I Don’t Want To Write This Post

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I got this post in my head, fully written. And I don’t want to type it, because typing it in makes it real.

I do not know where it came from, except perhaps from the fact that over this last year here and on various private groups I’ve seen a lot of you surface. Because you were in one of those marriages where you always cancelled each other’s votes. And it didn’t matter. Because you still agreed on all the important things. Or sometimes, it wasn’t a marriage, but your kids, or your parents. Or your best friend. Or your sibling. As long as you didn’t discuss politics, you pretty much got along great. And if the other person insisted on discussing politics, you could deflect. And then you laughed about it, and went on.

Over the last year, apparently, this has been breaking down.

Weirdly I feel better that it broke down way earlier for me. Some of those break downs — like a friend of decades insisting that I had to listen to her rant about how George W. Bush was going to put all gays in camps or I didn’t “respect” her — propelled my coming out of the political closet with a bang because I couldn’t take the insanity anymore.

And some of them came after that come-out. And specifically after SP3. At this point if I have some remaining friendships on that side of the isle, it’s because I don’t talk to them and they don’t talk to me.

Why do I feel better it broke down way earlier? Well, because most of them don’t know where we live. And I’m no longer on their radar.

Because what I’m hearing about this year from people–

Okay, so here’s the blog post I don’t want to write.

The next American Civil War will be fought in a lot of places, in sudden flare ups and unexpected bursts of rage. But where most casualties will occur is in the home.

America’s civil war will be fougnt many places, but mostly in living rooms: siblings against each other, parents against children, children against parents, husband against wife, wife against husband.

If you live with a convinced leftist, how safe is your life, should the balloon go up?

And before you say “The first civil war was also between brothers!”

Sure, it was. There were mixed families. Mostly upper crust mixed families. But the war was largely a regional war, the country riven on regional lines.

Now? Bah. Now it’s a war of ideology. A war of beliefs.

And a lot of people are sleeping with the enemy, hanging out on weekends with the enemy. Visiting the enemy. Having lunch with the enemy.

At this moment a lot of you are sitting back there and going “My wife/husband/elementary school friend is not an enemy. Sure, he/she/it drank the Marxist koolaid from a hose but in every day life, in our normal interactions, in non-political things, we are very close, the best of friends.”

And maybe you are. Maybe you can trust them with your life.

But I will remind you we live in a nation where the capital is surrounded with razor wire to defend themselves from people who voted for the guy. I will remind you there are troops occupying our capital and that our secret services have so far been corrupted they keep inventing internet conspiracies (or probably referring to their very own black ops) to justify it.

I will remind you that your favorite progressive has allowed himself to be moved from “strong welfare net” to “we need full on communism, with favored races” within the last 12 years (or was indoctrinated into that state in schools.) I will remind you — and the conversations related back to me don’t help me think otherwise — that your favorite leftist thinks you’re racist/homophobic/evil. NO MATTER HOW MANY indications to the contrary.

And I can hear you sniffling: “But I love him/her/it/fuzzy.” Well, yes, and ten years ago that would have been me. I had very good friends I just classed as political idiots. I don’t wish the last 10 years on anyone, but at least they’re not living with me, 90% of them don’t know where I live. And I’ll be out of here in hopefully no more than 4 but maybe ten months, and maybe we have that long. Also, most of my close friends/acquaintances aren’t likely to cause any damage, being…. not the type. On the other hand two dozen of them (easy) are friends with people who WILL.

Now to be clear: do I expect all of you in mixed political families to be in danger?

No. Any number of your spouses, relatives and friends are leftist because that’s “what good people are.” And they will turn on a dime, too, if half the crap about what the left has been doing for the last couple of decades comes out unvarnished and unspun. (The left knows it too. They’re perhaps more scared of these people than they are of us.)

Others are leftist and might hate your guts if things go hot, but simply don’t have it in them to hurt anyone. These are the “slippery” ones, because if you had asked me, even two years ago, if the media and the left (BIRM) could spin these people into wishing death on someone for not wearing a mask, when the person is not sick; there’s no proof of asymptomatic transmission (there’s reports from China but NOWHERE ELSE); and the actual disease (it’s not hard to find) might be a little more lethal than the flu but only at ages past about 80, I’d have said “no. They’re politically insane, but not stupid.” However they are “group oriented.” Turns out the type of gaslighting we’ve been enduring works really well on people who life for other’s opinions. (Which explains whey Southern Europe is still mired in the fricking crazy. Uniformly. And why women in general are more susceptible to the completely irrational gaslighting than men.) And they already believe a bunch of crazy crap. the reason that they think QANON is right main stream, it’s because it’s the mirror image of their actual main stream.

Are you sure they’ll remain inoffensive if the ballon goes up and the gaslighting switches to “If you know a Trump voter, he/she is dangerous?” How about “Turn them in, so they can be sent somewhere nice for their own protection?”

Look, guys, I hope none of this is ever needed. I still have friends on the other side, I’m just not in touch and we work on the very long finger. And there are people I no longer consider friends but whom I like very much who are buying into the entire insane bull excreta of “attempted coup” and evil “white nationalists.”

But like Peter Grant, I think we’re way past the ballot box, and just waiting for a precipitating incident.

Gun and ammo sales say we’re not the only ones.

So what if the balloon goes up. Some of you, even in TX, are trapped behind the ultimate enemy lines. The ones with comfy chairs and kitchens.

So?

Well, there are several things you can keep an eye on:

If your pet liberal starts bringing up politics and not letting you avoid it, chances are they’ll be a danger. This is more so if they accuse you of racism/sexism/homophobia, etc.

If your pet liberal actually starts taking an interest in violence, from advocating it to finding or learning to use the implements of violence.

If your pet liberal thinks he/she/it would be in paradise except for people like you, personally.

I realize most of you don’t WANT to leave, and a good number can’t. But keep a close eye on the situation particularly for escalation of animosity. Keep an eye on the media they consume too. Be aware of how rapidly they are being “weaponized” to destroy anyone who disagrees with them.

What you do then, should you decide that when the balloon goes up you’ll be in present danger ranges from the very simple to the almost impossible.

If your pet liberal is a friend/acquaintance/work friend make sure you have a bug out place they don’t know about. Could be a second house, a friend’s basement, or a rented studio in a place they wouldn’t expect you. Or you know, if you moved recently, get a drop box and be cadgey with where you actually live.

If it’s family it’s more difficult, but we still advise a bug out bolt hole they don’t know about. (Unlike most people, I expect the frenzy to be short lived. Trust me. It points to that.) The bolt hold must be accessible at all times, so if it’s a friend’s basement/spare room — get the spare key, and make sure your pet liberal doesn’t know about it.

If you’re like most of us, you still love your pet liberal.

So if you can’t do either of the above, I recommend you think really hard of ways to neutralize them that won’t permanently hurt them, should they come for you.

Because no one wants to think of the other choice. Me, least of all.

But be aware that the uneasy detente won’t last forever. They won’t let us live and let live. If nothing else 20/21 should have put an end to that illusion.

Sooner or later, the balloon will go up. Be prepared to save yourself, if you can’t save them.

Don’t let your loved lefties jeopardize your survival. And above all don’t let yourself become someone you won’t be able to live with after.

They have a very infantile idea of war and of political cleansing, and they probably aren’t aware most of these were done — in the 20th century — under the guise of “turn in your loved one, so the state can keep him/her safe and reeducate him/her.” I even agree despite their often infantile raging, they mean well.

But we know what the way to hell is paved with, right?

And trust me, people in war, people in unstable situations, and particularly indoctrinated people act in ways you can’t imagine.

Look at the evidence of 20/21 and be prepared. The life you save might be your own.

I didn’t want to write this post, but I had to. If it saves even one life….

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

465 thoughts on “I Don’t Want To Write This Post”

  1. JOSEPH CHUTNEY POGOSTICK, SARAH, DON’T GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK LIKE THAT!

    On the other hand, made the rest of the post much easier to read when my mind went instantly to worst case scenarios.

          1. I can think of other bad things that I won’t even MENTION because… I’m not supersticious, but it’s like it makes folks feed into it, and we don’t need that.

        1. Mommy needs her panic time, so don’t interrupt! 😛

          But yeah, I had a brief “oh, crap” reaction to the title as well. Glad I was wrong.

    3. Yeah, I was expecting something really bad.

      As opposed to the rather obvious and humdrum risks that I’ve already been examining.

      I’ll admit that it is the sort of examination that I have to avoid dwelling on for long, or the experience leaves me paralyzed.

      It is basically a special case of ‘what damage can be done if x’s sanity suddenly declines?’

      1. Mrs. Hoyt is right though. More and more I feel like Mata Hari or one of those women who is trying to humanize herself to her kidnappers in a thriller. Not the reality: the… Whatchamacallit. The vibe.

      2. Sadly I’m leaving my Bug Out place/forever home. My plan is to store what I want to keep, sell the rest, and do some RV travel for a few years.

        My darling liberal wife has a new job that forces me to give up my refuge, not that I want to

        She goes to work now smiling and comes home happy and tired, but she doesn’t understand what I’m giving up, trouble is she just couldn’t continue in her old job any longer. The stress was wearing her down day after day.

        But i can’t deal with the consequences

        I’m giving up the house I’ve remodeled with my own hands, the custom kitchen we had built by a master carpenter who was an artist in wood.

        My pistol and rifle ranges… the tractor and implements that built my driveways and maintained the private road connecting to the ciunty…. my junk car and boat projects, and a lifetime collection of cameras, ham radio gear, and stuff for a dozen hobbies I’ve revisited now and then.

        Having said that, it is probably a good thing. Having no fixed address, traveling to family who are my political fellow travelers, and seeing the few states I haven’t yet visited.

        Keeping my head down, and staying anonymous, and moving on before i wear out my welcome…

        It’s a new, to us, world with the Social Justice Bullies taking charge… but we’ve seen it happen many times in recent history… just not in the US.

        Being mobile for a bit might keep me out of trouble, or put where I’m needed, who knows?

  2. I’m just stick of all this bigotry. Fortunately there are people willing to speak out against oppression:

    1. I think in the end that the 4 Chan bros will save the world. They have the time, the talent, and the inclination. in re., our hostess’s post, 4 Chan makes a good shibboleth. The lefties think 4 Chan are all incel lunatics and while there are a great many incel lunatics there, I think more of them are like my son and my son-in-law very smart boys who are cursed to see clearly with a well developed sense of the absurd.

      2. 4chan also makes good mockery, sometimes too good. The seriousness with which the woke treated the “It’s okay to be white” and “Islam is right about women” signs was so revealing it was frightening.

        As is the fact both Urban Dictionary and Google are censoring Blue-Anon.

        1. Mockery, yes. But sometimes it is simply following the trail of evidence to its logical conclusion. The “fight” “evil” and recognize no excesses, only momentary overreach.

          I expect, as things stand now, there is very little they will not dare, defile, and destroy to achieve their escahton.

          1. If the escahton, Heaven on Earth, is achievable is their any moral limitation to what can be justified to achieve it?

            That is a serious question. I suspect their are good arguments that no, there are not. That is why the idea of the perfectibility of man is so dangerous and I cannot think of a religion outside the Marxist faiths that endorses that it can be achieved en mass, but only on a personal level (and even that is limited in many faiths to requiring an external actor to achieve).

        1. That’s because we are the kids who wanted to keep score at soccer/football/basketball and thought a game was pointless if you didn’t.

          They are the people who wanted the participation trophy for just signing up and not even participating.

      2. Because their whole identity is one of being a “caring” person.

        (It doesn’t help that two old old ways of gaming the system are to poke ones nose into other people’s business while claiming to have been dragged into it, and to drag other people into participating in ones business while claiming that they’re poking their noses in.)

    4. My favorite freak out so far has been one yelling this isn’t legit; you’re just doing it to mock us and make us hurt.

      So, so close in the first part and so so far in the second.

  3. People used to wonder why we called it “Tiny Town, Texas” instead of its actual name. I see you’re not wondering anymore.

    1. Yes!

      (Is it now the SW Texas Pilots, Writers and Shooters association? Asking for a friend.)

      1. Hum, the SWTPWS association?

        Think I’ve heard of it, suspect it’s a bit like our Mid-Alaska River Boaters, Pilots, Mushers, Trappers, Writers, Hunters, & the Shucky Darn, of course I go out at fifty below in a tee shirt to watch the aurora association.

        Our official motto is, If you’re gonna be a bear, be a grisly bear (Our unofficial motto is, Here, Hold Mt Beer.)!

        What’s theirs?

        1. I realize I’m thinking of a different kind of bear, but I did wonder how many of my acquaintances count as “grisly bears” and what would that require. 🙂

      2. Well, still named North Texas Pilots, Writers, and Shooters… but funnily enough, the auxiliary members seem to now be all the way to Houston, as they come for dinner. Although I’ve been informed that there’s going to be a rival organization formed, the Southwest Texas Writers, Makers, and Shooters association, and that we’re going to be meeting for rival gang throwdowns “beta read this! check out what I made on the 3-D printer! We brought food!”

        …and I’m entirely okay with this. 🙂

        1. I’m just very glad that the on-line attendees do not have readily accessible addresses. NE Oklahoma writers, butchers and shooters association sounds good too. Gooood food! 🙂

        3. You’re making me really want to move home.

          Given at this point I do not believe we’re ever going back to the office, maybe I should talk to C about it.

            1. At this point we’ve pretty much been told it we won’t return this year, although officially we’re just waiting a 30 day notice for our group (but their are three groups ahead of us on the same wait and the one that was told “June” has now been told 4th quarter at best).

              Apparently my employer likes paying for empty offices.

    2. Heck, for the last 20 years I’ve been told I’m obviously acting in bad faith by using a pseudonym. (nevermind that it makes me EASIER to find, online, than my name would– as evidenced by the very many social media folks I meet who think I’m someone else entirely)

      Out of their ever loving minds, I swear.

      1. I’m not sure I ever used my real name online (hmm, might want to check that ancient mailing list), though there’s usually a part that resembles my real name. Usually.

        I’ve tried to get better at OPSEC as the years go on. They might call it paranoia; me, I just call it looking at the Portland news.

      2. I used to use my real name, but early web forum software really wanted you to use handles, given “no spaces or punctuation characters and 10-letter name limit.”

      3. I suspect I’ve given enough information out over the years for even a casual search to find me IRL, but searching for my handle (unless you know where I post) will get you hundreds of pages of razor blade advertisements.

      4. I actually own the bloody domain that matches my pseudonym (which I’ve used, with minor variants, so long [27 years] that it doesn’t occur to me not to). Yeah, I’m hiding out in plain sight!

