop and its problems begin.

    It wasn’t that the Trabant had a weak two-stroke engine, though it did. It wasn’t just that the Trabant was made with recycled waste (usually from wool or cotton), though it was. It wasn’t that Trabants topped out at 60 mph and “smoked like an Iraqi oil fire,” as one writer put it.”

    So, the prototype for the early Datsuns??

    Conversely, Ladas may have been junk, but even Garage54 has trouble killing ’em.

      1. Look up Skoda cars. They were standard issue to lefties in the UK during the 70’s. If the Lada was built like a tank, the Skoda was built like a sheet of aluminum foil. Skoda is not a bad car now.

      2. The Lada was a Fiat 121(?) built under license in Russia.

        Despite salt and neglect, approximately eleventy zillion of them are still in Russia, though every “driver fail” video shows as least one being wadded up somehow.

    2. There’s a company in Berlin that rents out Trabants for tours of the city. They give you a map with pertinent spots marked, and the car. It’s hysterical. People have a lot of fun putzing around Berlin in those things.

    3. Mr. BTEG and I were in East Germany right after the wall fell, but while East Germany was still East Germany. One night I pulled (the future) Mr. BTEG back from stepping in front of a car. His reply? “No problem, I can kick them out of my way.”

      1. Friend of mine who lived in Berlin (2010) once saw a Trabant filled with four American college guys who looked like football players. He said the whole thing looked like a clown car, but the guys were having a blast. The company that ran the tours fixed up and painted the Trabants with all kinds of wild colors and designs.

        1. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/T0bE3G_4umf2uDNwHOmfLAQjUr79teS50tKVL0NDpnXtTdwbAXFzszWEW6eBdk0eal4bvcuU_vbXoNwd6LYNKgU6gq6tMQIgQZ0EOHbNYByRf-Hjz4wIooNZxnkDTWyv8U8GwTawTZhpeaIqngtGme_bFDDcwDyLQHSVY68FiRDY4iqdINGPI2S0d9SJI-D5aTa2bEva4Sx2II7yMtiukRg0fj9Iq_nYL0vuhf-EAaQDo2Sz4hTStdhCQR-3vELM2v55tZyKap2Ws3XecTGvgvWFJ6HmPTtZyy0Z-w5CGcly-ozzgEwAI6HoGui6BmdaHZQWWpKh699e1FSaq6uHWtwyHmUC4eAhjilo3ujkE84szHajowfczJI_rwOHRWkcjt2gMuQgtcIMW30JbujAxAHFpfgHdFGa02cM0wt-mL4KGLpzVc22A2TOUNQKdJjqLBbnzmDq-NRKUoQKQeuGYW2UoADvx3mOcyCwhnDu7fXICehA8pWYo6k7luAJDRJTpQJW-hrKyLmXrp3QFadVk4qCP_VoU90X6goLm7L-zcvDRJ6CiH5yec_nS4hLYP9ZTMVxUNMJpUqe3VwkdZe4_8549ExYd5z73IBki3vvc-MAnHAYRMhK5TbZOFzfSGal8Dkw-HmME8H0WypCxxsNss3T2NfCUO6wct94yj_jdhqOVVk-SaM55wA3gYpG=w720-h540-no?authuser=0

            1. It DID show and it made me laugh so hard! Brought up memories of Berlin and some of the craziness.

              Also, the best beer in the world, Budweiser. The real thing, made in Czechoslovakia.

                1. I must do Prague and Warsaw both before I die. I have a friend who’s been to Prague and loved it.

                  1. I liked Krakow and Wroclow better than Warsaw, but I’m not a big city fan, and in all fairness, didn’t get to see much beyond the reconstructed core and two museums. Prague had too many tourists in too small of a place. (It had just become ‘hip” when I was there, so things might have thinned out a little.)

                  2. I’ve only ever passed through Warsaw on my way to and from Wroclaw and Krakow. Prague is wonderful. I want to go back in spring (only been in winter) and bring the husband.

