When The Music Stops

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Musical chairs is one of those “mythical common experiences” that I never experienced except between the pages of a book.

Some of the other mythical experiences are due to my clumsiness. Like for instance jump rope. I’m sorry. I’ve seen other people do it. At one time, in fact, after trying to teach brother and I to do it, mom — then in her forties. We needed it for some physical for sports thing — tore the rope from my brothers hands and jumped rope for ten minutes to show us how easy it was.

Cool. I’ve seen other people do it. So I know it’s not invented. But my hands and feet do not coordinate their movements at all (I once reduced a driving instructor to tears because he was trying to teach me something that required hand – foot coordination. Thank heavens for automatic) and it must be hereditary because no one in Dad’s family can jump rope… or ride a bicycle. Oh, we can learn. But then our brain erases it, and next time we meet a bicycle we have to learn again. So we walk everywhere. Curiously, that side of the family also hates driving enough that many of the men have their wives drive them life-long, which if you know Latin culture says a lot.

Anyway, after that long digression: I don’t remember ever being offered a chance to play musical chairs. If I had been, I probably would have balked. Like other things, such as dodge ball it seemed like a set up in which smaller, more agile kids would be able to laugh at me, taking revenge on all the times I showed them up in class. So, hard nope.

I did play Simon Says, but only electronically.

Musical chairs and Simon Says are both games in which to succeed best you must turn off your brain and just play along to the external cues.

As such I suspect a lot of us who “think too much” or tend to analyze everything, or have a big disconnect between pilot and meat-bot don’t excel at those. Which, frankly, it’s pretty terrible for social apes, right?

Hence why Dave Freer refers to people like us as “goats” in a flock of sheep. And he says every social species have some of us, and we’re necessary. If a band or flock runs off all its goats, it’s susceptible to being stampeded off a cliff, because they all turn off their brain and follow.

People like us are needed to tell the dear fuzzy brains “No. Stop that crap. It makes no sense.”

Even when it gets really tiring, like over the last year and a half.

But it is the last year and a half I want to call your attention to.

Look, if you’ve lived under a rock till this moment, this is how musical chairs works. There’s a group, and there’s a number of chairs that’s one less than the number of butts to sit on them.

When the music plays, you all run around in circles. When the music stops, you’re supposed to secure a chair. The one who didn’t secure the chair is eliminated.

Most top-down totalitarian societies are a game of musical chairs. They need the eliminated ones, the enemy. And they need the chairs to be short.

Hence the lockdowns bringing dire shortages and poverty are an intended feature, because the current regime needs to create scarcity in order to get people to act like sheep just to “get a chair.”

The big problem they have? it’s not working. Not in the US. Sure, there have been shortages, and losses. But the country is so vast, so immensely wealthy, that we’re relocating and retrenching at speed, and there are still chairs leftover.

What is worse for them, is that the ability to make people run and stop by playing their senseless music is breaking down.

And it’s not even the internet. It’s people’s back-brain sense that they’re being taken for a ride.

It would be like the music plays, then they stop to laugh, then it plays again, then they tell us stopping doesn’t count unless it’s three in a row, then they tell us that when the music plays it’s not playing. Then while we’re all seated, they insist there’s someone standing, then….

One summer, when my friends and I got together, and we were all incredibly non-athletic, we played a game that can only be described as Calvinball. Even that had to have internal rules. Such as “you don’t retroactively invalidate someone’s play.” Or “you can’t make rules unless you have the ball.” And even then the sheer inconsistency of the rules and the play meant that within days we had to stop it or never talk to each other again.

There are two things that get the flock riled up — and by flock I mean no insult, I mean the group of people who are normal social apes who “follow the leader” by instinct — one is constant rule changes and HISTORY changes; the other is knowing they’ve been taken for a ride.

There are signs the flock is catching on to this with a vengeance. The media needed full control of communication to be able to sell certain rather impossible things, like the idea that Obama was some kind of savior, or the idea that Hillary was a role model. But they added in things that were gratuitous stupidity like that Michelle Obama is a ravishing beauty. Or that various non-entities are geniuses, or–

Their ability to carry a unified story broke down during the Clinton’s reign, which is why most people would go along with the narrative, but felt there was something skivvy going on.

As bad as that was, their powers are much diminished now. Despite screaming 24/7 that Trump is the debil, a majority (more and more looking like an overwhelming majority, or as I told a friend “If Colorado won’t allow an audit, Biden didn’t win Colorado fairly. And if he didn’t win Californicated Colorado, he might have won one state. MAYBE.” Because guys allowing audits of states they KNOW Biden won would be the way to counter the bad publicity from the ones that endured extreme cheating. If they won’t do that? They won nowhere.) of Americans hunched their shoulders and voted for Orangemanbad. Some probably out of no more than a mulish certainty that if the left says something, it’s wrong.

Or look at their attempts to sell the vaccine, and how many of us shrug and go “Whatevs.” To the point they’re now threatening to make us take it by force and dreaming up totalitarian ways to do it.

And that’s the problem, see. There was a post in American thinker about how we couldn’t do anything now but fall in line and be subsumed (that’s not what the writer thought he was saying) because communists had the institutions, and we all knew there was no getting off.

Bah.

These communists are sad critters. We made them fight us long enough that when their long march succeeded they were already a) in charge mostly of bypassed or ignorable institutions (like universities. Sure, they control them, and most people say what they have to to get a sheep skin, but only crazy people believe it.) b)at the fourth generation promoted through having the correct beliefs and connections, not being good at anything (look, this is a group among whom Obama is a genius, okay? And Occasional Cortex is “Normal”) c) their leaders have no understanding of anything, up to and including how people work.

So….

Look, they stumbled on this one trick, which was locking everyone down, using our basic decency and our safetyism against us. You want other people to be safe, right? so, you’ll simon-says whatever you think.

And for a while there they got near complete compliance.

Until it became obvious there were no bodies on the street corners. Before the “all clear” sounded and the mask mandate revocation, the enforcement was breaking down. We might grumble and wear masks in church because you don’t want to have an argument with a little old lady, but we’d rip it off outside, no matter what governor fumduck said. And the people wearing it while driving got laughed at.

In fact, the “Okay, you don’t have to wear masks” looked uncommonly like running to catch up with where the people were going and placing themselves at the head.

The problem is they know ONE TRICK. That’s the only thing that’s worked for them — other than massive cheating, of course — in a decade.

And people aren’t obeying. Hell, even the story that January 6th was as bad as the civil war is getting no traction. In decades past conservatives would pile on it themselves. But now we’re not. We’re laughing at them. We’re pointing out nothing much happened, and people were right about the fraud, anyway.

They know one trick. Hence the “delta variant is scariest ever” and “We must lock down again.”

Look, they’re not very bright. They don’t get that on the third time of “Okay, okay, that stop of the music doesn’t count” people just sit and glare at you.

And once it becomes obvious that in fact you’ve been doing this to mess with people and make them play the fools, so you can enjoy yourself, you’ll be lucky to escape with a severe beating.

Or to put it in flock terms: herbivores are trivially easy to stampede. What you might not realize is that if they perceive what is in the middle of them is not in fact a predator, just something looking like a predator to scare you, they will turn and kill it. In fact, they might very well eat it.

People haven’t been buying the narrative for a while. Oh, they might buy that Delta is scary, but the reaction is not “we must mask and lockdown and have a new vaccine.” It’s “Well, if none of that worked, then we won’t do it again.”

The left doesn’t get that. They are fourth-generation-of-communist stupid. And because they took the prestige institutions they also think they’re very very smart. And everyone else is dumber.