      5. I’ve had a bunch of handles, but have narrowed it down to just one, PulpHerb (except here where I’m still herbn). Actually, some place like the Big Purple, haven’t updated, but that’s because I left them behind (the Woke took over TBP long ago).

        Yeah, I can be found IRL. Maybe a year ago I’d have been bothered. Now that every day is bonus time I can’t worry about it. I’ll have lived long enough to be here to fight when the time comes. I may not get the famous eulogy I wanted, but I suspect I’ll at least be worthy of the verse that was so prominent at my brother’s funeral nearly five decades ago, 2 Timothy 4:7.

      6. Yeah. Only sneaks and dirtbags would use a pseudonym. Like Mark Twain, Andre Norton, Ann Landers, Anne Rice, Anthony Boucher, Dr. Seuss…

        2. … Richard Bachman (Stephen King), Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling), Publius, William Shakespeare, Homer, and the most prolific of them all: A. Nonymous!
          ~

    3. Yeah, here on Earth when I don’t want to be pegged, it’s the Northern Wastes. (Most of the time I don’t care, being now in a reasonably invulnerable position.)

      Officially, tho, I live in Brendansport on Sagitta IV.

      1. Or paying more attention over the life of the blog – I did spend a few months in Louisiana while I was commenting here a few years ago. 😉

  4. I think that the people who are really true believers of the leftist Woke religion are actually a small percentage of the population (and a lot of them seem to be on Twitter). But the lock that the Wokists have on the communication megaphones exaggerates it to the max. I’m crossing my fingers that somehow someway a preference cascade starts that turns the casual Wokists sane. Not holding my breath though.

  5. Sarah, please research thoroughly, “georgenews”. Q IS a real military op, whether it’s good or bad is what I don’t know. I researched this whole time past Jan 20th and that is my conclusion. Here is a link to their telgram channel:
    https://t.me/s/georgenews

    1. Q is a false front.

      Our authoritarians are script kiddies.
      “There’s a cabal of high level officials who are preparing to deal with this corruption and unrest. Trust the plan. Keep your head down. Don’t interfere.”
      Is a script that was used before Russian parents reassured each other “if only the Tsar knew”.
      They’re not very competent.
      But their predecessors were, and left them a whole lot of if-then sequences.

      2. No, Q is real and the Trump team are very clearly in on it. Whether Trump himself is, I don’t know. I also am not sure if they are good or bad. I’m hoping for the best, though.

        1. So what proof, other than equally anonymous accusations, do you have evidence that supports your accusation?

    2. I did say they are black ops. I.e. in control of our government and secret services, which actually means in the control of the left and deep state.

      1. Yeah, I wasn’t referring to anything in particular, just trying to inform you of my findings.

  6. If anyone here feels the need to get out of wherever you are now, and would consider east Tennessee as a place you’d like to go, I’ll be happy to help you find some possibilities for property. Just contact me on MeWe (Douglas Loss), or let me know here and I’ll figure out a way to get in touch with you.

    2. Thank you for the kind offer! I have family where I’m stuck, but if things get bad (well, worse, CA is always bad), I may drop you a line.

    3. I’m glad you posted this – we were thinking of retiring there as it is a better political climate then GA, NC or SC – glad this is still true

  7. Thank you for your thoughts!
    I have a child who is firmly entrenched in all of the leftist “news” about the past administration and a full on believer in “orange man bad”. A child who actually posted a video of a burning voter registration card in 2016 because “Bernie was done wrong” (he was) and the left wound up with Killary, but who beat feet to a the closest voting center in haste to defeat said orange man – the ONLY reason a vote was cast, mind you. A child who will argue politics with me and point out how right BLM is to fight the man and the po po because people of color are unfairly targeted and murdered by law enforcement. A child who will go above and beyond to research candidates with similar political views, but who will regurgitate whatever current news story espousing the evil of conservatism without confirming even the slightest detail. As a mother, it’s heartbreaking for me to experience the rending of a parent/child relationship, but it seems inevitable at this point. Again, your words affirm the schism that is coming and goad me into making life altering decisions about the bit of future left to me.

      1. Indeed. On the other hand, 2nd child wanted to attend a private, parochial school and has completely differing opinions from first child.

    2. It hurts my heart to read of situations like this. I wish I knew how to help.

      “Son-daughter, I will always love you, but I cannot agree with your hate-filled invective against decent folks. Do you realize that you’re talking about me as well? Please consider coming back to the side of light. I will be waiting for you there, now and forever.” -_-

    3. Sounds exactly like my leftist friends.

      Fortunately for me, none are painfully close, and none really knows where I live.

    5. Write them out of the will and the beneficiary list now, I did. I have 3 kids, the leftist one started out on the right side but married a lefty. He will not speak to me now. I’m leaving everything I have to the other 2.

  8. Yeah, the title was scary.

    One of the reasons why we moved to Flyoverland, Oregon was to get away from pet liberals. $SPOUSE was registered Dem, but not liberal. (Hey, so was I until the ’82 Cali elections and “we’ll take your excess* guns if this passes” initiative.) Eventually she shifted to the VWRC and we’re both Trump supporters (showing four middle fingers to the GOPe).

    Right now, the only liberals we know either don’t have our physical addresses (though could be discovered–not going to mention methods) and/or we’re too bloody far away. I’m too gimped up to do anything if the balloon goes up right now, but I plan to work my butt off to rectify that as soon as I can.

    When I physically can, the ham station (partially stealthy) will go up to improve non-internet comms. I have the pieces, now waiting for the ability. (One nice thing on licensing; the FCC requires a mailing address, not necessarily a physical address.)

    We’re far enough from likely random gangs of trouble makers, and I suspect situational awareness/paranoia is considerably higher than the great antifa/arson tantrums last fall. Rules of engagement haven’t been loosened. Yet.

    We’ve bought some time. I hope it’s enough.

    (*) As defined by the authors.

    1. Consider buying a GMRS (can be gotten relatively cheaply), licensing is merely a matter of paying for the GMRS license ($70). It covers ALL your household. Easy to use (similar to the walky-talkies). Great for neighborhood watch, short-distance practice/training, and working with a local group of allies.
      Many more channels, and privacy channels (use encoding, can easily be changed).
      I recommend these, as they are cheap, need to special training regimen to get started, and lend themselves to being used with informal groups.

      1. One of the people in a leadership position is also a ham. Need to discuss with him. I have a leftover radio from my days on a rural FD. Pretty sure it can be persuaded to run simplex on 2 meters (handhelds won’t go terribly far in our valley, but should be Good Enough for tactical purposes). Must review the manual, too. I need to see about spare battery packs if I go that way.

        We used a couple of FRS cheapies several years ago, but privacy was an issue.

        Short term, I’m not quite bedridden, but am spending 20+ hours per day in The Comfy Chair. What I can do once physical therapy starts will guide a lot of the nearterm future. Pretty clear that I won’t be auguring the support hole for the ham station’s antenna for a month or three. (Or longer; the tools are heavy, and climbing on the tractor is now an aspirational goal,)

        1. Important tip: Let your physical therapists know what your aspirational goals are. When they don’t know, they generally default to trying to get you back to “average”. If you don’t want average to be your limits when you’re done, give them harder goals. It’ll suck four times as much at physical therapy, and you come out ten times stronger, flexible, and more capable. .

          1. At one time, my legs were quite strong, though the right knee took some dmge from earlier mishaps. I’m already expecting PT to suck, so what’s 4X. I probably can do it.

            Thanks for the tip!

      2. If I have neighbors I trusted (given the number of “Burn-Murder-Loot, just not my house” signs with the occasional “We believe all these things including science is real except that women exist part” for leavening, I don’t) it would be on the list. Then again, if that was true I’d have six AR-15 style long arms chambered for 5.56 instead of .223 and ammo for two regular load-outs per person (a man of means should be ready and able to arm at least a squad of his fellow citizens if the unorganized militia is needed).

            1. >> “It allows you to attach to the military supply chain.”

              That’s something I hadn’t thought of in my gun purchases. Does the entire military use only 5.56? What else should I know in case I need to get supplies from the troops?

              1. The big thing I know about is AR-15 chambered for .223 instead of 5.56mm cant take the pressures military load develop. The round themselves should fit both weapons.

                People with people knowledge will probably expand and corrrect that.

      3. Please be aware that “privacy codes” or “privacy channels” ONLY determine if you can/cannot hear others on the same frequency, they do NOT, in any way, provide you with privacy.

  9. The Lockdown has put society under great pressure, exacerbated by multiple factors beyond listing. It will NOT end well.
    ~

    1. No, it won’t people are being wound up by the lockdowns to an incredible degree – and I don’t think they can stand much more.
      I have three siblings, two of whom and my mother have all drunk the Koolaid full-strength, although one of the inlaws may be a secret conservative. They are all in California, and when and if the balloon goes up …
      For myself, in Texas, I think we’ll be OK. I’m tight with most of my neighbors, although two of them are ostentatiously progressive. All the rest are pretty conservative. A while ago, my daughter and I skulled out how we would organize our friends in the neighborhood to fort-up, barricade and guard the entrances.

        1. Foxfier sadly your anology has some issues. Lent has a purpose in the liturgical year. And it has a known end. And here ~2000 years later (paraphrasing a preacher I heard long ago) we know things look dark and ugly on Good Friday afternoon but hold on Sundays a Coming! But in this case there seems to have been little purpose to this after the first few weeks other than to show who’s the boss, With the FICUS and his replacement running things it isn’t clear if they’ll let go or if they do let go if they won’t find another issue (Like Perhaps domestic Terrorism). Listening to 1984 lately. Dang but Mr. Orwell was more prescient than Nostradamus. The words and ideas he puts in the mouth of Emmanuel Goldstein in the guise of the Book ring far to true to make me comfortable.

          We know there is a Sunday coming, but this time we don’t know when, we’ve waited 2000yrs so far. It could be 20 minutes from now or 20 millenia. In the here and now things are very ugly, and honestly I’m a coward and not ready to go the martyrs route.

          1. Foxfier sadly your anology has some issues. Lent has a purpose in the liturgical year.

            I suspect, though, if people were forced to go through Lent without being grounded in and accepting the purpose of the observance, they might not think well if it. And I wonder how many have left the Catholic Church over that very issue.

            And I’ll point out, the lockdown has its own purpose, though not the one stated by those imposing it. I think the analogy to a religious observance being forced upon those who don’t agree might be on point.

            1. Especially Odds, quite possible. I suspect my mom may have been bitten by it, she was very careful with us.

              The connection in my head is that it’s an offering to a false god– not an expression of love/effort to Himself, but to “nice.” For lack of a better word.

              Our big girls are very into Lent, this year– because they are BIG GIRLS. Not like their brother, he isn’t old enough. They get to give something up, like mom and dad do- and on Sunday, they can have it, then they have to work to remember not to even ASK for it again. (They’re doing really well, honestly.)

          2. Not exactly an analogy, more an unlabeled call-back to “always winter, never Christmas.”

            I am feeling gut-shot over a second year in a row where we have no public Easter.

            We are an Easter people– Hallelujah is our song— and we’re coming up on a year of that being smothered.

            Thye won’t win, any more than the Witch could; but it worries me.

            1. This devastates me particularly as well. “He is Risen! He is risen, indeed!” Thousands of voices together proclaim.

            3. To reference a slightly later story in the line from Narnia
              “I’m a beast, I am, and a Badger what’s more. We don’t change. We hold on.”
              — Trufflehunter from Prince Caspian

              Last year we had no easter service but online. This year we’ll be having a sunrise (all right 8am we lied 🙂 ) service on the lawn outdoors where we can sing including “Lo in the grave he lay” with this chorus:

              Up from the grave He arose,
              With a mighty triumph o’er His foes
              He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
              And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
              He arose! He arose!
              Hallelujah! Christ arose!

              Tried to find a performance of that I liked, but everyone takes the chorus with too slow a tempo and
              at say Forte volume. IT should be FFF+ at about quarter note = 100 and should make the space echo/ring because it is joyous in contrast to the verse which should be quiet and slow.

          3. I’ve had homilies where the priest pointed out that Lent lasts forty days, and the Easter season lasts fifty. . .

          4. In all fairness, my cat reading the entrails of a chipmunk he’s just killed is more prescient than Nostradamus.

            Orwell, now, Orwell is trending damn close to an Oracle and maybe even a Prophet.

            1. Orwell, now, Orwell is trending damn close to an Oracle and maybe even a Prophet.

              –
              Only because they are using Orwell’s works as “How To” manuals, not the warning his works are suppose to be. Pretty sure (don’t know the works well enough) that we should be glad they are not using Nostradamus predictions as their how to manuals; making them come true …

              1. Well, sort of. Orwell cribbed from the actual “how to” manual of Marxism for his books.

              2. I’m not sure they could made Nostradamus come true.

                Don’t want to find out.

                As for using Orwell, it is said the best way to be an accurate predictor of the future is to create it.

                1. I’m not sure they could made Nostradamus come true. Don’t want to find out.

                  –
                  Exactly!

      2. I dunno, maybe my levels of tension, etc. are normal for me…

        (I’m nuts, but it isn’t always clear to me that my current levels are unusual.)

    2. Seen on roomate’s little Alexa screen a few minutes ago…

      “Texas cities scrambling after governor lifts mask and capacity mandates”

      or something like that

      the only thing they’re scrambling to do is to get all the extra setas back in the restaurants and to pull the tables away from the bars, and make sure they have enough booze and food for friday and saturday night.

      Please ignore the financial results from Texas for the next few months.

  10. I stopped all contact with an acquaintance even before the pandemic started. The flash point occurred when she was dropping me off at my home after we saw a concert. I don’t even remember what kind of conversation we had that prompted her to say it, but she mused that in the end, America sucked. Why she thought that was because she was a big supporter of Greta Thundberg and global warming. She was vehemently opposed to fracking, even as her son worked in that field and tried to explain to her that it was not what its critics said it was. I mentioned that Greta Thundberg’s parents were using her big time to the tune of millions of dollars from the European Union. Her response was that Greta’s parents were “artists” and they were all working together in concert or something to get the message across. I had to get out of the car before I lost my temper. Needless to say, around the election, I blocked her (among a lot of other people) on Facebook because I didn’t even want to see all the ridiculously stupid opinions she was sure to have as a result. My attitude is that she has lots of other friends (political opinions unknown), so she isn’t going to miss me. I don’t care. She’s one of those that when presented with evidence to the contrary, she still believes the lies. I’m certainly not going to change her mind, but I’d love to be a fly on the wall when one of her friends calls her out with a non-Leftist opinion.