      1. Truth. I drove a Datsun for several years when I was young. Bought if off my parents when they got a new Toyota back in the late eighties. Sure the fan knobs fell off, the door panels were too easily cracked, the wiper motor on the passenger side failed, the suspension was crap, the rust holes you could see daylight through and the seats were held together with duct tape…

        But the engine started, the gas made it go, and the brakes made it stop. Fairly easy to work on when something motive went wonky on it.

        Trabant on the other hand… Well, the amazing thing was that they moved at all, I think. And they did move. Sort of. Slowly. Occasionally. With much breaking down on the regular. Anyway, they were light enough to push when it happened that they broke down. And it did happen. Often.

    5. The Trabant, as garbage as it was, the damn things DID work… sort of. Given the constraints, that is actually pretty damn impressive. Terrifying, yes, but impressive.

  22. I expect the “slowly, then fast” will come when (probably not if) that draconian anti-gun bill passes and a bunch of red states go “Oh yeah? You can’t make me. Molon Labe.”

    Montana already attempted to do this legally, but…
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_Firearms_Freedom_Act
    The Montana Firearms Freedom Act [1] is a state statute (since held invalid by Federal courts) that sought to exempt firearms manufactured in Montana from federal regulation under the interstate commerce and supremacy clauses of the United States Constitution.

    That all-purpose nixing, “lack of standing” was used to prevent appeal of the federal court decision, and the higher court declined to hear the case. IOW, “You’re just little people in a little state. Sit down and shut up.”

      1. Texas has a similar, updated version, of that bill in committee at the moment. We’ll see what happens. There are a lot of firearms bills that have been filed thus far, some great, some OK, one or to “no, thanks, really.” Interestingly, even the (D) are inclining toward the one expiditing permit access for people who have had to get a restraining order against a violent spouse/family member/significent other.

  23. Speaking of Portugal and cardboard, I just saw a couple of Portuguese posters on Instagram warn that their posts may be fewer. Apparently Portugal is throttling the Internet for some things, to increase the bandwidth for online schooling and “essential” websites. Does the government own the Internet structure, or do many people not have the money for it, thus making the structure less profitable?

  25. Gasoline prices over $4 per gallon is a magic number. The US average right now is about $2.47, it’s about $2.70 in NJ. What’s really interesting is that natural gas prices are up 65% over last January. Heating Oil too is up substantially, but not year over year since it tanked during Wuflu. Rising fuel prices are the single most reliable recession indicator there is. if this follows through, we’re looking at a downturn in the second half of this year.

    What they all have in common is that they put in a bottom on Election Day 2020 and have been rocketing since. Watch the prices on commodities, it’s a very difficult market to manipulate. All the energy prices had been declining, now they are not.

  26. It’s going to get very scary. And what will make it scarier is the fact that the barrage of false information from the top that we were subjected to all through 2020 is going to be joined by streams of information from every side, much of it incomplete, corrupt or outright crazy.

    One of the things reading history screws up for individuals is building a preconception that if one squints hard enough one can make out the true information from all the rest – after all, it’s obvious after the fact, so it must be possible to discern that this report is, in fact, correct, while that source is obviously off their rocker.

    In the actual moment, it’s really not possible – even back in the various historical days, there were lots and lots of sources of simultaneously conflicting information, and modern information technology has opened the floodgates and made that problem worse.

    But you can look for the common basis, the starting points that could be the facts. Note “could be”.

    So that’s why you must cast the net far and wide – if the lizard-people blogs say the sky is blue, and the three-letter media Party hacks say the sky is blue, and that agrees with your direct personal experience that the sky is often blue, you can use the sky being blue TODAY as a provisional working assumption – until you look outside and the sky is flaming orange like it was out here last fall.

    And if a source has proven to be willing to “adjust” the information they provide to “help” any point of view, as the three-letter-media has openly confessed in the Time confessional, especially if one reads between the lines into what Time omitted from that villain-monologuing exercise (more “shape of the hole” stuff if you read carefully). And when you ID a source as corrupted you downgrade that as a source for anything other than enemy intentions intel.