They’re going to keep pushing their one trick, and trying to get people to fall into line. They’re going to amp up the screaming about things people can SEE aren’t so. They’re going to continue playing the music, thinking this time it will work.

And they don’t realize every lie loses them credibility. Every attempt to get us to buy ridiculous bullshit (CRT) by force, or to be vaccinated by force, or every threat to nuke us, just makes it less likely we’ll ever do what they want.

So…. They’re going to keep pushing and pushing. Until the herd turns.

It’s not us the goats they should be afraid of. It’s the herd turning, in sudden unreasoning fury. (So should we. Some of us will get caught up in the right’s horrible lack of targeting ability when it comes to profiling the left.)

It’s getting closer every day.

But the left, in lieu of real achievement and power has fallen into the habit of telling themselves self-soothing lies, and ignoring inconvenient facts. Which is why no one is talking about the massive and extreme movement of Americans all over the country, but generally from less free to more free.

Just like they ignored the falling numbers of book printing after they take over that, they’re coming up with strange and bizarre excuses for what is in fact the herd putting its head up and sniffing the air.

This won’t end well. Next time the music stops, or the next, the people playing musical chairs are going to get up and grab the chair.

And then the music will be rough and awful. And final.

All of which could be avoided, if the left didn’t think that resistance is an invitation to push harder, or that no really means yes, or that it’s foretold they win in the end.

As it is though, not much even we goats can do, except get to a secure place until it’s said and done.

Because even the gods can’t save fools from their folly.

321 thoughts on “When The Music Stops”

  1. And it appears good ol’ Mitch McConnell got his spine removed (again–what is this, the fourth time it got removed since Trump left office?) and is threatening “lockdown if you don’t get vaccinated.”

    I’d had some feeble hopes of him when Trump was in office and he seemed to grow a spine, but. Nope. Vichy Michy needs to go too.

      1. Yeah. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to him until the last few Obama years, and then during Trump, when it seemed such a dramatic change of spine-growing. But yep. Definitely always an idiot, and a RINO, and ready to flip-flop like a fish on a dime.

        I agree, lockdown won’t work. But the threats are getting tiresome.

      2. It is not, repeat, not going to happen. Not lockdown, not universal mask-wearing, and I believe that everyone who wanted to be vaccinated for the Commie Crud has already gotten the jab or jabs. The rest of us will not be bullied or dragooned or threatened into it. It is my good luck to live in a state where the governor appears to agree with me on these matters. People have had enough, more than enough, and I don’t care how much the local PBS science and medicine reporter scare-mongers about the delta variant, (Delta could mean Death!!! Eleventy!!)

        1. I cannot describe how MUCH I wish I could take back getting that damn jab.

          Well. I can still hoist my middle fingers all the same. 😀

          1. Well, since we all have enough imagination to envision a genius supervillain devising a binary (or trinary) bioweapon unsuspectingly delivered by the pharmaceutical companies and the governments of the world, it’s easy to suspect the COVID vaccine. However, I don’t think the Chinese have enough sophistication to pull something like that off. So I’m not worried about having gotten the vaccine.

            1. I finally got it (family pressure). Even though I probably had the WuFlu back in Jan-Feb of ’20. The only reaction thus far is an enormous muscle bruise because the pharmacist didn’t know how to give a shot to a redhead.

              3. I ended up with a deep muscle ache (shot was administered fine, it was the stuff) and rather miserably sick for most of the week. Par for the course with that kind of vaccine for me–it’s one of the main reasons I don’t get the flu ‘vaccine’ ever. I always get really sick off the shot, and then I end up inevitably catching the flu later that season anyway 😀

            2. Oh, I’m not worried about that bit. I wanna take it back because I’m contrary and would far rather be able to say to any goon trying to pressure me into getting to piss off. 😀

        2. “The rest of us will not be bullied or dragooned or threatened into it. It is my good luck to live in a state where the governor appears to agree with me on these matters. ”

          And all that will mean is that they can’t call the cops. Unless a law gets passed, each business will be enforcing it because they will be sued into oblivion if they don’t. Think the kind of people who systematically visit businesses looking for ADA violations. They’ll be customers or employees.

          At that point, look for the insurance companies to either start cancelling policies or just raising rates unless the policyholder checks vax status and has a mask policy.

          1. Business enforcing it? Eh? I’m in Oregon, granted the Deplorable/flyover portion, but had to do business for a few days west of the Cascades, AKA Karen-Central. One brand of grocery store says they enforce masks and/or not-vax paperwork, complete with checker. One hell of an invisible checker; haven’t seen one since the winter lockdowns ended. This was true both East and West, where a 30 year old Karen mother was towing her 3 year old with face masks on both. (Store name redacted to protect the innocent.)

            The only place I actually had to wear a mask was at my eye-specialist’s place. Not sure if it’s state or federal regulations, but it is enforced there. OTOH, at 67, I’m in the younger half of the patient demographic for that practice.

            I’d suggest you drop the black pills.

              1. Can confirm that. I’m pretty sure I myself have accused Steve of being a doomer.

                There is a case that I still am.

                1. I’m not sure there’s a word for what I am, because while I firmly believe the current shell of our republic is going to have to be demolished, I still have hope we can use the original blueprint to build anew.

                  “Oh, veiled and secret Power
                  Whose paths we seek in vain,
                  Be with us in our hour
                  Of overthrow and pain;
                  That we – by which sure token
                  We know Thy ways are true –
                  In spite of being broken,
                  Because of being broken
                  May rise and build anew
                  Stand up and build anew.”

                  https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/hymn_of_breaking_strain.html

              2. I agree with your contention that TINWWAVOWOOT, but I suspect that like people voting with their feet, a fair amount of businesses will find different insurance providers if ACME Insurance tries it. (different story if all insurance companies agree to do it.) That grocery store I mentioned is a major chain (still redacting the name to protect any managers) not enforcing the rulles *because there is competition*.

                When Kate (spit) Brown had the mask requirements going for businesses, I got fed up and started to wear my bandana as a neck decoration. Breathing is more important to me than virtue signalling–see asthma, history thereof. One day’s shopping in town, maybe 7-9 places stopped at (we run 7 to 15 stops during a weekly trip), I had one store that bugged me about masking. They specifically noted that the rule was silly, but the state would give them trouble. If I had gone into the Not-Cabelas, it would have been two. They were under threat of having their gun section closed off. OTOH, the farm and ranch store with gun section did not have people masked up. Nor the mini-club store with gun section.

                The defiance for the first lockdowns was not widespread, but it was intense when it showed. One restaurant ignored the take-out-only rules and opened its dining room for good in the midst of the lockdown. Major uproar from the state, but that restaurant (not a chain) is still in business. The county authorities told the state to pound sand, and I gather that the lawyers have discovered that the fines assessed by the state didn’t have legal backup. FWIW, the only reason I didn’t eat at that restaurant during the lockdown was that I couldn’t find a parking space. (That and dietary restrictions make me wary of any new place.)

                1. ‘vdifferent story if all insurance companies agree to do it.”

                  If you saw my post on my experience with painkillers, that’s apparently happening in other areas; I’m somewhat surprised it hasn’t spread to this. Given what we’re seeing in other areas of the government (DoD / DOJ / etc.) in using “private” companies to get around the 1st, 4th, and 5th Amendments, they’ll get there.

            3. Masking is pretty much over, here. The doctor’s office requires it, one store I go to requires their employees be masked, and maybe 10% of people in general wearing masks. Demographics a bit different from last year: black in general, teens/young adults (except Hispanic), a smattering of seniors, and angry-looking women who might as well have KAREN tattooed on their foreheads.