    1. One of the reasons I’ve quit following, but didn’t block people or unfriend people on FB. Not following means I don’t have to see every little item they post, but I can sneak in and checkup on some of the idiocy to catch that moment they get their swatting from further left field or even a non-Leftist opinion. Key is to not post. As far as affecting my posts or comments, it won’t. I never have posted anything more controversial than stuff about the 4 footed furry junior citizens. Heck even posting about our newborn/infant/toddler, is coming 30 years after the fact (as in look what we are having scanned). All my comments or more controversial posts are through private groups that will not show on my timeline. Even the less private groups, like the National Park ones, the comments are limited to that topic. The one group I started for extremely extended family matters related to the historical family graveyard, is for discussing that topic only. Any political discourse is warned then deleted (“Not the time. Not the place. Sorry.”) Is it possible some unfollowed might show up on one of the same private groups? Possible, yes. Likely? Not a chance. Not without a major attitude adjustment.

      This is not a recent change. Never have posted our life to FB.

  11. I was thinking about this after I woke in the middle of the night. Not this specifically, but how to handle the room clearing argument with everyone. I should be ok. I have a bolt hole or two if I need it. Although I am firmly behind enemy lines, my wife is a moderate and doesn’t follow the news and I can deal with the rest. I’ll be alright. The rest of you? Watch your backs.

  12. When you see PSAs saying basically “Call them in, it’s for their own good!” you’ll know they are dogwhistling towards people already thinking about dropping a dime on their own family members to the 认为警察.

    2. I consider the recent preponderance of new red flag legislation nothing more than a back door attempt at citizen disarmament. These laws where enacted give tremendous power for your leftist idiot cousin, child, as tenuous as a former friend to claim to feel threatened and so strip you of any and all firearms until you prove otherwise. Which in these times, depending on your local law enforcement organization, might be nigh on to impossible, certainly not timely.
      And the joker who dropped the dime? Tremendous feelings of justification and virtue. Doing good works by eliminating the threat of one more conservative.

      1. Bingo. Sooner rather than later, merely quoting one of the founding fathers in public will get you red-flagged by some smirking leftist filth.

        “… what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. …. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” – Thomas Jefferson

        1. Hmmm, I should have checked for extraneous apostrophes before coping and pasting that quotation from a random website. In my feeble defense, I’m distracted by an aching tooth destined to meet the tender mercies of a dentist later today. ^^;)

  13. Pingback: I DON’T WANT TO WRITE THIS POST | NC Renegades

  14. This is why I worked so frantically last year and this to move out of where I’d been living AND get the house sold off. The dubious relatives in my family now have nothing but a post office box for our address, and there is absolutely no more reason for them to contact us or meet us in person.

    One of my siblings is a police dispatcher. The other’s a writing coach; I have no idea of his armament/armed acquaintances status. But both are committed progressives, apparently absolutely convinced I’m the source of everything that went wrong in their lives. Ugh.

    1. > apparently absolutely convinced I’m the source of everything that went wrong in their lives.

      My brother did that. I never did find out what he thought I’d done, or not done. But the crazed threats he was making before he cut off communications permanently are why I started carrying a gun.

      1. The list is apparently long and varied. But the two most recent – that still make me purely see red – was 1) “it’s your fault mom wasn’t diagnosed until late-stage, and you can just spend the rest of your life taking care of her, that’s not our responsibility.”

        And then 2) “Oh, you want to sell the house and split it equally? Too bad, you won’t sell it until we say so – here, we’ll pay you 1/3 what it’s worth and then we’ll stop harassing you with a lawyer.”

        Money-wise, they won. But at least that’s the last legal entanglement and I can never see them again.

        2. Money-wise, they won. But at least that’s the last legal entanglement and I can never see them again.

          With people like that escaping them is the one and only win, even if that means paying out the nose for it.

          Getting 1/3rd worth is a glowing super-win.

            1. Congratulations! May they quickly find someone else to blame their filings on!

            2. Do be careful though. I had a branch of the family like that and even after milking me for everything they could get it was never enough. The only way to put and end to their countless trips back to that well was to demonstrate forcefully that any further contact would result in a legal and just perhaps physical retaliation.

        3. Here’s to freeing yourself from their claws, and clambering all the way out of the crab bucket! To freedom, to the dawn of a new day!

    2. You may want to consider, for the long-term, durable power of attorney and health care proxy. So that if something goes wrong, they don’t go looking for them.

      1. I appreciate the advice, but she passed last August, after I’d been stuck on 24/7/365 live-in care for about 6 years straight. Because if I didn’t do it, my brothers threatened to charge me with felony elder abuse. They would have done it, and I had no money or friends who would have hired a lawyer for me. Meaning I would have ended up broke, in prison, and with a felony record once I got out.

        There was one about 6-month stretch near the end where I was living on less than 5 hours sleep a night, and that usually broken into 2-hour chunks. It did not – quite – kill me.

        I was lucky. She finally assaulted me, and we could get the cops involved and her into full-time care for about the last half-year of her life.

        I and my one sane sibling have been doing all the cleanup, probate (someone dying intestate sucks), taking care of her dog, etc. since.

        …Yes, we ended up paying for the probate and our brothers skated on that bill too. Ugh.

        I’ve been looking around for the past year-plus and wondering how on earth the whole country seems to have gone mad the way my family is.

        1. She means for you, and the sane sibling.

          Sometimes they ignore it– like that infamous case where the dad did a Christmas eve hostage situation because they were going to harvest is son’s organs, and when the police doc got in there he started a search for the missing patient because it was obvious that the guy in the bed was not brain-dead, even if the estranged wife and her favorite son had signed off on the organ harvesting.

          It’s still something, though.

        2. Yes, we ended up paying for the probate and our brothers skated on that bill too. Ugh.

          –
          ???

          Granted mom didn’t have to worry about her siblings being insane, and grandparents had a Will (I think). But, despite their being destitute (creditors got something like $.10/$1 owed). The estate, what there was of it, had to pay the probate costs. Which was all court costs, legal costs, executors percentage, including any legal fees to liquidate anything saleable (property essentially). Mom did have a lawyer (retired but friend of mom and dad’s) before their creditors saw a dime. (Did they howl. I answered the phone at mom’s a few times. Legally they couldn’t call. They were suppose to call the Lawyer. I hollered back a few choice words, including threatening to trigger elderly abuse charges on them for calling mom, she was 70, before telling them to call the lawyer.

          Note. Oregon … Douglas County and Lane County got involved before all done. Lane because Drain meant grandparents were transported to Cottage Grove and Eugene, not Roseburg, when things finally went critical. There was some talk about Lane County filing on Douglas County for elderly abuse because Douglas County threatened extended family with elderly abuse if family interfered with grandparents living situation … didn’t want to leave their home, despite the conditions. Granted, for financial reasons this was good. It was crystal clear no financial obligation by anyone else, but still …

          if I didn’t do it, my brothers threatened to charge me with felony elder abuse. They would have done it, and I had no money or friends who would have hired a lawyer for me. Meaning I would have ended up broke, in prison, and with a felony record once I got out.

          –
          ???

          I can’t fathom. This is slavery. I can see it happening. Dang. I can see how people get dumped into nursing homes, ability to pay or not.

          1. Legally speaking, because someone died intestate, there was no “estate” until probate was filed to deal with it. My sane sib and I had to pay a lawyer for that. It was not cheap.

            Once that went through – and yes, my brothers threw a fit and threatened to contest – all that was left was a pile of family photos and a hoarder-trashed house. And the dog. At which point, by state law, the estate ceased to exist and each surviving sibling got an equal % of the house.

            Which our brothers then fought us on selling. For months. Leaving us responsible for all bills associated with the house – legally they should have paid their % of those, but we were the ones the city had easy access to, so guess who got stuck?

            Finally one of them bought the rest of our shares out at about 1/3 market value. I would have liked to have had the money, not to mention payback for the bills, but getting away from the crazy was more important.

            And yes. Yes it was. I started self-publishing because I literally had no other way to make even a small amount of money under the circumstances. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough that I could pay the legal fees necessary to clean everything up at the end. Hoping to get back to full speed on that once I stop twitching so much.

            I honestly wish I could tell myself I was adopted. Alas, they are genetically related to me. I seem to have gotten the not-crazy genes, at least. Or, well, writer. Less crazy and moderately functional.

            And you don’t know the half of it. We had to warn the nursing home, because she was not just violent but manipulative and nasty. Think of someone physically healthy, with a full working muscle memory of judo, and dementia.

            Even catching the WuFlu and being down for the count over a month, last year was a better year for me than the past 6.

            1. At which point, by state law, the estate ceased to exist and each surviving sibling got an equal % of the house.

              Which our brothers then fought us on selling. For months. Leaving us responsible for all bills associated with the house – legally they should have paid their % of those, but we were the ones the city had easy access to, so guess who got stuck?

              Finally one of them bought the rest of our shares out at about 1/3 market

              –
              Guessing even 1/3 value (based on where I think you are at) was better than telling the city “Here is the keys.” and just run walk away.

              Honestly? The biggest shock we got with grandparents place (hoarding was also a factor) was there was some value to deal with. Drain Oregon property isn’t worth what Portland property values are. We figured go in clean out personal (old family film canisters, family pictures, grandpa’s paintings – not selling artist, not worth anything except to family) items. Then tell the county, bank, and everyone else … here, fight over it. Property was worth something over what they owed. Do not ask how a pair of nearly 90 year olds got a mortgage, guess early ’00 should tell you something. They died ’06. Thankfully neither of mom’s siblings are idiots. Mom did take the first offer. Exactly what it was worth (not an expert, but IMO more than property was worth). Sis tried to insist that it was worth more. Sure. If you put another $60k into it. The person who bough the property paid $100k, put $50k – 60k into (per rumor), it sold for $150k (if she didn’t lose money, she sure didn’t make any). The people to bought it lost it to the bank. By Zillow reports it recently resold for $130k after sitting vacant and overran by vegetation for almost 10 years. It isn’t worth that in that area. Not even with a (very good) well (which after 10 years, couldn’t have been working), septic tank, 2.75 acres, in an area with 5 acre minimum (grandfathered). House needed tearing down ages ago.

              1. Actually, legally, we were tenants in common, so could not walk away without getting a lawyer involved and racking up more legal bills in any case.

                And good on your Mom for taking that first offer. One reason we bit the bullet and took 1/3 was otherwise one of the brothers wanted to “fix it up”. You want to take a stab at how much that would have cost?

                (Hint: More money than I have ever seen in my life. Ever.)

                And legally we might have been on the hook for their contractors’ bills if we were still part-owners!

        3. What you and the sane sibling want is to ensure that if someone happens to either of you, they don’t track down your brothers.

  15. I have had a certain amount of success with family members, simply by pointing out what it is that they’re supporting. Book banning, censorship, the outright racism of CRT brainwashing, and the overt attempts to eliminate voter fraud-prevention measures are all so obviously evil that just stringing all those things together without the lefty euphemisms that usually accompany them at least makes people stop and think. I have made sure to work in the idea that down this road, they will have to make a choice about whether I have any rights at all–something that really never occurred to them.

    Granted, these are the kind of lefties who are lefties because that’s what “good people” think, but they’re also the kind of people who might turn me in thinking that it’s for my own good. Making them take ownership of their beliefs is the first step to bringing them back into civilization.

    1. Mom was going a bit lefty and at the time of the Stormy Daniels (and Creepy Porn Lawyer) accusations eagerly mentioned she was going to watch the 60 minutes interview. I responded with a rhetorical hand grenade and mentioned Juanita Broadrick’s rape accusations against Slick Willie Clinton.

      That stopped political discussion cold, and politics *never* have come up since. Since she lives in Illinois, I’ll take that as a major effect. We still talk, but I think setting that boundary was important.

      1. For too long, I thought that shutting them up was a win. But they never stopped believing that I’m morally inferior, and they were/are on a course which would lead to them doxxing me or calling the thought police on me. I don’t need them to shut up about their beliefs, I need them to examine the evil being enabled by their beliefs. I think I have made a small start toward that.

        1. I don’t think Mom is in a position to cause me trouble, and the relatives who might be are usually on the “Hi, Uncle, howzitgoing?” level of discourse. Physical separation can be helpful. Rough guess, the last sort-of-serious political discussion that went on was about 7 years ago (mostly on how Cook county got completely overtaken by the Chicago-oid progs).

    2. Nielthelesser-

      Do you have any specific pointers/references to illustrate what actions the left is taking that are objectionable when stripped of their wrappings? I suspect this technique will work with some of my relatives too, but there’s at least one who, while no leftist, does hear some of their rhetoric and listens the sales pitch for equality and decent treatment, without thinking through the why and how. And honestly some of the official goals, things like equal opportunity, are ok, even laudable, it’s the methods that are objectionable.

      1. Reduced border security massively enabling the child sex trade, for one.

        Dividing people by race and *creating* a white identity where none existed before

      2. How can the school tell whether some random boy is an ‘honest trans’ or just a common perv seeking a free ticket to the girls locker room?

        Why do the Leftroids never mention such concerns?

        1. Because promoting perving is one of their big things?

          Same way that I was harassed by the other girls for being a virgin, and NOT wanting to shower with 15 strangers even if we had just spent at least five minutes in mild jogging.

          1. They’re evangelical nihilists, spreading their entropic gospel that will somehow (step 2: ????) achieve prophet: that heaven-on-earth that comes when all the taxpayers, white people, straight people, and folks that just wanted to be left alone are all gone forever. It is instructive to note which demands you *do* a thing: use the pronouns, bake the cake, say the words and whatever else self-flagellation they require, and which simply asks that you make sure your actions harm none but yourself.

          2. >> “Same way that I was harassed by the other girls for being a virgin”

            Heh. I wonder how those same girls would react to a casual mention that you’ve popped out 6 kids now.

            “What, you’re only up to two? You need to get laid more.”

            1. *shudder* They go nuclear.

              I know you’re making a joke, and it’s actually a good one, but holy freak they’re NUTS.

              Hard core, flaming, drooling, spitting nuclear.

              Especially the ones who were telling me I’d never get laid or that I was clearly homosexual, since I wasn’t sleeping with anything with a Y.

              In fairness, my family figured I’d be an old maid– but they accepted when I found my match.

              These crazies… I did “everything” wrong, so why do I “get” to be happy, when they did “everything right” and are miserable?

            2. There’s also that they absorbed the whole “Safe sex means you don’t have offspring” thing, which makes me having kids a sign of failure.

              Because, y’knw, the reproductive act resulting in reproduction means it didn’t work right. -.-

              1. I have literally seen a leftist say that it is ALWAYS wrong to not use contraception.

                Herein lives wisdom, beauty and increase:
                Without this, folly, age and cold decay:
                If all were minded so, the times should cease
                And threescore year would make the world away.