    Cross-correlate and get more sources. Rate your sources and reflect that rating in how much they contribute to your current assessment. Keep your rating updated (vis: Drudge). Try and find primary source information, then local reporting, then obscure reporting such as in technical journals. Do not depend solely on aggregators who might get co-opted.

    This whole shebang is called Open Source Intelligence in the community, and it’s actually very powerful, but it has to be done carefully and thoroughly in an ongoing process.

    But these crazy years are only going to get crazier.

    1. You can acquire some valid intelligence from corrupted sources. For example, you can often discern what they are intending to convey. If you know who backs them, what faction, etc, you can know with some degree of accuracy (minus human errors, of course) what they *intend* to convey- what they want the public to know or think. This is not useless information.

      When all three letter agencies are singing in perfect harmony, that heavily implies that there is a single source, or collusion between and amongst the fellow travelers. If you are in possession of facts behind the stories, you can see what they lie about. Knowing what someone lies about betrays intent.

      In practice, you can often see what the Democrats are up to, or intend to do, or have already done and want to cover up based on what they accuse prominent Republicans of.

      2. I’ve spent most of my life working on Wall Street being lied to by professional liars. I don’t believe anything. However, the liars often lie in predictable ways and so information can be gleaned from their lies. Where it becomes a real problem is that they know we know they’re lying so sometimes they tell the “truth.” The best thing to do is pay no attention to them, which is why I stopped reading the financial press a long time ago and all the press more recently. Every once in a while I’ll scan the headlines and that’s it.

        Prices do lie, but they are more accurate than anything else. I follow prices closely and in detail. the story prices are telling is a coming crackup bust stemming from money printing and an artificial (political) reduction in supply. The US is a net exporter of petroleum and fully self sufficient in natural gas. However, the wrong people control it and they’re icky so it must be stopped.

        There are trillion of dollars at stake. Since people will kill for a buck, what might they do for real money?

        1. So if you believe in the coming crackup, what should be done with a 401(k)? Nothing seems safe right now. Cryptocurrencies are a gamble. Can you even invest in gold in a 401(k)? They limit your choices. I figured that the stock market is pretty unmoored from reality right now, but sooner or later the piper will be paid.

          1. I don’t give investment advice so please don’t take this as such. You can have gold in an IRA though it’s a bit of a palaver. You can get paper gold in a self-directed IRA through the GLD ETF or any of its cousins or, for a SHTF situation you can have physical gold buried in your backyard and other places you know you can access and won’t forget. A shot-gun and some seed potatoes might be a better bet in that case. In any case, gold in an 401K would be rather a waste since Gold doesn’t pay a dividend, you’d be tying it up for a long time for no real benefit, and the cost of carry would be outrageous.

            401K have good tax advantages, but I think the sacrifice of liquidity offsets most of it, but that’s me and the facts and circumstances of my life, your facts and circumstances are different and your financial decisions will be different. for me, I maximize the employer match and keep the rest in my own hands. Mine is not a tax minimization strategy, though my portfolio is very low turnover, hence low tax, since I know how to use options to hedge and seldom need to sell.

            The existential risk with gold and other hard assets is government seizure, it’s happened before and safe deposit boxes didn’t help. Don’t make it easy for them.

            I don’t understand crypto currencies at all. I understand the motivation but have to ask how one can enforce the contract.

            I use options to hedge, and sometimes to speculate, but they require a great deal of expertise and are very limited in IRA’s and impossible in 401k’s. It alway struck me that you pay dollar for lousy advice in pensions and 401K’s.

            The only financial advice I will give is If you don’t understand what you’re buying or selling, particularly the liability, don’t.

            1. While I regret some (OK, most) of those I’ve sold, I’ve never once lost money buying guns. This is not something I can say regarding any other “investment”.

  27. “what would these [neighboring] countries give us, that would keep the country going for any amount of time?”

    Oil! Blood for oil, dammit Haven’t you been paying Attention????