              Seeing way fewer masks outdoors now, and haven’t seen on driving in several weeks.

          2. I’m a hothead, and my reaction to such a situation is not indicative of how a median citizen would react.
            That said, I can say with confidence that a statistically significant percentage would take the imposition incredibly poorly.

        3. Agreed! Here in Arizona, the plandemic has been over for more than a year, and almost nobody has worn a mask in months…It would be impossible to revive this scam from the dead, IMO…

          1. I like RCPete am in Oregon, but not in flyover country. In the middle of bite-my-tongue-it-isn’t-worth-jail-time, southern Willamette Valley. My husband frequents a local golf coarse, men’s club, coarse membership, plays 6 of 7 days more times than not; 18 holes 4 of 7 days, unless weather is too unforgiving, all year. The signs went up at the coarse. No one. Not even the *liberals (and there are a few), no matter the age, and while not the youngest by any means, he is one of the youngest (69), of those who are retired and play daily.

            I originally was going to put the vaccine off as long as possible. OTOH think I’ve already had it, so the vaccine wasn’t going to hurt one way or the other.

            1. I found it noteworthy that the outfit ignoring its own signs is a major grocery chain. I think the ability of people to vote with their feet has a lot to do with the declining insistance on following arbitrary rules. Note: the last I looked, the requirement for the non-vaxxed to mask up was removed from the state proposals after Despicable Kate Brown got a bunch of blowback for the vax-passport idea. It’s “encouragement”, not “requirement.”

              There’s some evidence going around that the non-vaccine (hell, it’s a genetic therapy, decidedly not a vaccine) tends to have more adverse effects on people who’ve had the disease. Not sure I’ve seen any numbers; such information seems to have escaped the notice of mainstream propaganda. (Also saw an article indicating that the CDC is bypassing the VAERS database and querying “vaxxed” people directly. Adverse reaction reporting would then be the responsibility of the CDC to put it in VAERS–good luck with that.)

        4. Oh, Delta doesn’t scare you? Well…bwahahahaha….meet LAMBDA!!

          Oh, wait. That’s not scaring you either? Hell. Um, well what about Mu? No? Damn. Bring on more variants! The peasants are not sufficiently frightened!

          3. I keep making a point of dropping the actual-science–that Delta is, yes, more aggressive on the infection spread front but much more like a cold, and that this bug is now with us forever, just like cold and flu–in my father’s hearing in the hopes of it eventually sinking in. I can’t be too pushy, or he gets really upset/angry, and none of us have the energy to deal with that, but I keep hoping it will eventually get through his foggy mess of mild hypochondria, strong desire to NOT have to go back to the office (we work in the same field office, but his job really can be done from home where mine really cannot), and weird trust in the government (I swear, Mom and I do NOT know where he got it from, although it’s probably part of his rebellion against his family by being well-behaved, not a felon, and honest).

          4. It’s starting to remind me of the “terrorist warning color chart” Homeland Security used to use. After a while nobody cared.

      3. It might not happen, but it might have to not happen with blood.

        The same police the leftists want to defund and who can’t be arsed to arrest leftists have proved quite happy in many locations to harass people over stupid coof rules.

        CNN et al are conditioning people to think of non-vaccinated or non-masked people as violent and non-human. How long before a critical mass for “shooting the damn anti-vaxers for endangering us” is built?

    2. Good luck with something like that here in Tennessee. Unless you nail the doors and windows shut and station guards around my house, you ain’t locking me down. And I’m not the only one…

      1. Sweet! I know so many moving there just because of this. Tennessee should be getting a huge tax influx. Hopefully it is put to good use. Hopefully they can stave off the leftist voters who are also flooding the state. I hope it won’t turn out like Colorado. Californians mess up every state they move to. I always say, “Stupid is California’s #1 export!”

        1. Or GA, though we’ve got more New Yorkers than Californians crowding into Atlanta and turning us blue. I’ve been looking at TN as a possible escape option, actually, and it’s pretty feasible at least on paper. I’m just not sure about being able to actually pull it off.

    3. Mitch McConnell has ALWAYS been an invertebrate. He’s been king nudibranch of the GOP invertebrates for years. It’s just during the Trump period he decided that playing along with the Trumpists was the way to power, he did not shift phyla or get a spine implant in the time. Slime scum gonna slimey scum, I’m likely offending Nudibranchs and other mollusca by referring to McConnell as such.

      1. He flip-flopped plenty then, too. And didn’t hesitate to go for the knife after November.

    4. This morning I had this thought:

      I don’t think the door-to-door vaccine enforcement is about vaccine, except superficially.

      I think it’s meant to identify badthinkers, who then go on a list, and are first to get targeted if some idiot decides to attempt door-to-door gun control.

      Which they may be stupid enough to think they could get away with, now that (they think) we’ve been trained to be compliant.

      At which point I’m of two minds. You could smile and nod and say you’ve already had the jab (true or not), and make the badthinker list one body shorter, and give them fewer excuses to start the rough music. Or you could snarl None of your damn business, and be a little bit of the scary against starting the rough music.

      1. Vaccine police: Hi! We’re here to ask you…
        Me: Oh, I’m good, thanks!

        Like I’ve said before “I’m good” is neither positive nor negative. They’ll likely interpret it as positive, in which case they go away and I’m not on a list and my badthinking self is clear to go on badthinking…

        1. “I’m good, thanks!” worked for my daughter and myself, the first times that we waltzed into the nearest nice HEB grocery store, without wearing masks. We were defiant, once the governor of Texas mandated that one didn’t have to wear the ****ing face diaper, and before HEB, which is the big local grocery chain around here eased up on requirements… It was kind of a mental armoring, early on. Let’s go in, defy the mask Karens – mentally preparing to counter anyone giving us grief over our determination to not wear a mask. A bit taxing, every time going into the grocery store, knowing that some Karen might make a scene with us. It was reassuring to exchange glances and ‘thumbs up’ with other rebels, early this year. We had a nice chat with another military veteran in the parking lot after one of these excursions. He was also a mask rebel, and hoped that the example of our few rebels would set a trend in motion. Looks like it did – breathe free, my fellows in the rebellious tribe. Breathe free – all we have to loose is those stupid masks!

          1. A few weeks ago, I had to do the Talk with our daughter.

            Not sex.

            The Talk about “right to know.”

            If someone demands information from you, which they have no right to know– you *are* allowed to dodge.

            They DO NOT HAVE A RIGHT to any of your medical information. They do not have a RIGHT to where you were born, or your mother’s maiden name, or… tons of security stuff. Just because they demand, does not give them a right.

            To have a right to information, they need to have a strong, specific reason that beats your reason to not say.

            They do NOT have a right to know her age, her grade, her vaccination status, etc.

            It *is* fine to say “I’m vaccinated” even when you know random person without right is demanding a specific ting, but you are answering in general. There are MULTIPLE saints stories based on letting attackers lie to themselves. (Irish one comes to mind; “where is so and so?” “he is before you” (guy is so and so) “*attackers sprint off down the road.*”)

            1. My college roommates’ family escaped from Soviet Ukraine. The elder brother was about as stiff-ass about American rights as you can get without turning into a flagpole and sprouting Old Glory from your nose. He also tended to give off a sort of homeless vibe, despite being totally inoffensive. One night he was sitting on the curb downtown, just watching traffic, and a cop came along and asked to see his ID. Since roommate was doing nothing illegal, he refused. Cop arrested him and he spent the night in jail. Next morning a rather annoyed judge released him, and reiterated that this is not a shall-identify-yourself state.