              2. And then you grind their faces into it.

                How many do you know know the fathers of?
                How many are on Ritalin or other state-mandated drugs?
                How many already have an arrest record?
                How many have done their first stint in juvie?
                How many are diagnosed with ADD, “defiance disorder”, etc.?
                How many are in “special” educational tracks?
                How many are you collecting state benefits for, for any of the above?
                How many have been removed from your care due to neglect or abuse?

                I’m guessing “none” across the board.

                Your very existence is an affront to them. And they’d be just as happy to take it out on your children as they would you.

        2. Why do the Leftroids never mention such concerns? Because they cannot imagine anyone lying about such a thing.
          ~

          1. Yes they can. When a fifth grade boy claimed to be a girl and used this to molest a kindergartener in the girls’ room, the school responded with an investigation so cursory that the Department of Education ruled the investigation was by itself a Title IX violation. (Under DeVos, of course.) They not only imagined, they knew. They do not care.

            1. They *do* care. They support, encourage, and cover for such things.

              You’re objecting; in their world, *you* are the problem.

              1. Yup, YOU are the flaw in their perfect world, for pointing out what they don’t want to see.

                “There is no greater sin than to be right when those in power are wrong.”

      3. It’s not the front-end actions so much as the consequences. Like asking my near relatives why it’s acceptable to them that my children should be brainwashed to despise themselves (through Critical Race Training). Why is it acceptable to them that my daughter should have to risk being injured by a 6-foot boy if she wants to play girls’ basketball? Why is it acceptable to them that my children will never vote in a free and fair election? Etc.

  16. Yes, even casual conversations with true believers who are family members could get you turned in and children are being propagandized to monitor and report on their parents for their own good. Spare us from those who believe they have a superior world view and must impose it on us “for our own good.” Many are likely to die in the coming unrest and purges. Be as circumspect and safe as possible.

  17. The worst part will be all the children who turn on their parents, after being propagandized that “informing is caring” and “GULAG is kindness”. And don’t imagine for a moment that the groundwork for that has not been laid by the public school system.

  18. I doubt mine would do it intentionally. Maybe accidentally, but I’m just as likely to find a minefield and play it it myself.

    I’m more worried they’ll get caught in the machine themselves, since they didn’t grow up with this lay of the land. Seriously debating when would be a good time to send them on an extended vacation with relatives out of the country, but, that’s a tricky balancing act. There really aren’t safe places any more, and it feels like it’s just going to get worse until the break.

    It’s kind of funny that I’ve somehow got this song stuck in my head these days:

    I guess, on death ground fight, even with pout hope of victory or survival.

      1. Point. And when we go sideways the cartels are likely going to go absolutely insane, since they’ll have lost their major revenue streams.

        2. Worry not about them – I am sure they already have plans drawn up and resources in place.

          Worry about the people in their way when they no longer have to buy but can simply seize what they want.
          ~

      2. That also reminds me, I had some relatives who sent their families to live in Greece during the great depression, because they could earn enough working in the US, even during the depression, for them to live well on the Greek islands. And they had relatives there.

        A bunch of them got caught up in the Greek Civil war. I gather only about half of the children were ever located after that.

          2. When the US gets diarrhea the rest of the world becomes a [crap]hole.

            Which has been increasingly frequently and is part of what Trump was talking about when he made that reference to [merde-]hole countries.
            ~

      1. I know not whence John Ringo stole it, but I’m stealing it from him: When death is inevitable die with style.
        ~

  19. I am reminded of “War and Remembrance,” by Herman Wouk.

    “Like most Americans, Natalie and Aaron fail to believe that the civilized German culture with which they are familiar could possibly engage in genocide. As a result of their rash decision to stay when they could escape, they are slowly absorbed into the Jewish population that is first interned, then sent to concentration camps.”

    Perhaps this is not a blog post that you wanted to write, but it is one that you needed to. There’s some work left to be done in my circumstances, but I’m on my way. I’m damned well not going to be a Natalie.

    1. Good point. The saga of Natalie Jastrow/Henry and Aaron Jastrow is a perfect analogy. Aaron refuses to accept that the Germans are “going there” and passes up 1 too many chances at escape. But he dies like a man, like a mensch.

      1. The minute people think “that can’t happen here” is the moment that “that” happening here not only becomes possible but inevitable.

    2. It is all too common for present day persons to overlook that, at the time, Germany was the apex of Western Civilization – preeminent in Music, Literature, Philosophy, Economics, Medicine, Industry, Film, and Science. It was inconceivable (there’s that word) that it would lead the world into the Abyss.
      ~

      1. People also forget that the U.S. was going down the same path, and much of the praise Hitler received was because he leapfrogged everyone else was was showing them how it was done.

        1. I am not sure “forget” is the proper term. More appropriate is that such information has been subtracted from History. Just as they’ve redacted the fact that the Nazi’s methodology for defining Yids was based upon the standards developed in the American South.

          That any American reveres Wilson signifies the degree to which History has been edited.
          ~

        2. German physicians who based their involuntary eugenic sterilizations on US models cited Buck vs. Bell in their defenses at Nuremberg, and were still convicted even though the US programs were still going on.

    3. There were Jews who fled the initial laws, and then decided to return when that seemed like it all.

  20. I have a bolthole, but I’m pretty sure that I won’t be fast enough with all the stuff I have to cart around. I worry more about my brothers and their families. I guess I can’t though because I don’t have the resources or energy.

      1. The prep community’s position is, just as you cannot time the stock market, you cannot time the best time to bug out so as to get out just in time. The recommendation is to do as our beloved and terrifying space princess hostess is doing and relocate as soon as possible, and hope you clear your datum well before the Green Police are knocking on your door at 4am:

        1. Oh, that ad. I have the perfect ending for that ad. The Green Police roadblock is blown sky high, and then Patrick Swayze stands up on the hillside and screams: “Wolverines!”

        2. Of course you will know it’s time for bugout right after your idiot cousin rats you out and the authorities come in and confiscate your carefully gathered over years long prepper stash for the “good” of the community.

      1. I have a friend close– I could probably bolt there as well. 🙂 But the problem is the dialysis equipment. It could only be for three days or less.

        1. Yeah, that’s what I thought. Too many ideas for a blog comment. I know you’ve got the greatest tribe of creative thinkers right here, so you will never be alone.

          I don’t know quite what that means, but these days it means something important.

                  2. To be honest… Even after 59 years I can’t tell what I can stand for closeness. I could tolerate Otto (my late hubby RIP) because he was also an introvert and needed space as well. We knew how to give each other space. When I have lived with family (a necessity when I first became ill) I went crazy from the non-privacy. My sister-in-law (now ex sis-in-law) is an extrovert and didn’t know how to give space to an introvert. 🙂 Even as an introvert, it is nice to interact with people on a regular basis… usually away from my home.

                    2. As I commonly put it, if the choice is roommates, I’d rather live in a culvert.

                      Was joking with a friend-of-similar-mind about that, and next thing up in my Youtube suggesteds was some guy who camped overnight in a culvert (in the middle of Canadian winter). And did it all wrong. 😀

        2. I know this sounds cold, but if you are unlucky and find yourself at Day Three and a Half, take a few representative samples of those who did this to you along for the ride. Hope it never comes to that, of course, and good luck.

        3. Any chance that you could get an old, but running, class C RV and transfer the dialysis equipment to it now then just hang out in it while you are using it?

          1. Only with help from one of my brothers… I’ve been in the medical system so long that most of my money goes there. The dialysis machine is portable and I could also do manual dialysis. The problem would be on the dialysis side is keeping a supply of solution on hand and keeping it at the right temperature.

  21. I wrote a thing recently about how especially appalling it was to see science fiction/fantasy readers and writers proudly professing that they were cutting off all contact with people who didn’t agree with them about everything, because… weren’t we supposed to be the ones who were interested in alien philosophies, first contact, the extreme diversity of intergalactic/interspecies alliances?

    And at our first, true test…

    Now, to protect ourselves from people who have gone from ‘I am cutting off contact with the Other’ to ‘I am canceling and ruining the Other,’ we have to become them.

    It is enough to make one weep.

    1. “Choose your enemies carefully, for you will become like them.” If only ’twere that easy.

      That’s something I find bewildering and heartbreaking as well. Is it that much easier to say you’ll accept fictional aliens who do bizarre and not-human-moral things, than to let fellow members of your own species just live and let live?

      BTW, the Mindline books got me through some tough spots, thank you.

      1. I think heartbreak is my near-constant state right now (when it isn’t oscillating with other things). I didn’t want to live in the world we are accelerating toward. I liked having my oddball bunch of friends, all thinking different things because of their different life experiences. It kept me honest about myself, and about individuals mattering more than caricatures or stereotypes.

        Now? How will I replace all those holes?

        Worse, how much of it was my fault, for mistaking “different” for “repressively intolerant”? Could I have stopped this if I’d tried harder?

        *passes hot chocolate/coffee/tea*

        But I am glad the xenotherapists helped! And gosh, that was… unexpected. I maybe needed to hear it today. Thank you.

        1. Someone said about mobs that people go mad all at once, and only come back one by one.

          Honestly, I don’t know what any one of us can do besides what we’re already doing: Hold on, stay sane, and keep writing stuff to show that Good Guys Can Win. And that “good people” come in a variety of shapes and attitudes. Including cranky. 😉

          1. I keep thinking of George Carlin: “People are wonderful. I love individuals. I hate groups of people. I hate a group of people with a ‘common purpose’. ‘Cause pretty soon they have little hats. And armbands. And fight songs. And a list of people they’re going to visit at 3am. So, I dislike and despise groups of people but I love individuals. Every person you look at; you can see the universe in their eyes, if you’re really looking.”

            1. I try not to hate people wholesale when there are ample reasons to despise them retail. But I hate what people get up to in groups.

              ~

        2. >> “I think heartbreak is my near-constant state right now (when it isn’t oscillating with other things). ”

          Don’t take this as callousness, but: you’ll get over it. You’ll probably never like it – and who could blame you? – but as time passes and you adapt it’ll hurt less.

          In the meantime, take a page from Foxfier’s book and rejoice for the fact that you live in the future. In previous eras you might have been on your own, but now at least you can find groups of like-minded people such as this one online. It’s good for your SAN score.

          …Though to be fair, if you fit in here SAN was probably your dump stat anyway. 😛

          1. I had a long response to this and every version of it sounded pretentious. Probably because modern culture has mocked and derided sincerity, heroism, and the numinous for so long that even those of us who believe it in have trouble speaking the language of such things.

            So I’ll settle for: for me, in particular, the process of growing up meant becoming more heartbroken, not less. So I might grieve, but I treasure that grief for what it signifies.

            2. What every mature person understands when they get a pet.

              Or alternatively to borrow an out of context quote from my favorite series:

              Where he sees an empty page, I see King Lear. But he is my brother, so I shall play my part, knowing it shall all end in tears.

          2. …Though to be fair, if you fit in here SAN was probably your dump stat anyway. 😛

            I feel seen.

        3. You’re not a lone in the heartbreak. It’s a bleak and lonely place when you have considered the people you know and care about and come to the conclusion that they cannot be trusted when it hits the fan.

          I’ve always been the most conservative of my IR friend group, but up until the last year it was ok. We hung-out, we talked geeky stuff, we cooked. Now, lets say that COVIDiocy has broken my trust of people I was planning on having be my support network. I’ve stopped talking about my opinions regarding masks, shutdowns, etc, after too many “so you want people to die” comments. The most recent one was about about anti-vaxers and clowns from some meme one of them saw- I didn’t engage.

          I could continue this whine, but I’m just going to have to move on, mentally and physically.

    2. Yep. I’d be okay even discussing politics with someone who disagreed, provided I don’t get screamed at, called names, etc.
      BUT the only two people who would let me do that, came to our side.
      Now I’m just tired. Tired of being clled names and yelled at.

      1. Yeah, I am done with attempting to make peace with people who have decided that I am irredeemable. When they are prepared to attest to the beams in their own eyes, we can talk again.

        1. *hugs* You know what? You did what you could – you wrote beautiful things, not just with platonic friendships in utter defiance of the trend toward sex in everything, but also with sincere contemplation on how language shapes culture and culture shapes language, and the clash between cultures by the lack of mental and lingual framework for the concept. That’s not nothing.

          I know it can feel like utter despair to sit there and look at those who hardened their hearts and armored their minds, but that was their choice, not yours. G-d gave us all free will, and if He can’t make someone do something against their will, what chance do we have?

          Keep in mind that many, many of your victories will be the quiet ones you never see. Road to Damascus conversions are rare, but many’s the book that cast the fragment of lichen that created the tiny crack in rock-hard ignorance and received propaganda masquerading as wisdom, and the book that planted the seed in that tiny little crack to grow in… until their minds were changed.

          1. “Keep in mind that many, many of your victories will be the quiet ones you never see.”

            It was DECADES after reading Vonnegut’s Tralfamadorians in college that I applied the concept he’d demonstrated to the idea of G-d being “outside” of Time, a realization which greatly influenced my own spiritual development. Given what we think we know of Vonnegut it is unlikely Kurt would be happy at so benefitting me, but even when I was a fan of him I never worried about whether Vonnegut would approve of me.
            ~

      2. Like everything in their world, diversity is a finite resource. And they have all of it, so obviously you have none.

  22. I have a couple of friends on the east coast. I’ve known both of them for… a very long time. And they drank the Kool-Aid, and then there were subjects they were no longer capable of discussing, just regurgitating what they saw on Facebook.

    Last year, “coronavirus” became one of those subjects. And for the last year we’ve talked maybe twice, less than five minutes each time, because who knows where the conversational minefields are now.

    I’ve noticed over the years, once someone takes that first step, they almost always move on to the next. Overpopulation, global warming, Bush!, concentration camps, Trump!, illegals are good, coronavirus…

    2. I have a brother who was a big fan of Ron Paul back when Dubya was in office. Now he espouses a lot of leftist positions, and can’t help but put in snarky asides whenever he posts anything even remotely political. The change was so sudden and complete that it’s disturbing.

      1. What bothers me is how sudden the radicalization seems. It seems like there is a hook in their brain that turns them. We are looking at the zombie apocalypse.

        1. I suspect the lock downs have a lot to do with it. I know I start going strange without human contact for more than a month or two, and we’ve been in lockdown for about a year now. It is bound to stoke that “fear of the other” in people, especially when all people are getting from their information sources is how horrible the other side is.

          Throw in a healthy mix of “anyone I interact with may result in my dying horribly” and you’ve got a recipe for absolute paranoia.