    Okay – we’re not burning oil any more, except to fuel helicopters to spray oil-based deicer on wind-turbines. And if we were burning oil we could produce our own, or even buy it at lower cost than occupying foreign states. But that’s not important — it only exposes the insanity of Trumpist imperialists.
    ~

    2. Texas should build nuke plants and use the waste heat to warm up the windmills.

      They could also heat water to de-ice solar panels.

      1. Tough to build nuke plants when federal permits are required and the feds refuse to issue them because they oppose nuclear power. No operator will build one in defiance of federal refusal to issue.

        1. No, these are isotopic thermal windmill heating installations. Totes green. Really really green.

          1. The term “nuke plants” generally refers to nuclear power plants that use nuclear fission to generate energy. Thermal plants are generally referred to as such. I have never heard of the term “nuke plant” used to refer to “isotopic thermal windmill heating installations.”

            Speaking of wind turbine heating:

            https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EuYJuJnXYAYtSk6?format=jpg

                1. And it’s got some weirdass redirector going that messes up external links. So tho it flashed the image, then it went back to the square nothing.

            2. These use COMPLETELY NATURAL Earth minerals that are EXTENSIVELY REFINED AND PURIFIED so as to enhance their NATURAL EMANATIONS, and produce ZERO CARBON while heating up EXTREMELY PURE NATURAL WATER.

              That cogeneration plant over there simply takes advantage of waste heat by running steam through turbines to make electricity.

  28. I do not know if the lizard-people conspiracy theorists really believe there are actual lizard-people manipulating the levers of power. However, I can accept that “lizard-people” as commonly imagined is a damned good metaphor for the fools trying to herd us into the Bidenreich.

  29. “The crash is coming. six months to two years, and I doubt we go to two years,”

    Outside limit is probably the 2022 House elections.
    ~

    1. Suspicion: The fraud (continuing) of the 2022 ‘election’ will be a/the trigger for many who are giving “the benefit of the doubt” (despite their lying eyes….) now.

      Or, to quote a bit from Dr. Strangelove, the Wednesday after the First Tuesday of November 2022 can be summed up:

      “Second safeties.”

  30. “Our likelihood of coming out of this a constitutional republic is still high. Why? Well, because societies under stress become more themselves.”

    More than just that, the collapse will be of national institutions with the country’s firewalls of state governments acting as firewalls. Sure, some states — New York, California, Illinois, Washington and Oregon — will probably collapse but that will not topple neighboring polities. It might even strengthen them, offering a clear example of what can happen if we follow socialist dreams.

    I suspect we would not even face significant foreign threat — several state national guards are probably more combat effective than any foreign military that could reach our shores.
    ~

    2. Any internal collapse or strife scenarios need to take into account what foreign actors may do, particularly ones who are committed to the complete annihilation of the USA, such as Iran., They mean it when they scream “death to America”. Further, those hostile actors will go after allies, particularly Israel (but also Japan, both the Norks and CCP would love them some “payback”) and those conflicts, particularly any attack by Iran or its proxies on Israel, could easily go nuclear.

      If any adversary thinks we won’t enforce our “nuclear umbrella” or will not respond to a direct attack against us, both plausible things to believe given the visceral loathing of the USA by the “America is responsible for the world’s evil” crowd, an aggressive adversary, such as Iran or the CCP, could very well think they could get away with an attack without severe retaliation in response. The civilian and military leadership who would have to engage in such a response are more concerned with enforcing political correctness than defending the USA from such threats. Democrats in Congress certainly won’t vote for war or any other use of force in response to such actions when their track record is that they can’t rush fast enough to condemn the USA. If Israel is involved, I suspect they will issue a statement that basically says “they had it coming” and will privately drink champagne toasts to the destruction of Israel. If they can drink a toast to the diminution or destruction of the USA, they will do that also.

      When they chant, and support those chanting, “no borders, no wall, NO USA AT ALL”, they truly mean “no USA at all”. They want the USA gone so they can replace it.