              Dunno what would happen now, but this is how it was in Montana in 1973.

              2. About seventeen years ago (Gee, has it been that long?) I took a hike from Nebraska to West Virginia. Nearly every county I went through across five states, the local county mounties stopped me and asked for ID. (I’m positive they were passing the word about this guy….) In the spirit of cooperation, I gave it to them. I was on public highways,not the interstates, doing nothing illegal. Most of the time they were fairly pleasant about it and let me go after checking to see that I wasn’t wanted. (Well, there was the one time I had trespassed on a family garage, to get out of the rain, and the local deputy hustled me out of the county…) A couple of them put me up for one night in the motel they were using as as a transient facility, Another was afraid I was going to get hit by a speeding truck (which was about all the traffic there was on that particular stretch of road) and another stopped me as I was going by a state prison (How was he to know I wasn’t an escapee?). One of them almost apologized and told me that they had to check, because a guy that looked like he was doing the same thing I was, just walking down the highway with a backpack, was wanted for murder in California. Just doing their jobs; I didn’t mind. (much).

                But if they want to come in my house? Nope. Show me a warrant.

            2. ::cheers::

              Among other things: no, your utilities company does NOT need to know your social security number (and in fact, neither they nor most other businesses of any kind have the right to that information). They don’t need to know your “race.” (I stopped filling that out on anything other than my employment-related official stuff, because apparently the gov CAN require it if they pay you, sigh.) I’m pretty sure they don’t even need to know your gender 😀

              1. ATF wants your race on Form 4473. And your “ethnicity”, separate from race. And your height, weight, and sex. (“non-binary” is now an option)

                ATF claims they have no use for that information, that it’s required for compliance with regulations about “diversity” and “anti-discrimination.” I’m not sure how height and weight relate to that.

                  1. You have to provide ID to the FFL, and the numbers are on the 4473 and sent in for the “instant check.” In my state, if they have your driver’s license number, they just type it in and it has your color photograph, signaure, thumbprint, height, weight, eye and hair color. So asking on the 4473 is, at best, redundant.

                2. Race — not usually. Arthritis.
                  Ethnicity – Ethically I try to be good.
                  Sex — Way too rarely.
                  WHAT? They can’t require you to understand English.

              2. I had a bad time last week with a major hair salon chain because they demanded my phone number “for contact tracing, in case someone gets sick.” Before that, they were asking for it “for maketing.”
                I got snotty and walked out. Then felt bad and went back to apologize for hassling them when they have to do what Corporate wants. But I didn’t get my hair done there. (Went to Wal-Mart, actually-I’m deplorable).

                1. Went in a chain hair cut place and the late teenage girl at the counter asked for my phone number as soon as I got in the door. I said I was flattered, but also asked her if she thought I was a bit old for her. Just wanted her to know humorously that I thought it was a bit ridiculous to get quickly accosted for your phone number.

                  1. I’ve had trouble for years now, from business that expect I have a cellphone for their convenience.

                    I get irritated lectures from secretaries who are upset I didn’t know about a changed appointment time, or didn’t get the information they texted me. No, that’s a land line. It doesn’t do texts. And despite their insistence that they left voicemail, it has no voicemail account associated with it, and no answering machine. If I’m home and receiving calls, I’ll answer it. Otherwise, call back until you get a human.

                    I’ve noticed some local medical outfits are now going “voicemail only.” You call, you’re instructed to leave voicemail. At their convenience, they expect to leave voicemail on your phone. And so on, for days, like some dumbass variant of Pong.

                    Most places now want to hit you for $50-$75 for a “missed appointment fee”, but that doesn’t seem to apply to them, when they fail to tell me about a reschedule, or they want me to sit for two to three hours so they can keep their waiting room full. Alas, there’s no use complaining to the physicians, as they’re mostly McDoctor employees now.

        1. Yeah, I’m not actually worried they can make this A Thing in most of the US. They’re too damned disorganized.

          I mean, look, my tiny (currently very understaffed) department in my corner of the BLM has a hard time keeping track of our casefiles (we do have a lot of them). Not because we’re incompetent (most of us really do try to do a GOOD job at our jobs), but because you’ve got multiple people with differing personalities and theories of organization that range from “extremely tidy desk with everything neatly labeled” to “piles and piles of stuff, good luck finding anything.” There is a general panic anytime a data call from On High (ie, HQ) pops up (although that’s also because they tend to drop those on us on a Thursday or a Friday and go “Oh, and we want this info Monday, thanks!”).

          Before I started my job four years ago, most of what went on in my job was chaos. I’ve organized a ton of it, but even so–I usually have to look through three different spreadsheets to tell you any given fact about something, because there’s just too much data to collate easily–and this is, while a big field office in terms of acreage, a really tiny bit of things!

          So yeah. To anyone worried that the gov has “lists” somehow of either the vaccinated or un-vaxed I say: even if they DID, somehow, they can’t find anything on it. Because the person who was put in charge of making the list is a GS-5 who doesn’t get paid enough to care, and who only accepted the job because it was the foot-in-the-door to getting something that actually pays something close to a decent wage (which GS-5 emphatically does NOT). And the people who are supposed to disseminate the data are probably only about GS-6, which isn’t paid much better, and also most of them can’t figure out how the hell they’re supposed to crunch anything from the steaming mess of chaos they were handed, and really–if we’re talking millions upon millions of names–there is absolutely no way to do it. Why d’you think so many people get away with tax evasion for so long? The last time I had to get on the phone with the IRS about something (to make sure they weren’t gonna take more money out of my account than they were supposed to), in a moment of ‘fellow gov employee commiseration’ the IRS guy commented that their central computer system dated to the 1960s, and they had a clunky, inefficient system that interfaced their modern computers with it. And that’s the IRS, allegedly “scarier” than most gov departments 😀

          1. “To anyone worried that the gov has “lists” somehow of either the vaccinated or un-vaxed I say: even if they DID, somehow, they can’t find anything on it.”

            The problem isn’t that they have inaccurate lists; the problem is that they have the power to use those lists as an excuse to persecute / prosecute people whose beliefs they disagree with, and the process is the punishment.

          2. > To anyone worried that the gov has “lists” somehow of either the vaccinated or un-vaxed

            The early ones, where the authorities notified people when to come in, are certainly on a list. And the “critical” groups who came next had to be validated somehow. Supposedly every dose was tracked and accounted for.

            Later, when they opened it up to anyone who showed up, (now, being bribed with everything from lottery tickets to free drugs), not all of whom would have had ID… any lists they have are going to be… not very reliable.

              1. I mean, I fully expect that my lovely tidy spreadsheets for tracking things like unpaid bills (so we know who to grump at) or who the company contacts are this year, or what’s expired or expiring will go the way of the dodo within a year or two of me leaving this job. And then it’ll be back to “having to do the same report a jillion times because we don’t remember and didn’t track it” (Currently irked bc supervisor still makes us do the reports–because SHE had to (she’s one of the predecessors in this position) and it’s utterly useless most of the time because I am already tracking all of that on a spreadsheet sigh.)

              2. [looking for my Surprised Face…]

                Oh, and apparently it’s totally OK to be vaccinated multiple times if it’s for the ‘rona. Whereas it’s a serious no-no for many other vaccines.

      3. It is most definitely NOT about the vaccine. It’s about control.

        I’m not sure which I’ll pick–although frankly, where I live, I’d be very surprised if any show up. What is much more likely is that they’ll freaking start making us wear masks at the office again (I work for fedgov, and the stupid has been very strong since November).