          1. Well I’ve been semi-isolated since 2003. But then as a creative that probably makes me loony. I can imagine what people are like when they are extroverts and need constant contact for validation.

              1. What it’s done to kids and teens is terrifying. Video-chat is NOT social interaction. The lock-downs are sadism on a mass scale, and I shudder to imagine the whirlwind we are going to reap in terms of social disfunction and heartbreak over the next decade from that alone.

                  1. Heard one lady talking of her friends or relatives, with small (5 or 6?) child that hadn’t really been anywhere besides the house/yard. They went on a big excursion.. to Wal-mart. And it might as well have been a WonderLand.

                    1. We took our horde to the hardware store.

                      I try to make sure they come with me, or at least get the offer…as my husband has pointed out, our kids are in a good situation, compared to most. There are six of them!
                      The only kids? *shudder*

                    3. Aye (Cyn) it’s like the Emo Philips bit about being warned to keep clear of the cellar door…

                      “When I was a kid my parents used to tell me, “Emo, don’t go near the cellar door!” One day when they were away, I went up to the cellar door. And I pushed it and walked through and saw strange, wonderful things, things I had never seen before, like… trees, grass, flowers, the sun… that was nice…“

          2. Beloved Spouse opined that there have been a few times when my behaviour gave cause for concern over lockdown imposed irritability – but that’s only because Beloved Spouse has been plotting against me, hoping to get extra strawberries from the Mess.
            ~

        2. I felt similarly during the call with the union the other day. Two employees literally shrieked. They are being weaponized against their customers, with the ‘Rona as the excuse.

          They think they are “heroes” and deserve cash. But they are going to die because you aren’t wearing a face diaper. So, they want their cash, and they want you in prison.

          1. There used to be a Safeway store in my town. It was my default grocery store. It got unionized; they put up signs announcing it. And shortly after that they went on strike. Which involved harassing customers – me – and preventing them from going into the store.

            Nowadays, my tolerance for that sort of thing is small. Back then… I turned, walked back to my car, and never went back.

            One thing I’m *really* good at is keeping a grudge.

            1. If the union doesn’t stage strikes once in a while, why, the members might think they don’t NEED the union! 😦

        3. One guess is that with the Jan 20th “inauguration’, the proggies think that they’ve “won”, but they can’t understand why we just don’t settle down and accept that they stole the election fair and s1ure.

          Some of them are remembering just how much hell they raised in President Trump’s term, and are afraid we’ll raise as much. I think they’re wrong. When they say we should be rounded up and be put in camps, we’re going to respond.

          Vigorously.

          2. In the meantime, I think certain slogans need to be turned back against the Left:

            Selected, Not Elected
            Not My President
            #Resist
            No Justice, No Peace

    3. I had a group of Odd friends back in the late 1970s to mid 1990s who were fun to be around and just as Odd as me. I finally realized that I wasn’t really one of the group, not really, when my first wife pointed out to me that I was always the one who initiated contact (telephone, email, etc.), never them. So I decided to test that out and stopped calling. That was the last I heard.

      A couple of years ago I looked up and telephoned the fellow I was closest to, almost like a brother (I’d thought). We started chatting, and he said his wife wanted to know if I would apologize for some of the things I’d said in comment threads on the internet. (I knew they were left, but it hadn’t really come up before.) I said no, I had nothing to apologize for, if I had ever brought the fire (and I had) it was always in response to opening fire from someone on their side. The rest of the conversation was polite but clearly cool, and we finished the conversation exchanging telephone numbers but knowing we’d never talk again.

      I wasn’t really hurt by that, to tell the truth. I’d finished with them years earlier and this was just closure. But what we’re seeing today isn’t really anything new (in my experience), just a leftist belief that they’ve won and no longer need to treat us civilly. They’re completely deluded, of course. Which is why things are going to go kinetic eventually.

    4. Once they hit, “why should I feel bound by the Constitution? I didn’t agree to it”, there’s not much you can do.

      I was shocked by the viewpoint. He obviously felt good about getting it off his chest, though. He was also honest about Bush Derangement just being an excuse.
      It wasn’t that he thought Florida was stolen, it was just that he didn’t like Bush II (fair enough. I wasn’t fond of him, either), and didn’t feel obligated to honor a political system he didn’t agree with when it gave an outcome he didn’t like.

      1. I wonder how much understanding these people have of the Constitution and history. I’m very sure that people don’t make “perfect” things– but the Constitution is such an improvement over any political system even today that I wonder what is going on in their brains. Maybe a required stint of living in another country would change things? My late hubby used to say that most people would appreciate the US if they just spent a couple years south of the border and had to make a living.

        1. See, you’re being practical.

          If you start from a deep-seated faith that the past is bad and the future good, then holding onto anything from the past is actively interfering with the realization if the good.
          Pointing out that it worked, is a distraction, because it worked for less perfected people. But with modern people being closer to good (by definition), forms of the past are unwelcome restraints. Especially when used to defend the flawed people who look backwards and keep causing us to stumble on the way to our bright, inevitable future.
          (Despite my dripping sarcasm, it’s a decent summation of the mindset. They won’t accept the questioning of their assumptions, so there’s really not much common ground for a constructive argument.)

    5. One of my daughters has gotten like that: conversational minefields everywhere. We can still talk about her career and her dog, but who knows how long that will last?

  23. The passive aggressive sort who won’t shove you in a cattle car but will stand and nod sadly and say – “If only he had listened.” as the troopers do it, will do you dirty other ways. They are sneaky. One day you may come home and find your e-mail contacts are copied and turned in for the good of the party and the police were called to remove all your guns and silly offensive stuff like go bags. Sucks to be you then.

    1. You just described the entirety of the communist Pacific Northwest.

      They will stand there, giggle, tut tut, and head for the next victim. My neighbors are evil.

      1. There’s a monument to just how comfortable we are here with sitting on our hands and watching innocent people being sent to the camps out on Whidbey Island. Folks think it’s about [Racism] because we all love anime now. Not even close.

        Never forget

        1. I need to go visit that monument.

          There’s some great shore fishing over there, too. I need a day with just me, my rods, and the sound of the Sound.

        2. *Wags paw* Keep in mind, Japanese subs had shelled the port of LA and a few other places on the West Coast, there were accounts of Japanese (very, very few) on Hawaii aiding downed Japanese pilots against the US, and mobs in CA had threatened Japanese people and businesses. I wish my associate would go on and publish the stuff from the FDR Library and other federal records about that, because while the mass internments went overboard, at that moment it seemed to be a reasonable response. Germans and Italians were also interned, granted on a smaller scale, and they were legal aliens, not natural-born citizens.

          2. Michele Malkin earned the forever enmity of the Left with her book exploring the reasoning underlying the internment.

            One could reasonably argue that the internment was a appropriate action done wrong (Japanese-American property rights of Americans of Japanese descent could have been better protected, for example) … if one could argue reasonably with unreasonable people.
            ~

            1. But then Fascist Dictator Roosevelt couldn’t have handed it out to his cronies.

  24. You wrote, “Any number of your spouses, relatives and friends are leftist because that’s “what good people are.””
    Spot on for some of my in-law relatives — for some, their rationale for voting was this: OrangeMan was Mean, and made BadTweets, and we are nice people so we can’t stand OrangeManBad.
    For others, they are in the publishing industry, which is controlled by “good people.”
    We are are asked if we want to visit them in another state this summer– I wonder how to tell my wife that I would have a hard time enjoying myself knowing what her beloved siblings stand for.
    Then again, I have relatives nearby who are not Liberal/Progressive/Socialist/Whatever, but I can’t see it going over well if I bug out and stay with them.
    In the meantime, I have gone quiet on social media with the one group– they don’t need to know what I am doing or thinking, but I am watching and listening to them.

    1. Two vaguely related points in the post below:
      1) Sarah’s post really hit home when I read it yesterday. It was too close too home and too painful to respond to immediately. At this point, I’m hoping for a repeat of ’09-’13, which was bad enough, but we survived. However society has/is stressed to the breaking point in a way it wasn’t a decade ago.

      I wonder if so many of the Millennial types have turned into BernieBros because of the market crash of ’08. A lot of folks who “did everything right” and graduated college in ’08, ’09, ’10, and ’11, were (and some still are) unemployed and unemployable because they were unable to find jobs right out of college, even with STEM or CS degrees, and by the time the entry level jobs came back, employers wanted someone fresh out of school, not someone who had been stuck on the bench for years. And now they’re envious and buying in the politics of redistribution because they feel cheated.

      2) And what about the ones who were never OrangeMan because of stuff he (allegedly) did some thirty years ago, including vague references to inappropriate (something?) with his daughter when she was a young teen? Ok, I get that he had the reputation of a slimy dealer in the ’80s and ’90s and it was reason to think long and hard in ’16, but now? I blame the media for harping on his loudmouth tweets and avoiding the actual accomplishments.

      I don’t know what it’ll take to show that the supposedly “better” person is both flaky and totally deserves the rep as the gropey uncle, and then of course there’s heels-up. As far as I can tell, it’s all spin.

    1. I’m praying not to hate my neighbor. It’s going to take the Almighty Himself because I’m failing at this one.

      1. Well, stop getting in His way. Maybe it’s easier because I amn’t exactly human, but pity them, sorrow for them, weep with the washerwoman as she washes their clothes in the witching hours – for life is as grass. You have too many things to do to waste it on hate.

        Righteous fury, wrath, yes, when tempered, clarified, and focussed by His Will. He will repay. He has promised. Doesn’t mean we won’t be His subcontractors when the day comes – but we mustn’t usurp His Authority.

        There’s a bunch more in my head, but I must go lay ant-traps.

        Fecking bastards. Ruined a bunch of powdered sugar donut holes.

        And you can always proton mail. Or Parler/MeWe if it would help ye out.

  26. “But I love him/her/it/fuzzy.”

    Almost fell off my chair. “Fuzzy” (short for “Fuzzy-Head”) is the nick-name I gave my youngest when she was a baby and it stuck. I still call her that sometimes. She’s also the closest to being the “unreasonable Leftist” in the family if there is one.

    Although, as long as the name of Trump (whom she hates because of all the LGBTQ+EIEIO people that he personally murdered before putting their still warm corpses into anti-gay re-education camps… or something) isn’t brought up, or the names/political affiliations aren’t brought up, she generally agrees more with rabid Libertarians than Marxists. Just don’t try to tell HER that, might as well be talking to a brick wall.

  27. Ho, Mrs. Hoyt. You did it! You trod where angels dare not tread.

    I seriously haven’t the foggiest idea how this problem can be solved other than through extreme heartbreak and total dissolution of the ties that bind.

    How ugly will it become before the violence dies down and the body count starts to be tallied up? The mind quails. I’m fortunate in having an extended family of relatives that veers sharply conservative, but … the children of the Long March. Would I be able to personally, savagely execute a distant family member for being leftist vermin that hysterically wants me dead? Could I do that to the loved one of another distant relative who is not a leftist vermin? I simply, flatly don’t know. -_-

    1. I think I’ve figured out a way to say yes to the question “Could I kill … my neighbor, brother…. if they were trying to do me harm?” I intellectually know “yes” is my answer. If I can get the anger/rage/grief dialed up sufficiently, I think I can get there.

      I know I have to be able to do so. But… man.

      1. It’s not the ones seething with rage and hate they should fear. It’s the ones who quietly decide, “The world would be a better place without that one, and that one, and that one…”

  28. I am fine where I live but my family for being the deep south it has turned into loony liberal land and yes these people would go to war. I am not even sure where my parents would fall at this point. They are most of the way there covidians.

    1. Just had an incident–most likely final–with Mom at her facility. She’s insane with ‘Rona lies. And also a great fat raging bully.

      That made it easier to leave and know I’ll never be back save for dire emergency. Right now I think I’d refuse to admit I know her when we meet in heaven.

        1. Thanks so much. I scream and curse in the car. Vent on this blog. And I feel fine this AM. And could do it all again if needed.

  29. “Be prepared to save yourself, if you can’t save them.”
    And remember, you can’t EVER save them if you’re already dead.

    1. As I recall, the first thing life guards are taught (after learning to swim) is: DO NOT LET THE DROWNING PERSON DROWN YOU, TOO!
      ~

  30. Both of my husband’s BILs. One out of pure, unadulterated spite, and the other for our own good. Fortunately, they’re all in California so they can just turn in their neighbors. My FIL and his wife could be targets and that’s a worry, but there’s not a lot I/we can do about that. FIL wouldn’t believe us if we said anything. My husband’s sisters (married to above mentioned BILs) and my MIL would just dither, but they are far more likely to say something that has unintended consequences.

    My own family…no, nobody has swallowed things quite that heavily. One cousin is reading my blog, and has admitted to it, so I know she’s thinking about things. The others are center to center-right. My brother lives in the sticks in Ireland and he and I agree on things anyway, so we’re good. His wife and I agree on pretty much everything political too. My parents are both gone so I don’t have to worry about them either way (dad would have been a target anyway).

    Things are moving along in our plans to move out of Philly and I’m not sure what to do about that for family. If it all goes according to current plan, I’m thinking a PO Box might be the thing.

    1. Re PO Box – the trouble is they are clearly not an actual address, so there are lots of instances where they are not accepted. A possible alternative would be one of the mail-drop-and-forward services intended for full-time RVers that look like actual addresses.

      1. Check the USPS postal lookup page first. USPS keeps track of mail drops, “private mail boxes”, mail forwarders, etc. Specifically, they know if “1313 Mockingbird Lane #3” is a single-family dwelling, apartment building, trailer court, etc.

        Nothing stops you from adding an “apartment number” or “box number” to your address; your mail will still make it. It used to be a way to track companies that sold your information to spammers, before it became the default for *every* business to do it…

      2. We use a private mail/shipping drop in town. Officially, it’s known as a “PMB” == private mail box, but there’s no trouble if it’s presented as an apartment. The post office does NOT consider it a P.O. Box. They accept shipping for us through UPS and FedEx limits (bought tires that way), so there’s a limited number of entities that have to know our street address. Cost is a hair over $100 a year and worth every penny.

      3. Exactly the way to go. We don’t get a lot of mail anyway. A few things we do get I can turn on electronic only, if needed. Rest is junk mail. Trying to get son to do the same. OTOH if we move, he *isn’t likely to move with us. We won’t be going far. But hopefully far enough. Close enough that we have a place for him to bug out to. Mom won’t leave her house. That is a given. I have to live with that.

        * I don’t know why not. We’re building if we move. I’m thinking a in-law suite, with **kitchen & laundry, privileges, that he has, until roles are switched and he finds a significant other. Then we switch. House is his, we have the in-law suite.