      1. Democrats in Congress certainly won’t vote for war or any other use of force in response to such actions
        I’m pretty sure I do not agree. It would depend on the severity of “such actions”. Even Democrats in Congress are not entirely oblivious to popular will. If anything, an over-reaction seems at least as likely, since they have no clue what they’re doing. In other words, a “what will make me look tough?” response.

    1. I put it in insty. I put it on Mad Genius Club. I sent it to Behind the Black. I shared it on FB and Me We.
      They made me put down my fracking grudge to defend Baen.
      I am NOT happy.

      1. The reason they are pushing so hard is that they are motivated by hatred and a desire for revenge in a way that makes Captain Ahab seem Vulcan level calm and rational. They don’t want to just rule; they want to see those they don’t like suffer and die.

      2. It is not necessary to abandon your well-merited grudge to defend Baen. It merely requires you want them to suffer for the right reasons.
        ~

  33. Yep. I am fortunate to come from a long line of people who are willing to tell the powers that be, ” You go your way and I’ll go God’s.” I was also trained by strong, conservative theologians and been able to work in areas of the field where conservatives hold a lot of sway.

  35. A quick primer on how to spot a coup:

    https://soylentnews.org/~The+Mighty+Buzzard/journal/7190

    Also, Leslie Fish has another post up with a bunch more timeline and video stuff.

    lesliebard DOT blogspot DOT com

    My cynical little voice opines that the Dems want a new commission to 9/11 (new verb) the Capitol events so they can try to bury the evidence before the evidence buries them.

  36. About that Jan. 06 Whitewash Commission:

    Byron York’s Daily Memo: On that “9/11-Style” commission
    … The public should not have to wait for an investigation to learn how many police officers were injured in the riot, and the severity of their injuries. It should not have to wait to find out the cause of death of Officer Brian Sicknick. It should not have to wait to find out if authorities confiscated firearms from rioters, and, if so, how many and what type. It should not have to wait to learn details of the shooting of Ashli Babbitt.

    The public should not have to wait to learn what officials knew about the possibility of violence before the riot. What did the Capitol Police know? What did the House and Senate Sergeants at Arms know? What did Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy know? Senate leaders Schumer and McConnell? The White House? National Guard officials?

    Americans could, and should, know more about these topics right now. But significant parts of the Capitol riot are now shrouded in official secrecy. And the existence of multiple investigations will only make that worse, giving officials an excuse not to speak publicly because there is an active investigation going on. So before the big commission is formed and begins its work, how about Americans learn some of those basic facts about the riot?

    [SNIP]

    Finally, one last word on the description of the still-unformed commission. It is universally referred to as a “9/11-style” commission. Pelosi undoubtedly likes that because it helps cement in the public’s mind an equivalence between the riot by pro-Trump protesters and the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. In both, Democrats say, terrorists attacked America. But be reasonable. There is simply no comparison in scale, motivation, or anything else between September 11 and January 6.

    In case anyone has forgotten, the September 11 al Qaeda attacks killed roughly 3,000 people, brought down New York’s tallest skyscrapers, destroyed part of the Pentagon, crashed four passenger jetliners, and changed U.S. foreign policy for decades. The January 6 riot led to the so-far unexplained death of one Capitol Police officer, the death of one rioter at the hands of police, the stampeding death of another rioter, and the natural causes deaths of two more. Parts of the Capitol were ransacked, but not seriously enough that Congress could not meet and finish its work on the night of the riot. It was appalling, but nothing like September 11. (To visualize the difference, imagine that, on the night of the 9/11 attacks, there was a convention that went on as scheduled at the World Trade Center.)

    So bring on the investigations. They should be exhaustive. But there are things Americans need to know right now, too.
    ><
    “A man’s admiration of absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.”
    — Alexis de Tocqueville
    ~

    1. It should also be noted that after 9/11, and after every Jihadist attack since, the Democrats have, on those rare occasions they mention the religious fanaticism motivating the attacks, vocally exclaimed “don’t judge all Muslims because of the actions of a few”. When any incident involves someone who is either white, Christian, or conservative, they rush to vocally condemn all whites, Christians and conservatives as being guilty.