      4. I wonder if “vax yes/no” is the only data they’re collecting.

        Also, I’m curious as to how they will deal with people who aren’t home. Just mark “no”? Come back later? Take the word of whoever answers the door?

        I also wonder how long it will be before the door-knockers have armed backup. The last couple of censuses got a lot of peoples’ backs up already, with their demands for information that had no right to, and threats of fines for noncompliance.

    5. The problem with Vichy Mitchy, like all other establishment “conservatives,” is that the only thing he and they are truly interested in conserving is their own seat at the hog trough.

      It’s been said of Democrats that they’d rather reign in hell than serve in heaven. Well, establishment cons and Repubs are perfectly happy to serve in that Democrat hell as long as they keep getting their share of the grift.

  2. First Queen Pelosi got annoyed at the GOP for not “playing along” with her Jan 6th Witch-Hunt.

    Now I see a head-line that openly says that she looking for another Anti-Trump Republican to join her Witch-Hunt.

    Oh, this head-line wasn’t from Fox News but from Microsoft News (apparently a reprint of a POLITICO article). 😆

          1. Well, no. They’re firmly convinced that 90% of the people between the East and West coasts don’t matter at all, UNLESS they have the proper set of beliefs that just happen to align with theirs.

            And as long as they can fake the elections, we won’t. Looks like that’s changing a bit – but we’ll see. I’m not as optimistic as I used to be, but likely not as pessimistic as I should be…

              1. Are you still providing their food, fuel, power, etc.? Yes? Then they don’t care. I’ve had several bosses like that over the years, As long as you can’t / won’t leave, they’re good.

                  1. Same attitude, though: Bitch all you want to, as long as you show up and do what I want. They were uniformly surprised (and angry) when people left.

                    Again, these people are arrogant and stupid, and until someone does hit them, they won’t stop.

                    1. sigh. We won’t. We’re fighting ourselves not to hit.
                      This too shall pass. Also read the Bible for what happens to arrogant and stupid. Or any of a thousand other ancient works.
                      STOP trying to blackpill everyone.
                      Do you realize I’ve had to defend you to a bunch of people from suspicion of your being a glowy?

                    3. They were uniformly surprised (and angry) when people left.

                      And in mentioning that you destroy your own point. Saves me the trouble of bring it up myself.

                    4. That’s because you missed the point. Let me impale you on it:

                      They were prepared to treat their employees like crap and say “Don’t like it? Leave.” They never considered they actually would.

                      Now expand that to the Deep State who thinks they run this country. “Don’t want to do it our way? Tough. What are you going to do?” They will never conceive that resistance is possible until it actually happens.

                      Again, the point is not whether they will win, it’s that they have the mindset to try, and how much blood will be needed to convince them they have failed.

                    5. Sarah, don’t waste your time and energy defending me. Seriously, just don’t.

                      I’ll admit I had to look up glowy. I suspect I know some or most of who’s making that accusation. Meh.

                      I call it like I see it. Always have. Always will. Not going to apologize for it.

      2. Can we open a pool?
        I say even odds on Romney saying yes, 3-2 in favor of Ms Collins taking the position, 2-1 in favor of Ms Murkowski taking it but only if she gets a big wad of cash under the table. Only reason I have Romney so low is he’ thinks if he stays low he’ll keep the job, although he’s there until 2024 so maybe odds should be stronger for him taking it.

        1. Well, seeing as everyone you named is a senator and Pelosi is only trying to tap congressmen, I think your odds are pretty far off…

            1. Yeah, he’ll be pretty high odds in Treg’s pool. But no one will mistake him for anything but a stalking horse for Pelosi and the rest of the crazies.

              1. Anyone not drinking the Democrats’ Kool-Aid knows that its a Stalinist show trial with a script and per-determined outcome. Hopefully it keeps the House and Senate tied up long enough to minimize the real damage they can do by ramming through their radical left agenda.

                1. I was hoping Trump’s impeachment would tie them up. Hoping he’d turn it into a 6-month circus complete with clowns and elephants and call hundreds of witnesses. But, the Democrats found out he wanted to get NecroNancy and some of their other bigshots on the stand under oath, and cut the whole thing short.
                  ———————————
                  When police protect ordinary people from violent criminals, they are jackbooted fascist stormtroopers.

                  When police protect corrupt politicians from ordinary people, they are National Heroes.

                  1. There are no penalties for lying under oath if you’re one of the nomenklatura. In fact, it’s a big power trip; they like to rub your face in it.

                    A lot of the political problems we have are because the courts went bad first.

          2. DUUURRRR!!! I totally missed that, that’s a level of cluelessness rivaling the TOTUS (Turnip of the United States). far less familiar with the house Republicans. We don’t have any any more here in Taxachusetts,
            nor as far as I can tell in all of New England, all democrats.

  3. The bit with Rand Paul catching Fauci trying to say that gain of function research wasn’t gain of function research was fascinating.

    The funniest thing, is Fauci also appears to have admitted he has access to the Wuhan lab results, that China has barred anyone else from seeing. I don’t think Rand Paul caught it yet, but he will.

    Fauci was claiming that a detailed review of all of the viruses involved in the gain of function research did not match Covid-19. Problem is, China has blocked access to any of the work that lab was doing from 2019 forward. So, how did Fauci get any of the info he claims to have?

    1. So that’s why the back of my head was muttering, “And how do we know this??”

    2. There’s always the “lying like a rug” explanation, and given we know he’s a liar. . . .

  4. I estimate the next most likely time for the music to stop is in October, give or take a couple of weeks.

    1. I want to be moved and this house sold, and it does have the feel of “last train out before the whole thing goes up” so please, keep fingers crossed.

    2. That’s what I’ve been thinking. The seasonal illness surge in Sept/Oct/Nov will include plenty of COVID, because the pandemic disease is now (as was always inevitable) a flu-like endemic illness. The totalitarian lockdowners will have to either double down or let it go…and I don’t think they can make themselves let go.

      If they don’t lock down and instead just go with mask mandates, people might go along; they seem to have shifted the Overton Window there. It’s appalling to see how many people (so many of whom are smart enough to know better) fully believe in the lifesaving power of masks because they’ve been told it’s so. This is what I’m personally worried about. For asthma and other reasons, I can’t deal with masks very well — but if there’s a statewide order in place, my workplace has to comply, and with vulnerable family members depending on me for insurance and $, I simply can’t jeopardize my job, not even to resist arrant stupidity or tyranny — so if I can’t work from home, it’s going to be miserable.

      Anyway, it’s going to be very…interesting…to see what the tyrants attempt and how overt and widespread the pushback becomes.

      1. Some places also saw the “they’ll try to force it back”– which is why Iowa passed a no-local-mask-mandate law.

        At least here, they can’t mandate masks.

      2. I’ve also heard that September is one of the two times of the year that a cross straight invasion of Taiwan is viable. The other is around April.

        The rest of the year, I’m given to understand, the weather causes to many problems for any sort of amphibious assault.

        1. I’m not sure how likely a Taiwan invasion is. I think the Chinese generals would have to be sure they have absolutely overwhelming force before they’d risk it. They’d risk mass defections if it wasn’t quick and fairly easy.

          2. They might think they can. Look at their reduction of Hong Kong. Particularly if they believe our idiots are going to lock us down and scare us at the same time. (Ah!)