        ** Some might call it more a Jr. Suite. Or double master. Don’t care. Don’t need full kitchen or laundry.

        1. We’ve refused on-line banking with the credit union because of security concerns. Several bills are now automatically paid, with Pacific Power (Berkshire Hathaway Delenda Est) being a notable exception. My main credit card is with a bank widely known for (lack of) integrity issues, so same. OTOH, we’re down to two monthly checks, plus quarterlies and a couple of bills that run semiannual. I have not-so-fond memories of cutting 30 checks a month in the ’80s and ’90s.

          1. I’ve implemented double authorization on the Credit Union and CC’s. I watch them like a hawk. Won’t say they aren’t 100 safe. But safer than our street mail boxes. We’ve thought about a locked one, but even those get broken into … on camera.

            1. We used to use a local substation in “town”, but stopped when we got to know some of the people who worked there (not necessarily at the P.O, but access was loose. Not people I’d want to see my bank statements. Wretched hive and so on.) Our mail at the drop is inside and locked, and we know most of the people involved (barring the new person–she slightly knows me, and has met $SPOUSE now).

      4. Here’s a trick I got from the Postmaster at Nampa, Idaho (she said not every office does this, but they did, so ask at your PO): use your box number PLUS the PO’s physical address as if it’s your own physical address. They have a specific format for this. This can even be used for delivery services like UPS.

        And of course if you want really nonspecific, there’s always General Delivery (counter pickup). I was GD for a long time, back when I lived on a road with no mail service.

        1. When I worked at the Tiller Ranger District seasonally, that is how I got my mail. In fact, then, just mail slots, no mail boxes. Went to window inside small convince store and asked for it. That was only for friends sending me mail. My mail, including my pay check, went to my drivers license mailing address … also known as the family home. Don’t remember what it cost way back then. Unless you lived onsite at the district offices, everyone in the area got their mail there, not just us seasonal temps.

          1. General Delivery has been free the several places I’ve had it, tho it’s been a few years. Used to be you could do GD indefinitely, but last time they got cranky after a month or so and made me get a POBox. Those, tho, have gotten expensive.

        2. That works unless all the employees at your Post Office are shrieking bitches.

          Still not sure how I’m going to send presents next Christmas.

  31. Most of my friends has fallen into the KoolAid vat.

    So have my parents. When my parents are seriously talking about letting Texans die by not shipping them COVID vaccine because the Governor wanted to end mandatory mask mandates (because, of course, it’s their fault)…

    I don’t want to think this way. I don’t want the times to be like this.

    I am looking at Texas or a few other states to move to.

    This is my home. For all of it’s faults and sins.

    But, if they’re going to set the world on fire, I’m not going to be here when they burn it all down.

    If I have a hope, it is that maybe this is all a high fever. That, with some luck, it’ll break and the tide will withdraw and reveal better things.

    2. It’s hard. Really, really hard.

      The king in exile had to make the decision at some point to go into exile. Maybe you could think about it that way, and it would be an abandonment so much as a strategic move.

      2. I’m in this point of seeing both ways…but, I want to return, triumphant as the Fisher King, bringing healing and reconciliation to those that need it.

        But, I suspect my return would only be fury and fire.

  32. My immediate family, no worries they’re all Right.

    My leftest friends that are still friends, I’m not really worried about them when/if the fit hits the shan. Same as there are no atheists in foxholes, I’m pretty sure they’ll realize there’s no hope in being a no hoper.

  33. One thing about relocating — beware places within 50 miles of a college or university. Like black holes, they warp things around them. Our local “Kollege” has been polluting our community’s “best and brightest” with various flavors and shades of Woke for 50 years. It’s had an effect.

    1. Well, it depends. Here in east Tennessee I’d say it only applies to the large universities, and then only about 15-20 miles at best. There’s a small college just down the road from us and things are still pretty conservative around here.

        1. And some of those hollers contain stills that are still in operation. Careful where you wander, and make sure to announce yourself clearly if you are of good intent. On the gripping hand, though, if you tend towards honey shine, one might just be able to acquire it for a decent price…

          1. It’s well over 50 years since I’ve been down in Douglas’ neighborhood but I still remember a guy I met down there telling me how his cousin’s job was to sit atop a ridge overlooking the highway. If he saw a car or 3 turn off the highway, go more than a quarter mile up the road, he’s light a stick of dynamite throw it over his shoulder.

            Hearing the boom, by the time the revenuers climbed all the switch backs, his uncle’s would have the fire out, the still disassembled, the parts and product is 3-4 different far away hollows and they’d invite the agents to have a tin cup of coffee after the long dusty drive.

          2. Once two strangers climbed old Rocky Top, looking for a moonshine still.
            Strangers ain’t come down from Rocky Top–reckon they never will.

            (Rocky Top is a real place, folks.)

            2. South Jersey (the Pine Barrens) has a similar reputation. No hills, just miles and miles of pine scrub, where every square foot looks like every other square foot. Get off the path and if you aren’t careful you’ll be lost in five minutes.
              The locals’ are alleged to run stills and have non-forking family trees. And that’s not even mentioning the Jersey Devil.

              1. You might even run into an interior decorator from Czechoslovakia 🙂

                (note the episode was actually filmed in Harriman State Park in NY). It does reflect that certain enterprises engaged in “disposal” in the Pine Barrens from time to time.

            3. Had a plane (High-wing-type) come back to an airport in the Atlanta area with a hole in the wing. Asked the pilot about it. “I saw smoke and thought it might be a forest fire, so I descended and looked. I couldn’t find the source, so I finished my flight and came home. Why?”

              Renter rules 1) don’t flow low over the mountains. 2) If you see a little smoke, you didn’t see smoke, got it?

            4. Eastern parts of northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin are rife with old abandoned and flooded quarries and gravel pits. Make great unofficial swimming holes and scuba diving. Thing is one must be careful and a bit closed mouthed, deep divers in particular, over what one might find.
              That whole area is a relatively short drive from Chicago, and served as the dumping grounds for all sorts of embarrassing, shall we say potential evidence.

              1. When they were building the SW Expressway (now the Stevenson, and it’s a freeway by Cali standards), the word was that about one body per mile was planted just before the concrete crews. I don’t know if this was official news or equally true but unofficial. This was when Manny Skar owned a large hotel (Sahara Inn–related to one in Las Vegas) near O’Hare airport. Gene Autry bought it when Manny got terminally ventilated, though a later story indicated that somebody bombed the hotel courtesy car.

                There was a whacking great old quarry in Lyons (near W suburb), another town with a sketchy reputation.

    2. Definitely this. At one point I thought it would be a good thing to live in a university community, because there would be resources and intellectuals, etc. Ha! After living in Ithaca for too long, I prioritized *not* living in another university community when we moved. Never again.

    3. I’m quite comfortable less than 25 miles from U of Alaska. On the other hand, if I were so inclined, I could, hypothetically you understand, walk from my house north to the Arctic ocean, or south to the Pacific, without seeing another house and only crossing two or four roads.

      1. We’re not that far north of UofO. But definitely in a neighborhood that is better off than other parts of town. Not 100% but we definitely are not isolated alone.

      2. I suspect U of Alaska may be slightly less crazy. Any school that raises musk oxen….
        (Which are, as you probably know, kind of cute in a short, massive, don’t underestimate them kind of way).
        (We visited the Musk Ox Farm outside Palmer. I fed one a dandelion. Carefully. Through a fence).

    4. The University of Washington and Western Washington University have polluted an entire half a state.

      1. We have to include Evergreen State, the super-lefty garbage dump down in Olympia.
        And all the 2 year colleges up and down the Puget Sound, unfortunately…

        1. Yep, forgot about Evergreen. And every institution on this side of the state.

          Mattis the betraying dwarf is from the east side, though. I don’t rely on it being solidly pro-liberty anymore. But it’s still better than this side.

      2. And there’s also that spot source of pollution, U of Montana in Missoula. Known as Berkeley North since the 1960s.

        Fortunately, it’s 300 miles away and I need never go near the place. (Don’t like Missoula anyway, so no loss.)

        1. Could you describe Montana today? I’ve got to learn what’s real and what’s a myth.

          All I remember is that Bozeman is insanely communist. “I’m OK, You’re OK.” Yeah, right.

    5. On the other hand, might not be a bad idea to flood those areas with migrant superversives with *no* respect for their established customs or household gods. Get on the school boards. Make trouble for the woke teachers. Change the land out from under them.

      Gander sauce.

        1. For a good red scare, enjoy the Trevor Loudin talk I just linked over in the permathread. He names names.

            1. As I remember it the 6mo timeline involved them going full jackboot in a big way that couldn’t be routed around (mass firearm confiscation being the stand in example). Did I miss something happening?

              It can’t really be the “turn in your Jews capitol protestors” ads: those were up almost before Mrs. Babbit had finished bleeding out, so they don’t represent a change.

              Also unrelated, but some wholesomeness is good for the soul: https://as.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/m0mfuy/i_am_not_a_cat/

              1. Thought:

                Revolutions happen when conditions ease.

                The jackboot path presumes a certain minimal competence at oppressing by force.

                Convincing people that yes, you are crazy, yes, you want to hurt them, yes, if allowed you will destroy everything that you have done, can be effective if you can paralyze them with fear. If they can easily work out that the simple, easy, low cost answer is hanging you, then you hang.

                Right sort of crazy stupid acts by the opposition could lead to a happier path than anyone knowing about the fundamental problems could have ever imagined.

          2. I’m not promising the same timeline Sarah is.

            And there is some personal situation nuts that is probably confounding things on my end.

            Things feel a bit closer to the cracking point.

            Can’t be sure, but the latest XKCD might be starting to acknowledge that covid is nuts, instead of carrying water for it.

      3. Speaking of migrants, yesterday it occurred to me that a good deal of this open borders for “refugees” push might be leading to a mass influx of Chinese, “fleeing” from the CCP but in fact armed with Correct Instructions, which their unfortunate tendency will be to conform to. (See also Confucius Institutes.)

  34. Seven of 8 mom’s grandchildren are liberal and vote liberal. Four of us six, us and our spouses, are not liberal. Three of the grandchildren belong to the liberal pair. Don’t know where sis and BIL went wrong with their 4. (Yes. We are the lucky one. Our one and only is very not liberal.) Doesn’t come up at family gatherings because political conflict upsets grandma, who is 87.

  35. Plan for failure. Plan for success, too, and that’s important- someone has to keep things going. But plan for what happens when what you hoped didn’t happen and what you were afraid of did.

    Practice. Practice what you’re going to do so you can do it at 2am in the dark and rapidly. Make a plan for it you have more time, too, rather than seconds or minutes. If on foot, do A. Bike, B. Car, C. Keep your circle in the know small, but have one connection at the very least to another circle. Make it a dead drop if you have to.

    Myself, I have a plan for the worst, should it come to that. Every man should. Best of the worst is maybe I’ll be a decent speed bump. Should that occur, the world will get along just fine without one single unmarried male. The thought that it might save an innocent is a rather nice thing, even if it’s the last thing.

    Obviously, that’s only in extreme and final circumstances. There’s a *lot* more to do while one is still alive. Heck, being a good example to others and especially to impressionable youth is full time job enough, and that’s just *one* job. Teaching the benefits of professional paranoia, and what is *too* much paranoia, may just become a necessary life skill. Teaching how to deal with stress and aggravation with grace is another one that has plenty of good use in any time. Also passing on the knowledge of what skills one has earned in life. Not just to children either.

    Dealing with betrayal is going to be a tough psychological challenge. Learn healthy coping strategies. Remember to hoard the alcohol for trade opportunities, not binge opportunities. *grin* Who knows? Maybe someone in your hidden bunker brought some games to distract, or books to read, or knows some good stories to tell…

    1. Your comments are so great, Dan.

      I don’t drink much, being on the under five feet side of things, though only barely so. 🙂 But I know me some alcohol from prior days. Good advice you have. The first thing the state did after Hurricane Georges blew across the Keys was close the liquor stores/forbid liquor sales.

      1. Thank you kindly Miss Kathy. Most of what I say that’s good is swiped from older, wiser heads than mine. Can’t take the credit when I’m just passing on what was taught to me when I was a mite shorter, and had less practice in making my own mistakes. If what little I know helps someone, well, that’s a fine thing indeed.

        1. Humility is so attractive. 🙂

          My experience, yes, counts for something. But I’m standing on the shoulders of the giants as well.

  36. Psst. Sarah, Sarah . . . Sarah!

    Mask mandate ends here in Texas on Wednesday, only a year later than it should have. Come on south, the weather’s fine and there are places the lefties are outnumbered by the sane.

    -Albert

    1. What about the more local government levels and their mandates, though?

      My mom was glad that SC lifted the state restrictions, but Greenville (both city and county) still have theirs, as does Columbia and Charleston, covering the three biggest concentrations of population in the state.

  37. “But we know what the way to hell is paved with, right?”

    I think I do. And I know the road paved with good intentions passes through tyranny on its way to Hell.

    Working on my exit strategy, too. Mostly I just need to find a place the wife can be comfortable and start moving stuff in.

    1. I worked on a New Twilight Zone episode in which we were lost souls being trucked to hell.

      I can attest that the road to hell is a muddy unpaved track, and the transport is a cattle truck.

        2. There are as many routes to Hell as there are people.

          My understanding is that the stairway to Heaven is an escalator or possibly a transporter beam — it depends on Who you know.
          ~

        1. That’s for the bulk delivery. This was the 18 wheeler special.

          That was the episode with Steve Railsback. Let’s just say he gets a wee bit too much into the role… he actually got majorly upset over the idea that he was trucking us to hell. Musta been *seriously* not fun when he played Charles Manson.

          [if this posts a dozen times, it’s because WPDE and was greying out the Post button.]

  38. This summer, I will be spending an extended period of time with a family member I have not seen for over a year (their job + my job + their state travel restrictions). I plan on doing a lot of making interested sounds and nodding.

    1. Extra points if you can fit the meow scene from Super Troopers in successfully and undetected. Or at least minimally detected.

      1. Okay, I’m just drinking my coffee and reading all the comments and making notes, and then I have to rewrite them because I did a spit take. “Meow!”

  39. “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts…. You will stand trial before governors and kings on account of my name…. A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. And all nations will hate you on account of my name. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one town, flee to the next.”

  41. Thanks Sarah. Timely as always. Here in Deep Blue Chicago-land, I have kept a low profile for years now. Working at a University, well … it was survival. Retirement has lessened those ties dramatically. I can’t imagine my Bride ever leaving her children – my steps. One is true blue and has tried to educate us in a nasty sandbagging kind of evening talk. I walked out of the room. I had to or the result would have been family ending. We have a bolt-hole up in the mountains west and north of your world. It’s an end of the road kind of thing and we have some good neighbors. I expect getting there to be a challenge and have thought about routes and timing.