      The 9/11 Commission was created to determine how a group of Jihadists attacked the USA. The Pelosi “truth commission” is intended to demonize the 75 million people who voted for trump as terrorists engaged in insurrection and to justify imposing severe restrictions on speech, gatherings, religious practice, etc., and to provide a pretext for the enactment of the “Equality Act” which would essentially eliminate the First Amendment by rewriting the definition of what a public accommodation is, among other things.

      https://pjmedia.com/culture/marktapscott/2021/02/15/deceptively-titled-equality-act-would-be-giant-step-to-destroying-religious-freedom-n1425728#thm-comments

      The LAST thing Democrats want or seek is truth, as reality interferes with the narrative they seek to impose in their will to power.

      1. “The LAST thing Democrats want or seek is truth …”

        The Democrats love them some Truth – cut, trimmed, fitted and tailored to their requirements.
        ~

    2. 3000 dead, that’s a lot of folks dead. Had we known for certain those responsible I believe we would have possibly used WMDs to retaliate.
      15,000 dead is five times as many. A majority of that number died as a result of a political decision by an incompetent governor, and his only defense is to claim that they might have died anyway.
      I’m sure he hopes and prays for the oft quoted short term memory of American citizens. I suspect his hopes and prayers shall not be answered.

      2. They killed 3,000 but their hope was the towers would collapse fast enough to trap all 50,000 people inside and another 50,000 transiting through the major subway station beneath the complex.

        Give them credit for their ambition, not their competency.
        ~

        1. Part of it was that many people were still commuting. If they had realized office hours in America better they would have killed more.

    3. It just came out that Officer Sicknick died of a stroke, instead of being beaten to death with a fire extinguisher which every leftie wokebot on social media has been parroting for the past month. The more light we shine on the incident, the better.

      1. And it turns out that the guy who said he picked up some plastic binders he found laying around in the capitol… really did!

        Sicknick’s announced cause of death is the kind of thing that in a just world would get people in lots and lots of trouble. Unfortunately, the news media is completely blase about this sort of thing. The media’s motto seems to be that even printing completely unsubstantiated gossip is completely fine, and how dare you complain about it when it comes out that their report had no basis in fact? It’s fortunate that the Capitol Security was willing to take the time to confirm whether or not he’d actually been struck by carefully reviewing his path during that mess using the security cameras.

      2. …of a stroke (probably from a blood clot in the lung), secondary to inhaling bear spray or pepper spray (he got nailed twice during the events). Autopsy found NO evidence of blunt trauma.

        So… we’re down to zero deaths caused by the ‘riot’ and one execution by Capitol police.

        1. The arm holding that pistol was wearing a suit, NOT a police uniform. It was one of the internal guards, or one of MaligNancy’s private security goons.

          1. Good point. Tho could have been a higher-up, or one out of uniform for whatever reason. Or that might be misdirection, given he hasn’t been outed (tho there’s a still that’s good enough to narrow it down). Funny how there aren’t any leaks when THEY want to keep something secret.

            1. I think I have heard a comment on some news show implying that his identity is known but has not been cleared for public release. Wasn’t entirely paying attention so I may have over-interpreted the remark.

              Fox, so they probably respect the rules for that sort of publication of information. CNN or MSNBC, if it would damage Trump or the GOP would probably deem it newsworthy enough to make up the info.
              ~

        2. Mmmmmmm … if the stroke was precipitated by exposure to inflammatory spray during the riot his death is at least collaterally due to the riot: had there been no riot he would not have been sprayed and would not have had the stroke.

          Although that is akin to an officer falling down the stairs — only indirectly due to the riot. MSM sure was desperate to associate this death with the riot, wasn’t it? I guess we should thank our lucky stars they didn’t think it necessary to execute one of their own (or did they???) to create the desired victim.
          ~

      3. He went home and came back to work the next day, and died.

        Oh, and that woman who was trampled to death by the crowd? Did. Not. Happen.

  37. True story: the other day I had a nice conversation with a girl about whether the lizard people were transdimensional and going into and out of our time stream to effect their plan across the millennia, and how the second coming might impact this. Her crystal healing exercise might give her some insights.