            1. But Hong Kong wasn’t an invasion it was a takeover followed by an extended tightening of the screws.

          3. The thing about amphibious assaults – especially in places like Taiwan where there are only a handful of places where landings are physically possible – is that it’s impossible to get overwhelming force on the beaches. Especially if your amphibious assault fleet is as anemic as the PLAN’s. The Taiwanese defence forces can wipe out the assault waves before the next wave can arrive, and each wave is going to be smaller than the one before as the ChiComs lose ships in each crossing.

              2. If I was in charge of Taiwan’s defense, I would have bought some nukes and rockets from Pakistan or North Korea and had my engineers and technicians go over them to make sure they worked at least to spec.

                Sure, the CCP could try an “overwhelming” assault on Taiwan… but I could cut their logistics off at the root. Even if they managed to take over somehow, they wouldn’t last long without their supply train.

                The Taiwanese have a fair idea of what would happen to them if they were conquered. Maybe they couldn’t deliver Mutually Assured Destruction, but they could give the mainland a bad enough gut-ache to leave it vulnerable to India and Russia, not counting its ongoing internal problems.

                “Once you pull the pin, Mr. Hand Grenade is no longer your friend.”

            2. Amphibious assaults also require lots of practice. The US made it look easy during World War 2. And then the Soviets tried to land on a Japanese island with minimal defensive forces just before the war ended, and almost got their heads handed to them. The Chinese might be arrogant. But I’d expect them to at least practice a landing or two before trying it out for real.

              And if the Chinese were to start practicing landings, I expect we’d hear reports about it in the news.

              1. We only made it look easy towards the end because we made a lot of mistakes out in the Central Pacific where the Japanese garrisons were small enough that they couldn’t inflict that much damage or take advantage.

              2. We did it *many* of times in WWII. North Africa, Italy, France, and all over the freakin’ Pacific. Amphibious assaults are costly.

                My Dad grew up in a rural town in Georgia. Some years ago, he wanted to go back for a visit, so I did the driving. It was still *technically* a town; there were some city limits signs, a post office/gas station/convenience store/restaurant, a dozen inhabited houses, and some tumbledown buildings. We went to the cemetery so he could pay his respects to some relatives who has probably passed before I was born. I wandered around and found row after row of identical small tombstones marked US ARMY, a name, and the two dates. Hundreds of tombstones, marked November 8 or shortly after, 1942.

                The Army liked to keep troops together by local area in WWII. So the men went off to war, and not enough of them came back. The town died. A casualty nobody reckoned. I’ve seen rows of military graves before, but not in that context.

                November 8, 1942: Operation TORCH, in North Africa.

                1. The British did the same thing is WWI; they called them “pals regiments”, The results were identical.

          4. They would have to be overwhelmingly sure they won’t get a nuke (or several) from Taiwan if they try; particularly if the Taiwanese think they will get no US support. Anyone that thinks Taiwan (or Japan or South Korea for that matter) is non nuclear is suffering a grave delusion. I’m sure all of them technically satisfy the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, but having all the parts available to assemble in an hours is still technically compliant.

            1. I think Japan’s constitution still prohibits nuclear weapons. I don’t blame them a bit for not liking atomic bombs and I think the Japanese people would be strongly opposed to having or using them.

              On the other hand, I’m sure Israel has got quite a few. And keeps them properly maintained, as we have been failing to do for about 30 years.

              2. I believe the consensus is that Japan is “a quarter-turn of a screw away” from having a nuclear weapon.

            2. I don’t know whether Japan has nukes or not. It does have all the technology to make one that could be delivered to any point on the surface of the earth. I’ve seen someone (strategypage?) estimate that Japan could build them in about 6 months from deciding to do so. It also has all the technology to build very large conventional bombs and stick them on missiles too and I suspect it has already done that.

              Much the same applies to Taiwan and S Korea. If the PRC actually appeared to be getting close to pulling the trigger on Taiwan I assume the 3 gorges dam would collapse in short order. Probably along with a number of other ones.

              1. > very large conventional bombs and stick them on missiles

                You have a good point there. We did “aluminum overcast” and nukes because we had no practical way to hit *specific* targets, so we bombed whole areas and hoped for the best.

                Decades ago in Desert Storm we were able to send missiles into specific windows of specific buildings; “precision munitions” can be directed to individual offices instead of whole cities.

                We could take out government offices, telephone exchanges, pumping stations, bridges, tunnels, power plants, etc. for a fraction of the cost of a nuke. And once you take and occupy the area, you don’t have to worry about radioactive contamination.

                I can think of scenarios where nukes would still be useful, but for most purposes we don’t *need* nuclear weapons any more. Huh. I’d never thought about how much delivery systems have advanced since the old days.

                  1. And now short range relatively slow (but still very fast relative to running human speed!) guided missile tech is something you buy at the toy store.

            3. If I was running Taiwan, I sure as hell wouldn’t depend on US help for national defense. With every administration policies can change, and even when they don’t, whether Congress will authorize funding is a crap shoot.

              I figure a nonzero chance Biden’s handlers would pull us in on the CCP side instead of Taiwan’s.

      3. Yeah, I think there’ll probably be another round this fall and they’ll turn the propaganda knob to 11, both pro mask/vax and anti-anti-mask/vax, regardless of how dangerous it is.

        1. Yeah, that. I was unhappy about them but grudgingly willing to wear them for the minimal amount necessary in order to patronize businesses without having them get shut down or fined out of existence by the government. Anywhere enforcement was unlikely I didn’t bother. I suppose I’ll have to for an upcoming air trip. Sigh.

      5. A possible sign of some pushback on masks and the like from my recent (as in, today) experience…

        I work on a federal property, so the guidelines are to “follow the CDC guidelines,” thus, if you’re unclean… Unvaxxed, you should wear a mask at all times, social distance, yadda, yadda, yadda. While there were VERY few people I saw, the ones I did, none were wearing masks. None. I find it rather unlikely that everyone had taken the poke, this despite it being offered free to any and all (except filthy, dirty contractors, they had to get it elsewhere.)

        Signs saying “mask up!” were posted in a few spots, but the people working in those areas, not one mask to be seen.

        Now, possibly, in that wretched hive of scum and villainy known as Washington DC and environs, it might be different, but I’d bet there’s some pockets of resistance even there…

        1. The people actually doing the work probably have a mask hanging on the desk drawer handle or dangling from one ear in case a Pointy-Haired Manager pops up. But not on their face until then.

          1. I think I saw one manager, and he without a mask (but I also know from chats while WFH that he got jabbed, so) Short of demanding proof of vax, I don’t see how it’s enforceable, and I think if the feds try to mandate masks again for all, there’s either going to be a lot of “sorry, I’m going to need to WFH every day as {insert reasonable sounding justification},” or people just saying “make me.”

            Considering the justification to avoid going in could be as simple as “well if things are so bad we need to wear masks again, I’m afraid of getting the wuflu even with a mask so I request WFH until it’s safe!”

            1. > proof

              The Voices just threw up a scenario where the Fed pushes “the chip!” as a convenient way to provide proof of vaccination, that can’t be misplaced or lost. And eventually every public building and business having sensors at the door, where you have to have your chip read to enter…

              Actually, the phone-based “digital passport” is pretty close to that already, as most people are more likely to be without their underwear than their phone nowadays. The five cellular providers have continuous location data. That was how the “infection tracking” part of the apps the Goog and Apple forced out in updates was supposed to work.

              2. And of course the best places to implant would be the right hand and maybe the forehead, so you just walk through the scan.
                And then they will be shocked – shocked, I tell you – when even the irreligious get tad uneasy.
                Though the Bibical projection is, “just about everyone will go along.”