    I can imagine gun laws as a trip wire here. Some combination of Illinois State and Municipalities restricting ownership/possession. That has already cause conflict in families. And I can foresee laws that would make felons out of large numbers of our residents. Surrender your “fill-in-the-blank dangerous weapon” in 90 days, or else kinds of things … This would split families internally AND externally. Many individuals would willingly snitch on family and friend gun owners. I have zero doubt of that.

    1. Surrender your “fill-in-the-blank dangerous weapon” in 90 days, or else kinds of things … This would split families internally AND externally. Many individuals would willingly snitch on family and friend gun owners. I have zero doubt of that.

      This is true.

      And they will not see it as signing their family member’s death warrant; they will see the same as if the person had robbed a bank.

      1. Here is the level of crazy we deal with: I had a long conversation with son-in-law (married to step daughter) in which he smugly/repeatedly told me that a neighbor’s AR was a machine gun. All he had to do was flip a switch — I was assured — and it would go full-on assault rifle. You see he’s been around guns all his life and he KNOWS. So he says … At this point, my step is in tears, hysterical for fear their friends would go to jail because they owned an illegal machine gun.

        So go to these kinds of folks with the right appeal: “Save your parents/friends/relatives from themselves BEFORE they get into trouble …” They’ll collaborate.

        1. The trick with that would be to first try to clarify if it was *that specific AR* he was claiming was a machinegun, or (more likely) if it was ARs in general.

          Then offer $MONEY_CHUNK if he can demonstrate how to full-auto an AR. In front of his wife at bare minimum, but if more witnesses are available all the better.

          2. You’re mssing the point. ATF defines what a “machine gun” is. And they change it at their whim.

            Look up “atf shoe lace machine gun” to see how far down the stupid hole they’re willing to go. That they’ve *already* gone.

            Then look up “constructive possession” where a collection of items, none of which are a “machine gun”, magically become a “machine gun” because you *might* assemble them into something that meets their current definition of what a machine gun is. And in one famous case, just having tools that *might* be used to make a machine gun was enough, even though no “machine guns” were found.

      2. Arms are something I’m sure some of my family will sell out.

        Especially since the belief that the 6th was not an insurrection already has me on the outs with almost all immediate fam. Loudly, and angrily out.

        Also – Any way to get in touch, Ian? Haven’t had a reliable way since the G+ days.

        my @protonmail.com is lastredoubt

  42. “… I will remind you there are troops occupying our capital”

    Eh. More like our Capitol is occupying the troops. The troops do’t want to be there, after all, and would depart instantly given permission to go.
    ~

      1. Could be a “feature.” The Fed doesn’t have complete control of the Guards, and I’m sure many Pentagon types would prefer there were fewer of them, and demoralized.

  43. I’m fortunate; most of my relatives are as conservative as I am, except for one “progressive” sister who has gone no-contact. And my wife’s relatives are even MORE conservative than I am.

    We pulled up stakes and started planning to escape California a year ago; COVID delayed that, but not by much. Now we’re much better positioned to do some serious prepping in a somewhat rural area near San Antonio.

    Sarah, if you’re thinking of moving; I was delaying my own move to Texas, because I was worried about getting good high-speed internet service in rural areas. But there are some electric utilities that also provide gigabit fiber, and there are some REALLY out-in-the-boonies places that have outstanding service. One is the Bandera Electric Cooperative, northwest of San Antonio.

  44. On another note, if HR1 gets through the Senate, and the court punts it, I put the inevitable spiral into civil war trigger moment at January of next year, when Pelosi insists that a bunch of reps voted in through elections that ignored HR1 can’t be seated.

    I know this is more time than our Hostess estimates, so think of it as a potential absolute last moment if she turns out to be overly pessimistic.

      1. It depends on how the court rules. There’s still a possibility that the court might kill this thing. Even the ACLU has come out against some of the changes that it would institute.

        In any case, the trigger point would be when the Federal Government either attempts to take control of elections in states that refused to comply, or refuses to seat congresscritters from those same states.

        1. And then our states will seat our own Congress, and the Pelosi gang will issue arrest warrants, and things will go downhill from there.

    2. Oops!

      That should be January 2023.

      Got confused because the election will be in 2022.

        1. As you yourself have noted, they’ll still at least need to pretend to be following the forms. And (assuming HR1 passed through the Senate) if, say, Gov. DeSantis announces, “We just spent the last two decades fixing our voting processes after the 2000 election fiasco, and you don’t get to undo all of our hard work,” then the Federal Government won’t be able to ignore the challenge.

        2. There will be an “election”; it will even on the surface look like a genuine one; it will however, be no more a genuine election than those in Cuba under Castro, the Soviet Union under Stalin, Iran under the Mullahs, etc. It will be true “what matters is who counts the votes” territory.

    3. Yep – HR1 is a likely trigger point, because they’re pulling out all the stops, playing all the emotional triggers, and running all the usual lies up the flag pole. Calling ths the “For The People” Act, tying it to the late Rep. John Lewis, attacking the filibuster as an impediment to voting rights — having Speaker Pelosi and James Clyburn — who slandered the TEA Party as racist — guiding this abrogation of the Constitution is a modern equivalent of the Intolerable Acts. Combined with their “label does not accurately describe contents” Equality Act there would be no Constitution remaining, merely a scarecrow, a zombie.
      ~

      1. Tying it to Lewis actually makes a certain amount of sense, since he apparently submitted this thing (or something sufficiently close to it) at the start of every House term.

        But yes, this thing is very deadly.

      2. I think it could be HR-1 or a real attempt at gun confiscation, Whichever comes first. When they have the federal government, schools, media, entertainment, courts, tech, big business (have I left anything out?) then you know they are just about prepared to come for you. If your last line of defense is threatened, it’s really fight or flight time.

        1. Before they try seizing guns they will block the sale of them. I gather the bill currently under consideration extends the period permitted for the background check from three days to ten – business days, so two weeks if there is no Federal holiday. If they think they need still more time, they can “request” (any bets on the percentage of extensions granted) an additional ten business days.

          So plan ahead.
          ~

    4. There will not be an election in 2022. People might go through the motions of filling out ballots, but the ‘winners’ will be decided in secret by Democrat party hacks in locked rooms in the middle of the night.

    5. As I understand the bill, HR1 establishes the DC District Court as the venue for all legal challenges, so it is likely the cases will never reach the SCOTUS – at least not before they can be declared moot by virtue of another election having taken place.
      ~

  45. From a letter in a recent (Washington Post) “relationship & life” advice column:

    Most of my family members belong to the religion I was raised in, which I have come to view as wrong not just theologically but morally. The religion teaches prejudice and hatred.

    I am increasingly wondering whether I can, in good conscience, continue to have a loving relationship with these people. To me, the religion’s teachings are so wrong, so harmful, that acting friendly around them as long as religion doesn’t come up would be like having a friend who’s a member of a neo-Nazi organization and just turning a blind eye to it.

    Do you think that, for my own morality, I need to sever ties with my family?

    While it is possible this person has accurately described his or her family and religious upbringing, can we suggest they are wrong, over-reacting to minor differences, subject to the current fever that anybody not an active ally is an enemy?

    If your morality cannot stand occasional contact with a few fallen it is possibly less secure (and less correct) than you imagine.

    Yet American society seems riven with such nonsense, comparing people too readily to Neo-Nazis and closing their circles against imagined maligned influences. That anybody can seriously publicly ponder how to respond* to the Trump-supporting neighbor who (unasked) plowed the snow from her drive suggests too many people are forgetting their common humanity and needlessly seeing others as “Others.” The fact that those worrying about such problems have long been the people decrying “otherization” and denouncing any who disagree as homophobes, Islamophobes, transphobes, and deplorable just adds ironic icing to their crap cake.

    * The proper response to that neighbor, of course, is next time she sees him out and about, to wave, smile, and call out, “Thanks for taking care of my driveway the other day, you Trump-loving crypto-fascist Neanderthal!” You do not have to be of the same tribe (much less the same clan within that tribe) to treat somebody decently, and who knows: if you engage them in friendly conversation you might persuade them to see things your way.
    ~

    1. I read that and thought you were doing a details-scrubbed version of the folks whose family religion is “We’re Democrats.”

    2. To me, the religion’s teachings are so wrong, so harmful, that acting friendly around them as long as religion doesn’t come up would be like having a friend who’s a member of a neo-Nazi organization and just turning a blind eye to it.

      Thinking on it… isn’t there a guy who has successfully converted a LOT of neo-nazi types from their groups?

      Exactly by being honest, and open, and loving, when they expect hate?

      2. I don’t know about NNs, but Daryl Davis (as Dan Lane mentioned) has talked over 200 KKKers into hanging up their hoods, along with talking other supremacists (including black, mind you) out of their hatred.

        (For amusement purposes, I note that his participating in a conference about reducing hate got him labeled a “white supremacist” by the local-to-conference branch of Antifa, because of some of the other participants.)

        1. I doubt that there are 200 KKKers in the US, if you subtract the number of FBI infiltrators and informants…

            1. One of the things that most annoyed me about the Clinton Administration was how much they enhanced the credibility of the John Birch Society.
              ~

          2. Well he has been doing it over the course of many years (I forget how many, offhand).

      3. I’m still boggled at the idea that anybody would write a newspaper advice columnist for moral guidance in such an instance.

        If my family were borderline Neo-Nazis I wouldn’t need anybody‘s “permission” to cut ties – and certainly not anyone working at the Washington post.
        ~

          2. Back in the day, Dear Abby and Ann Landers were like the comics pages – a light diversion from serious matters. They also had the salient benefit of enabling many people to declare, “My life may be messed up, but it isn’t that messed up!”

            The particular WP columnist this is from does a very good job of dismantling writer’s problems, reminding of the importance of maintaining boundaries and explaining to people that they cannot “fix” other people, they can only fix themselves (which sometimes means choosing between tolerating or separating from the “problem” people.) It has the same benefit as a god Math text: illustrating methods of breaking problems down into soluble components.

            It also has the side benefit of being illustrated by (sometimes) delightful cartoons.
            ~

            1. *stumbles* There’s a Doctor Ray (Catholic Psychologist, show “The Doctor is In”) who does advice columns?!

              Is this allowed?

            2. >> “It has the same benefit as a god Math text”

              A GOD math text? Can somebody link me to one of those? I’ve been looking for a way to divide by zero…

        2. 1. Virtue Signaling. We can’t even know for certain that this person has a family.

          2. Caring what the neighbors think is a hell of a drug.

          3. People get really weird about the idea of cutting off family.

        3. Like consultants, they give you permission to do what you want to do anyway. Unless you hit on one who advises you otherwise.

    3. Want to bet that same letter writer screams in outrage at any criticism of Islam, particularly when people point out specific passages that Jihadists use to justify violence against “the infidels”

        1. Thirty pieces of silver might actually be worth something these days. Price of metal fluctuates though, and there’s also the cost to consider, not just the price.

          1. I was just remembering how some years ago some advice columns admitted they had a staff of writers to make sure they had enough things for their columnists to give advice on. Wish I could remember which ones.

  46. There may be people that don’t believe this will happen, people would just not do this.
    There is a perfect example – people, even children, turning in people for being in DC on the 6th.
    This is exactly what you are talking about. I was really surprised that you didn’t use it.
    No need to say this COULD happen, it is happening RIGHT NOW!!

  47. I cut ALL of the liberals, all of the hard lefties, ALL of those people out of my life some years ago. I read history I could see the writing on the wall. Been prepping for it for some time now. Kept hoping I was just being paranoid, but unfortunately it all keeps coming true.
    It’s going to be bad, and things are going to start going downhill so fast here real soon, that people aren’t going to know what hit them.

  48. There’s something to be said for not having close friends to begin with. As I acquire some, I think the times will bless me with a lot more clarity than might have been true ten years ago.

    I always wondered what people talked about leading up to the Civil War. Now I have an idea.

  49. And so in response to my e-mail letter and phone call telling him to vote AGAINST HR1, I get the following:

    Letter Begins

    March 8, 2021
    Dear Michael,
    Thank you for contacting me regarding H.R. 1 and reforming our system of government. I value you taking the time to reach out to me, as it helps me better represent you and New Hampshire’s priorities in Congress.
    Our political system unfairly favors special interests and big corporations. I believe we must take bold action to change business as usual in Washington and to ensure that our democracy truly works for the American people. We won’t begin to make progress on lowering the cost of prescription drugs, building an economy that works for everyone, and improving our education system, until the special interests are put in their place, and H.R. 1 will help us do that.
    Introduced by Rep. John Sarbanes (MD-03), H.R. 1 is a forward-thinking democracy reform package that will limit the influence of big money in our politics, protect voting rights, and impose new ethics reforms to help end the culture of corruption that still exists in Washington.
    Americans want to get big money out of politics, end the culture of corruption in Washington, and make it easier for people to access their most fundamental right to vote. By limiting the influence of big money and corporate special interests we can put the power of our democracy back in the hands of the people. This bill provides for greater transparency and accountability, ensures members of Congress are working for their constituents and not themselves, and makes it easier—not harder—to exercise your right to vote.
    I voted for this bill when it passed the House on March 3, 2021, with a vote of 220 to 210. The passage of H.R. 1 in the House of Representatives was a critical first step in putting the power of our democracy back in the hands of the American people. These crucial reforms will ensure our government is truly of, by, and for the people, and I hope the Senate will take up this legislation quickly.
    In New Hampshire, we solve problems by respecting one another, listening to our neighbors, and working for the common good. H.R. 1 marks an important step towards the creation of a political system in Washington that better reflects the Granite State way of doing business. Even when we may disagree, I hope that you will continue to reach out and share your thoughts.
    Nothing is more important to me than listening to my constituents and ensuring that every voice in my district is heard. No matter your perspective, your thoughts help me do better as I work to bring Granite State voices to Washington. Each message makes a difference, so I hope you will stay in touch. As always, you can keep up with the work I am doing by signing up for my weekly update at https://pappas.house.gov/contact/newsletter.
    Sincerely,

    Member of Congress

    Chris Pappas

    Letter Ends

    OBVIOUSLY NOT LISTENING!
    And either as corrupt as the devil, or dumber than dirt.

    1. Allow for the possibility of both, Mike. The whole thing reads like a bought-and-paid-for politician. I’m not worried about people being unable to vote because it is too hard for them to register, I am worried about corruption at the ballot box. I am worried about the clear signs of corruption in the election system not just the obvious and blatant corruption in DC. Anyone that truly wants free and fair elections should at the very least support cleaning up the voter rolls and, oh, maybe having actual verifiable chain of custody of the ballots.