    She also mentioned she had to take out a restraining order on her neighbor, who’s either a lizard person or having a psychotic break, and everyone around her is likely to be targeted.

    But on the other hand, she’s hot.

    1. *rests gentle paw on Bob’s shoulder [concerned kitty voice]* Do we need to have The Talk about women, crazy, and why one should avoid intimacy with crazy? [end concerned kitty voice]

        1. As I recall the matrix, the crazy-axis starts at 4 and runs to 10.

          I don’t know what the corresponding matrix for men might be, but I would wager the clueless-axis starts at 6 and might not end.
          ~

  38. And occasionally there actually, by accident, IS Truth in Pravda – or at least in the Variety emails:

    View post on imgur.com

    Yeah, since I’m usually the source of typos I should not throw stones, but they have layers and layers of fact-checkers and editors…

    1. I can’t believe anyone with the title of “editor” even exists anymore, given the stuff I read, stuff written for money or not. There certainly isn’t a human who proofreads stuff anymore, just a computer. Of course, it’s fun to think that whoever wrote that has a grudge against Brooke Baldwin. 🙂

  39. “current junta”. Me likey. Been trying to come up with a term that fits what’s been going on. Panic that your opponent creates a historic landslide (yet still loses in the official ballot counting). Scream like a little girl when a bunch of people show up uninvited to your office and put their feet up on your desk–see Columbia University 1968. Decry it as the worst sort of violent treason since, well, maybe Benghazi? Deploy more troops than protected DC during the Civil War and fence off Capitol Row. Issue 40 diktats executive orders overturning every policy of the previous regime you can think of. Attempt to jail exile impeach the head of the previous government. Vow eternal vengeance against all who oppose you. In general, all the signs of a legitimately elected government.

  40. They knew there was truth in Pravda

    Back when I was studying Russian as an undergraduate in the early 70’s, I learned this cynical little aphorism:

    В «Известиях» нет правды, и в «Правде» нет известии.

    In “The News” (the Moscow daily newspaper) there is no truth, and in “The Truth” (Pravda, the CP-USSR newspaper) there is no news.

    2. Oh and I forgot to mention that the name of the Moscow paper is Izvestia

      Transliterated, more or less – V «Izvestiyakh» net pravdy, i v «Pravde» net izvestii.

      It makes a decent pun, and really does sound “better” (FSVO) in the original Russian….

  42. Hmph. Being an ODD – Oppositional, Defiant, and Disorderly – IOW, a typical American – I shall continue to bend spoons whenever I feel like it, no matter WHAT you say. Particularly my aluminum quarter and half teaspoon measuring spoons. Makes it so much easier to get spices out of small glass bottles.

    As for the lizard people, I’m rather agnostic. Haven’t seen one yet, but if and when I do, I’m sure they’ll taste just like chicken.

    1. Look, the China Joe Muppet Show needed him obviously reading from a script for a phone call with “Michelle from California” and they still needed to selectively edit the vid. There’s no frelling way they could script a call with Netanyahu and keep him on it, and if they had him call God-Emperor Xi-the-Pooh he’d probably ask to get more money.

      This also explains why no call to Netanyahu: Dot-not-Black hates her some hebrews.

      1. Exactly what I was thinking. Harris has to make the calls to heads of state. Those are unscripted and it’s clear Joe is no longer capable of unscripted. It would be…instructive…if a foreign head of state publicly asked why s/he was solely talking to the VP and not POTUS. I’d love to see the answer to that one.

  44. “These ass clowns couldn’t conquer Mexico if they tried.”

    The cartels reacting to that would be … instructive.

    1. Thought through the flip side of this, after thinking over a) Baen was not promoting or organizing violence b) Anybody who was planning something would not use that venue, unless they were a glowie. Very intelligent people, who consider contingencies carefully. c) Anyone who thought Barflies were planning political violence would not make a point of doxxing themselves making a public statement about it. d) The only way to take the allegation at face value is if it is from a suicidal idiot. (The guy is almost certainly a knave, a poor debater, and wildly overconfident in bullying others.)