                1. The Biblical projection was talking for a tiny country in a strange time.
                  Just about everyone will go along in the rest of the world, probably.
                  This country is the fighting minority. Deal.

          2. *coughs* I actually did this. When FICUS took office, the order immediately came down that we had to wear masks ALL THE TIME, even at our own desks (previously it was more of a “look, just wear the mask if you’re wandering around the building, okay?”). Which given that we were only allowed to have 17 people in the building at a time (and this is still the case, eyeroll) was utterly ridiculous. This is a pretty big office to start with, we’re really understaffed right now, and even if everyone in the office came back, the only places social distancing might be a challenge is walking around.

            So yeah. Solution was “hang the mask off the ear and have a tea mug constantly to hand so if pushy manager popped up, you could be innocently reaching for a drink”

        2. Can confirm. My field office does have the “rule” that if you aren’t vaxxed you have to wear a mask–but so far as I know, no one has been asked if they are allowed to not wear a mask or not. General assumption is ‘if you ain’t wearing it, you must be.” Same at the grocery stores, which have the same sign. I do spot folks still wearing masks, but most of them are either quite elderly, or they are young idiots who are probably trying to make A Statement about something. Not sure what, really.

      6. If you have a verifiable medical condition that makes masks dangerous (severe asthma), require them to give you a ‘reasonable accommodation’ to work at home rather than in the office if they require masks.

        If they don’t, sue hell out of them.

        1. Well, they’re not doing that for flights. And yes, I have asthma. And eczema, which will come on if I sweat inside a mask.
          And frankly I’m about at the blow up point.

  5. Not just that Michelle Obama was a ravishing beauty, but that her clothes were always so good-looking and fashionable. And they always seemed to pick the worst outfits, the ones that either were hideous on their own, or at least did not work for her body type, for the highest praise.

    Michelle Obama could look beautiful, but I don’t think her dressers served her well at all.

    Now, Melania Trump could make a gunny sack look beautiful, but did she get any praise from the press?

    1. They weren’t quiiiiite stupid enough to try and claim Melania wasn’t beautiful, but they did absolutely everything but that, and it was extremely obvious. At least, they didn’t do it while Trump was in office.

      Then they turned around and started their fawning over “Dr.” Biden and about how awesome it was to have grace and fashion in the White House again (ie, that Melania was neither) and used as evidence an outfit that made everything Michelle Obama ever wore look gorgeous and you could HEAR record scratches happening in people’s heads of “Wait…WHAT.” (Or at least, in the heads of people not brainwashed.)

      1. Lots of comments on my Twitter feed about “shower curtains,” and even a few enterprising folks claiming to have found upholstery fabric that matched the dress.

    2. If the folks that dressed the warrior gals who were ‘under cover’ in Black Panther’s movies were turned loose on Michele, she could’ve been stunning. Maybe not beautiful, but impressive and still feminine.

    3. Is narrative, comrade, sorry/notsorry. Unpersons always ugly, elite always bootiful/stunning/brave even if look like 5 miles of bad road with fashion sense of retarded cockroach.

      Handlers not gods, can do only so much…

      1. I always wondered if whoever was advising Mooch, and La Hildabeest was intentionally sabotaging them, by encouraging them to pick ugly, unflattering and unsuitable clothes. The Mooch was not a beauty, but she could have been distinguished, striking, even handsome, in the right kind of outfit. The Hildabeest was not bad-looking, earlier on, but late middle age and a couple of gallons of chardonnay nightly have not done anything to improve on nature.

    4. They acted like Michelle Obama was Helen of Troy; I got so sick of it. I’m just glad they aren’t repeating that with Comrade Harris.

  6. I’m getting the feeling that people are quietly planting their feet and starting to mutter, “No, you move.” The Feds are pointing at Texas and Florida as the bad-boys, but I get the sense that a lot of other states or even part of states are quietly starting to go their own way on masks and vaccinations and the like. Like how people from eastern NM just eased over the border and did their shopping and celebrating in Texas.

    A lockdown at harvest? Shuuuuure, that’ll go over great. Lose another school year? You go first.

    1. Exactly so. No one seems to be talking much about Tennessee, but I can guarantee you that folks here are through with it. Maybe not in places like Memphis and Nashville, but in the real Tennessee…

      1. Nashville for sure is done. Wide open everywhere I go with very few mask wearers and most of them being mocked.
        Influx of big money from California and other left states is my biggest worry. Ones I have met so far are very committed to conservative thinking. But…stil a concern. The money has priced us out of the Real estate market so am looking for bug out only property farther out. Oh well.

  7. They know one trick. Hence the “delta variant is scariest ever” and “We must lock down again.”

    You are behind the times; we are starting up the lambda variant.

    2. How the hell did they go from delta to lambda? They skipped epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota and kappa? I think we ought to start rumors about all the other yet-to-be-promulgated Greek letter variants, imputing to them all sorts of unlikely symptoms… 😉

      2. The scientist who isolated it, “L” is the first letter of his last name?

        Seems as likely as anything else.

    3. I foolishly talked with one of my leftist neighbors yesterday. It started out with conversation about his lovely garden, but ended with him asking if I had been vaccinated.

      I’ve been a bit cowardly and usually deflect with the truth, that I had covid last year, and have the antibodies. But he went on a rant about how I needed the vaccine and to stay away from him. Also listed bald faced lies that the vaccine was totally safe (not true of any vaccine)

      I pessimistically think I’m doomed in my left leaning neighborhood, I might be buried in Stasi Karens reporting to the state. Hopefully the state of Alabama will ignore them.

      1. Neightors like yours need to be told it is none of their business and they are not entitled to ask medical questions. Beyond that, your neighbor will now feel righteous in turning you in and making life as difficult as possible. Any further interations should be recorded IMO because the Left loves to make up things to charge you with.

  8. My friend and I were discussing the great migration/contraction/whatever and we all want the hell out of California. Even if Newsom is recalled what takes his place may not be able to do anything and if he stays he will do so with a vengeance and a perceived mandate. My friend was debating the benefits of staying on their large plot of land and I rally think it all boils down to this… Where would you rather be droned? Hiding on your property Ruby Ridge style or running through the hollers of the south? Where the whole state is against you or where there are brothers and sisters in arms ready to run with you? I would rather be droned in Tennessee. I’m copyrighting that T-shirt BTW…

    1. California has no hope, whatever the results of the recall. Yes, dumping His Hairiness out of office might slow down the executive order insanity – but won’t do a thing to affect the Leftist agenda. The Assembly has a veto-proof majority of Democrats, which has been locked in Stalin style – who counts the votes?

  9. So, follow my line of reasoning here.
    As the saying goes, you are what you eat.
    A preponderance of the left are, or at least give lip service, to being vegan.
    Herbivores are by definition eaters of plants and plant material.
    Once the herd turns on its tormentors as Sarah says they will stampede and crush them.
    And following my somewhat convoluted train of logic here, being plant based those insufferable gits will be eaten with relish. Sweet cucumber relish by my preference, I’m laying in several cases to tuck in right next to my bulk popcorn order.
    May have to acquire quite a bit of pepto and antacid in anticipation of some serious digestive upset down the road.

    1. 😀

      I was thinking that cattle might be a better analogy than sheep, as far as the nature of the American herd. Sheep are bizarrely stupid and singularly helpless; no other self-respecting herbivore on this continent will flock/herd with one, given a choice. Even if they do stampede, it doesn’t matter much.