      1. Tyrants always promise “big bold action” and claim that government has all the answers and society will be a paradise if only government is given even more power.

        1. Yep. When the only answer to every question, every problem is “Give me more power,” that tells you what the real problem is.

          Only a fool seeks power over other adults of sound mind “for their own good.” But a tyrant, such a man needs no such excuse. Power for power’s sake is his only calling.

      2. Quite possibly a form letter developed at the national level. All he’d do is fill in the name and nickname of the state.

    3. Embrace the power of *and* – I believe that it was C. S. Lewis who indicated that that the practice of evil tends to destroy the intellect, so if the starting point is already low, then . . . .

    7. “OBVIOUSLY NOT LISTENING!”

      And once HR1 is enacted he’ll not only never have to listen again, he won’t even have to pretend to. Just think of the savings Congress will realize not needing to have staff to send out such form letters!

      May their enjoyment of such betrayal of our Constitution be as brief as our anger about it is long.
      ~

    8. Reads like copy-and-paste from a sales presentation. Long on symbols of patriotism or nationalism or religion and short on reason or appeal to intelligence. Basically this bastard has sent you a form letter telling you that you do not matter too him.

      All while stroking your ego.

      An excellent example of why “politics” is so often viewed by the rational as a portmanteau of poly (many) and ticks (blood sucking vermin).

  50. I always wish I had the opportunity to jump on here before this time of night. Is anyone out there?

    I don’t really have any current friends or relatives that are beyond hope lefties. A couple of young ones that are about 75% but could still wake up. There are a few that are downright frustrating because they really don’t think the problems are that serious. You know, we can just get along and bail everything out in the 2022 mid-terms and in the 2024 elections. Then we’ll be back where we belong. Things that bad could never happen here.

    Relatives kid me and say I’m “defiant” (ha,ha,ha) because I hardly ever wear a mask and don’t plan on getting a beer flu shot. They shrug about the stealection, but have trouble believing they have been fed phony covid numbers. When I tell them about things that are truly happening, their eyes glaze over because they’ve never heard or read about these things. They don’t even know about Catholic (they are long time Catholics) and Christian prophecies that can shed some light on the times. The most frustrating part is that they are too lazy or uninterested to do the research. Not that I’m prepped with an off-grid cabin in the mountains, but these people are really going to have their mental and spiritual pants down when things get really confrontational.

    Rant over. Good night.

    1. “Is anyone out there?”

      Kid, you would not believe how late some of us ride this hobby horse!
      ~

        1. Yep. 1:30 AM our son isn’t even home from work yet. He feeds the cats their canned food and goes to bed at 5 AM PST. Not that he is on this blog … Then too, don’t we have people on the blog down in Australia, up in England. Over in Hawaii and in Japan? Or rather posters All Over The Time Zones. This post for me is early with an E. Dog needed to go out. Kittens threatened to play race track dragging a shoe lace if someone didn’t entertain … I’m the one up. The others can sleep. Guess I can catch a nap later …

          Son really needs the sleep tonight. He finally got about 6 hours sleep yesterday. Over 24 hours of Flu or Food Poisoning symptoms, as in needed Imodium AD, Probiotics to regain gut health, and Pedolight fluids to restore electrolytes, and lots of water (Pharmacy said Gatorade not enough). He took sick leave. We’ll see how today goes. He did finally ate a little and kept it down last night, or alternatively, hasn’t ran through him. Hubby and I have had our flu shots, if that is what it is, we have a chance of avoiding it. Ditto on food poisoning; if it hasn’t hit us yet, then wasn’t food eaten with us. OTOH the crowd he was with Saturday, no one else reported in sick either … How long can it take for food poisoning to hit? Symptoms started Sunday.

          1. Could be food poisoning. Depending on the contaminant, anywhere from hours to a couple of weeks after it is ingested you get symptoms. Could still be stomach flu or something similar, but if you two are okay, it could well just be food poisoning. If he’s eating again and keeping it down, that’s a good sign. Sounds like y’all have a good handle on it, but sorry the poor guy is suffering.

            Shadowdancer is Aussie, if I’m not mistaken, and I know we have a guy that posts from Japan from time to time. Others in “undisclosed locations” which could be anywhere, too.

            1. Thank you.

              Sounds like if food poisoning, not going to trace it back to anywhere unless there is a rash of them reported, which won’t happen unless people are hospitalized. Here’s hoping, if the flu then it is the 24 to 48 variety and done.

          2. Sounds like stomach flu, and you’re doing everything right. Once he’s stopped ejecting from both ends, a BRAT diet to everything settle. (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast.) Sending some healing prayers for your boy!

            1. Thank you.

              If he was younger (under age). He’d have been at an urgent clinic. Now, well over, even college age, have to leave that decision to him. He is as bad as his dad, and mom, if I’m honest. (Do I think I’m dying? No? Just miserable doesn’t count. Don’t need doctor, yet.)

            2. A good electrolyte replacement drink/powder helps me very much also. Propel is a good option, Powerade if you can find it. Anything with potassium and sodium in heaping quantities.

    2. The joy of a blog’s comments is that people who will be back later can still talk to you, even if it is nine when you post.

  51. Expect Democrats to make a massive push to enact their entire radical agenda within the next month or two, nuking the filibuster to do it, because they know Biden’s time as a figurehead is running short.

    https://nypost.com/2021/03/08/biden-seems-to-forget-defense-secretarys-name/

    If Harris formally becomes President, she is no longer VP and the Dems lose their tie-breaking vote in the Senate until a new VP is confirmed, which requires Senate approval. The Dems know they are going to lose that tie-breaking vote soon and thus they will try ram every piece of radical leftist legislation through Congress before that occurs.

      1. It is actually a good argument. The Court’s however will never actually disqualify her based on that standard, however, although I could see Pelosi hoping they do, because if Harris is disqualified then as Speaker, Pelosi becomes POTUS, and we all know that she wants to rule as queen.

  52. People I know offline are mostly sane although I’ve drifted away from an internet community I was involved in for 10 or so years – pretty much everyone there who doesn’t lean strongly left has disappeared. It’s sad to lose that since it wasn’t just an online thing; we had a big yearly get-together at a con.

  53. This Prager U video does a good job of revealing a big part of why so many on the Left are bitter, miserable, and unhappy:

    Clue: it is part of their business plan.
    ~

  54. Power Line blogger John Hinderaker (neither the site’s most nor least Trump-supportive member) points to a book sure to soon be blacklisted:

    THE DEEP RIG
    Was the 2020 presidential election stolen? That question continues to reverberate through our public life. Today I downloaded a new book by Patrick Byrne called The Deep Rig. It purports to tell the true story of how the Democrats stole the election, and why the Trump administration and the GOP bungled their opportunity to do something about it.

    I am half-way through the book, and am not prepared to express an opinion on it. I will say this: Byrne is not a nobody. And he describes events in detail, like his account of a meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office. In his telling, the heroes are quants and hackers like him, along with General Michael Flynn, Sydney Powell, and one or two others. Villains (if only on account of their haplessness) include Rudy Giuliani, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, and most of those who tried and failed to do something about the election.

    Byrne’s account is riveting and contains links to videos, spread sheets, etc. Is he correct in alleging that Democrats in a handful of key swing state counties used electronic mischief to swing the election to Joe Biden? I don’t know. I hope that over the next year or two the truth will emerge. Meanwhile, Byrne’s book is a good place to start. I would suggest that you buy it fast, before it is banned.
    ~

    1. The commenter there called Aesop was me.

      And when I think about the topic of this post, what comes to mind isn’t “Oh, So-and-so would never do _______ …”. Because yes, yes they would.
      Instead, what I see is Rolf, at the end of the Sound Of Music. He discovers the von Trapp family in the crypts, and as Capt. von Trapp implores him to escape to freedom with them, because “you’re not really one of them…”, the little Nazi b***ard pulls out his whistle, inflates his lungs to the limits of his Hitler Jugend uniform shirt, and blows the alarm for all he’s worth.

      If I remade that movie today, I’d have Capt. von Trapp empty half a magazine into his face before making his escape, and save some poor dogface from having to do it in the Normandy hedgerows or the Ardennes in a few years.

      I have some blood kin that fall in the sweet spot of Sarah’s category of braindead family, and should the balloon go up, they won’t be merely unwelcome, they’ll be the poster children of shoot-on-sight orders.
      And not metaphorically.

      I the immortal words of Casper Guttman: “Wilmer, you’re like a son to me. But one can always get another son. There’s only one Maltese Falcon.“

  56. A lot of the people who are likely to turn you in are the young adults in your life. Nieces, nephews, maybe your kids? All who have drunk the leftist kool aid because they have so much leisure and resources in a western country they have the time to feel slighted because life doesn’t live up to their fantasies.

    They have no idea how bad life can be outside of western civilization. Give them a tiny little taste of that by stopping all help to them. How many of your lefty adult kids are on your cell phone plan? How many are still on your car insurance? Your gym membership? Streaming accounts?

    How many checks do you send to your nieces and nephews for graduating with that Critical Race Theory tainted degree or marrying that leftist loon? STOP. Stop subsidizing people who have no idea of what the consequences of their actions will be and disrespect everything you stand for.

    Tell them you can’t afford to help them what with the coming Biden tax increases and the spiking of gas prices. MAKE THEM EXPERIENCE SOME OF THE PAIN THEY ARE SUPPORTING. If only a microscopic amount. They are turning their backs on the Constitution, Western Civ and their ancestor’s sacrifices. You can return the favor by at least NOT upholding the social conventions of baby shower gifts and Birthday checks.

  58. And above all don’t let yourself become someone you won’t be able to live with after.

    There are people who already know if the balloon goes up they will have to become that. You can hear it when they talk about their preparations or their plans if they survive it all.

    Listen and note who they are. Some, at least, will be willing to help you in very ugly ways if needed so that they are the only ones damned because they did what was needed to survive.

    You can pray you never need to ask for that help. I will pray with you. But you also need to do the other side of being a Boy Scout.

    1. AKA, “Wait until the people who just wanted to be left alone get involved.”

      People who worry about living with what they have to do might want to look up William Tecumseh Sherman and General Patton. Make an informed choice. And decide in advance what your lines are. It’ll save you a lot of grief, it you survive.

      1. Sometimes the correct answer is to charge one of the strongest fleets afloat in something that barely qualifies as a warship.

        Sometimes you even win.

  59. Twitter suing Texas AG, asserting that the AG is upset at the decision by Twitter to ban Trump:

    https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2021/03/09/twitter-sues-texas-ag-ken-paxton-claims-retaliation-over-trump-ban/

    Twitter’s suit, asserts that their ban of Trump was, in their own words, an EDITORIAL DECISION, constitutes proof they are a publisher and not a platform under Federal Law, and are therefore not protected from claims of libel and defamation, and should be treated like any other publisher.

  60. Sarah, we are leaving Illinois and headed to Tennessee, come join us. If it’s good enough for Roger Simon….

    1. Not all parts of Tennessee are equal. My sister lived in Memphis for a decade or more. There is no way I would live in Memphis without being generously compensated. Six figures annually is just an opening bid.
      ~

      1. Hmm. That’s like saying I went to Illinois once and I didn’t like Chicago at all. So I didn’t like Illinois if it’s all like that.

        1. I gather Illinois is quite nice, aside from Chicago, those areas subordinate to it, such as Evanston, and Springfield (another wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago.) Tennessee is, I gather, a mostly lovely state except for Memphis (which is not entirely bad.)

          My argument is based on distinguishing between largely laudable localities and the idea the state is entirely commendable. I have bee given to believe that even some parts of New York are not god-forsaken hellholes (although, as in California, efforts are underway to reduce those polities.)
          ~

  61. Hmph. I live in Texas, but in Houston so I may not be safe as it might seem. I can go to my father or sister’s house and my sister and brother-in-law are armed. Who knows?

    Though I ran into something like what Sarah describes, starting in the 2004 election. I made it known that I’d voted to reelect W and got some… irked replies from people who quickly downgraded themselves to acquaintances. Then came ’08 and you’d think they’d be happy but in some ways they got worse.

  63. Interesting – Chuck Lorre is Left even by Hollywood standards and spent four years displaying textbook TDS on his after-show title cards. This last week his card read:

    Maybe he is rubbing salt in wounds, maybe he is acknowledging there was something hinky in that voting. I expect him to be cancelled any day now.
    ~

    2. A poll by Rasmussen two weeks after the election found that 30% of Democrats polled thought that there was very likely something wrong with the election results. That’s the kind of thing that should make people sit up and take notice.

      1. I saw – I also wish Rasmussen had inquired whether those 30% approved or disapproved.
        ~

  64. Pingback: How wide is the gap between extreme partisanship and sectarian violence? « Quotulatiousness

  65. Haven’t read all the comments, but I assert that it’s not even so much the ones YOU know that you need to be concerned about, it’s the ones THEY know who don’t know YOU.

    I’m not worried about this or that bozo whom I know is a liberal idiot. It’s the liberal idiots THEY know who I worry about. And my friend, in the middle of a pack of howling liberal idiots, isn’t going to be able to do anything to tell them, “Hey, HE’s ok!!”, even if they are inclined to take the obvious risk of having that howling mob turn on THEM.

    I’d be looking at Minnesota as the flash point, ATM… I can see the trial of Chauvin being the Big Set Off, if he is (rightly) found not guilty. That’s speculation.

  66. Isn’t it funny how Teddy Spaghetti once said you’d never be a real American, and now he regularly mentions you very positively and links to your stuff?
    I just find it amusing to the point of risible.

      1. Teddy Spaghetti is the handle bestowed upon Theodore Beale, aka Vox Day, aka The Supreme Dark Lord, etc, by Revenge of the Cis. He’s called Teddy Spaghetti because he designed a game about an Italian restaurant.

  67. A. Future elections are not a viable means to change our Republic back. See treasonous election fraud Nov 2020.

    2. You can’t reason with leftists, AKA democrats. If you could, there would be no leftists.

    Thirdly. We all die. Having the choice of a specific hill to die upon is a blessing!

    d. The commandment was “Thou shalt not murder”, not the NRSV version. See the Torah for the original version. War is an exception. G-d KNOWS that some people need killing.

    Finally, Your duty to your descendants is something you decide. I will not allow my country to become Venezuela II un-challenged. My children should not have to eat their pets to survive.

    6) If you diagnose someone as a true believer leftist, see #2 above and act accordingly.

    Defense does not win conflicts. Offense does.

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