      Americans fought the indians, were not intimidated by the likes of the Comanche, and some of the folks who fought the indians became radicalized in rough customs by the conflict.

      Americans fought the Japanese, were not intimidated by them, and the process of not getting along well with them definitely contributed to things that were done in the Pacific War.

      Cartels been fairly active in at least the American southwest. I’m not seeing much sign that Americans are intimidated, and willing to show the cartels their belly. Tell me that modern Americans are soft, have lost forever, and can be toyed at with impunity. Why should we conclude that this is true?

      1. I was just thinking that crazy Marxist cultists who have no experience of brutal physical violence would have a hard time conquering a country that is run by brutal drug cartels.

        1. Which heavily implies that Marxists would likewise be weak against Americans.

          Strictly speaking, this sort of thing isn’t transitive.

          Anyway, those last posts of mine were way past my bedtime. My incoherence is explained, but not justified.

    2. Does this make a practical difference that we can have a consensus on?

      One of the old test ideas gathering dust in my toolbox is as follows: Pot opens people to being eaten by extradimensional demons. All pot smokers are now actually corpses puppeted, and should be disposed of, instead of treated as being morally human beings.

      So, I have an actual practical reservation about addressing the problem using demon model. That may only be a result of a serious wrong inside of me.

      Saying instead, no, this is actually a result of religious diversity, etc., feels more like something a consensus can be developed from. That we need a religious war for secular reasons, instead of finding some way to develop and enforce a consensus regarding the nature and management of demons.

      1. An in depth answer to your comment would probably be more religious in discussion than I normally like to be on this blog. I don’t want annoy our hostess.

    3. “Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadems. Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth.”

  46. What is…sad, more than anything else, is just how incompetent these people are. I mean, it’s like losing a chess game to a drooling moron. They’re doing everything that causes us to lose what we love and they don’t ever seem to find any joy or satisfaction in it.

    It just means we’ll have to get rid of them without any satisfaction, either.

  47. My mom says the images from the Capitol remind her of when she used to fly into Jakarta with PanAm. It creeps her out.

    And I do not remember who recommended the book about malignant narcissists, but it’s amazingly apropos.

    What Mrs. Hoyt is describing (including her sense of “…yet this is off”) resembles nothing so much as the combination of snake in the grass sneaky revenge combined with panic rages of the extreme narcissist. Speculation, at a time when the narcissist is trying to deal with a relationship partner who has become aware of what an unhappy, horrible and degenerate* person the narcissist is, while other members of the social group are a mixed bag of people in denial and starting to listen to the person who has wised up.

    Fascinating read.

    *the kind if person who ” would feed his own arm into a chainsaw if he could take your pinky with it”

    2. Raises hand. I’ll not repeat the link, but I posted it on the Left and the Mirror Feb 12th

      I feel blessed that the only narcissists somewhat in the family have been excluded by divorce. Had to work with a few–yikes!

  48. I was rereading the FAQ and had a question (slightly tongue in cheek). Is the second American Civil War off topic for discussion?

    1. I thought we already were. The issues surrounding ACW Mk 1.0 (who was agressing whom and why) don’t seem to apply for ACW Mk 2.0 in this corner of the ‘net

    2. I would say that, until and unless actual military hostilities break out, we are not discussing a civil war. Despite many of the current events being scarily similar to those that were precursors of Version 1.0, it is still only a possibility. Although the peak of the probability curve keeps moving towards the right, damn it all.

      Now, pardon me while I soundly whip my inner rules lawyer and stuff him back into his cage.

      2. Your first mistake is thinking that formal military hostilities and institutions are required for a civil war.

  49. Spotted this “too good not to share” item in the NY Post daily quotatios from editorials around the nation:

    The Week’s Matthew Walther: “There aren’t enough people who broadly approve of tax cuts and bombing the hell out of the Middle East and opposing labor unions but don’t like mean tweets to form a new political party.”
    “

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