      But cattle can actually be dangerous. You’d have to be out of your mind to cause a stampede of longhorns (or even shorthorns) on purpose. If they get angry and turn on you en masse, you’re done for. And even if they don’t turn on you, the stampede has its own rules. It can change direction at any moment, and won’t distinguish between rancher and rustler when it’s churning everything in its path into splinters and paste.

      As for sweet cucumber relish…eew, nasty. I’m thinking calabacitas (beano definitely required afterwards, though).

      1. No one with any sense wants to be anywhere near a stampede.
        They’re literally a force of nature.
        They are awe-some, awe-ful, and all points in-between.

        I’ve a few stories, but mostly want to make an observation:
        In a stampede, the wild breeds aren’t nearly as dangerous as the more domesticated.
        Longhorns, Salers, etc. they’re self-sufficient. They run like deer, and just want to get away from perceived threat. If you’re in their way, they’ll kill you without hesitation, but it’s nothing personal.
        The gentle, docile Hereford, though? He isn’t much of a runner, and he trusted you to keep him safe. Now you’re the god that failed, and he’s looking at you with murder in his eyes. With a hundred or so likeminded friends. They’re harder to panic, but if they ever get to that point, run.
        (Don’t get me started about the sneaky, snakey Angus. There’s always one cow that regards you as her own personal Moby Dick. And there’s no way in hell she’s going to pass up the opportunity. Don’t turn away, it’s coming the moment you so much as blink.)

    2. Sweet cucumber relish by my preference,

      Have you run into “FAMOUS DAVE’S SIGNATURE SPICY PICKLE CHIPS”?
      They’re sweet pickle based, and mildly addictive even if you don’t LIKE bread’n’butters.

      1. Wickles Wicked pickle Chips are how I learned to like bread and butter pickles. Another brand with a spicy kick. I love them with barbarous. 😛

        2. Grew up on grandma’s home made sweet chip pickles. About the size of a quarter and perhaps twice as thick as that coin. Hard to find cukes that size unless you grow your own, and terribly labor intensive to slice unless you have a mandolin. Fill a stone crock with slices, vinegar, and lots and lots of sugar. Cover with a plate the right size and put a weight on top. About a week later you ladle the batch into sterilized pint mason jars and seal them up. Always had a boatload of them on a shelf in the built in root cellar in her basement.
          I still have those crocks, not that I’ll ever make proper use of them again.

  10. *checks Costco website again* Oooh, and they’ve updated their policy to “comply with local regulations.”

    ::laughs in Iowa::

    The next kid gets to pick a STORE cake! Whoo!

    1. Yeah, even the Central Point (SW Oregon) Costco has largely free policies. One is supposed to wear a face diaper at the pharmacy, though mine was in the car. Can’t say anything about the other handful of people who neglected to have a mask on.

      The only mild disappointment was the food court. The Caesar salads are MIA (the counter guy didn’t know if they would come back), and the menu is a bit truncated. Hot dog (I miss the polish, too), chicken bake, churros and pizza. The yogurt morphed into soft serve ice cream sundaes. Seating is a little bit limited; maybe 2/3rds the original amount. OTOH, it’s several minutes drive to get to an alternative eatery, so this is far better than the lockdown/no seating food court.

      1. Costco food court menu was changing before lock down, at least locally.

        Better? They are back to handing out samples on the floor! Limited. But that is because of lack of bodies to hand out and hawk. Don’t know if BIL’s wife will go back to doing this or not. This is their camp host season. She does the Costco sample gig as a way to get out of the *house*, well off the property. They live in their 5th wheel on her mom’s property (eventually hers, long, long, story). Her mom (92), both brothers, live in the house, and their dad’s older brother (93) lives in her old She Shed.

        1. That seems like a … complicated … living arrangement. I hope everyone’s interests are being served there.

          1. complicated … living arrangement. I hope everyone’s interests are being served there.

            –
            Seems to be.

            How the Uncle (her dad’s brother, not her mom’s, when her parents have been divorced since before she was in HS (and she’s 70)), ended up there is a bit unclear (something about his children wanting to warehouse him and him not wanting to go).

            I’m not sure why one bother is there, unless it is to be there when they are off doing their seasonal camp hosting gigs (so she can gab, and BIL mechanics the maintenance equipment and older vehicles, then spends the rest of the time fishing, crabbing, or clamming, depending on season and where they are at).

            The other brother lives with mom because he is a raging alcoholic, now recovering, but very, very, short period. Plus recently lost his dog (elderly-ish). I have no idea how he is doing other than she posted on FB they are looking for a “Love Again” dog for him.

            They are at mom’s because they use the place as a base. Originally only in town between camp hosting gigs, a week or two, and before/after, heading for their place in Lake Havasu with the Motorhome, then 5th Wheel. But the latter stopped when they up and sold the Lake Havasu lot. Then that next winter her mother broke her hip walking the son’s dog (when he was still heavily drinking). They were going to find somewhere else to do the Snowbird part of the gig, but never did after that winter with mom breaking her hip.

            Despite the fact that they are in town more than they were (place is in Eugene), we rarely see them. To the point that we haven’t seen the newest 5th Wheel (second one, no IDK why they replaced the prior one). I can’t even tell from her FB pages when they are back in town (gone yes, because pictures get posted hinting they ain’t at mom’s). Oh well BIL is hubby’s brother. He deals with the communication.

            FYI. This family are the relatives of my nieces ex husband (they were married < 3 years, no children). Which I found out because she had the kids engagement picture on her FB page (one the ex was using, before the marriage). Conversation went like this "How come you have Ex's picture with N?", "He's my cousin's son.", "Oh! Small world. She's my niece!"

        2. No samples in the local Sam’s Club yet.

          And worse: They still aren’t handing out fudge samples at Worlds of Fun!

          1. Our Costco was handing out some samples, but a smaller group than normal. I usually have to pass on them, but did try the gluten-free chips. Didn’t like them enough to buy, but it is nice to have a sample of something that doesn’t try to kill me.

  11. “All of which could be avoided, if the left didn’t think that resistance is an invitation to push harder, or that no really means yes, or that it’s foretold they win in the end.” – I know I keep saying it, but – Cluster B personality disorders. Particularly narcissism. One of their defining characteristics is they can’t imagine – literally cannot imagine – that other people have enough separate existence to get fed up with all the B.S. and say, “That’s it, I’m done.”

    Side note: I don’t usually comment on people’s personal appearances. I’ll just stick to, my very first thought on seeing Michelle Obama was, “Oh! He married a woman he knew would never be prettier than he was.” And nothing has disabused me of that notion since.

    1. ….not nice, mostly because it fits rather well. She could be striking, and a couple of times she just smiled and looked nice, but definitely not a pretty-girl.

      1. No, not nice; I always felt a bit sad about it. Because a guy who would do that is going to cut his wife down in other ways as well, viciously, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

        But I have a hard time feeling a lot of sympathy for someone who sent their teenage girls on exotic vacations and dared to claim they were “underprivileged” compared to, say, poor white kids from Appalachia. No. Just no.

      2. Some of Michelle’s simpler, more classical (as in Greek) style formals looked wonderful on her and really brought out her best features. But that might not be what she feels comfortable in.

      3. therein was her biggest problem. She is ugly from hatred for the most part. Add the morons telling her what to wear (or her fecking horrid taste if she thought those were good looking) and the “Beauty is skin deep but ugly goes to the bone” was at least 3/4 of the photo’s she left, because she is emotionally and personality-wise a very hateful person and it often showed in ugliness.

    2. Are you even sure Michelle is a woman? Obama’s brother said she was a trannie, and she looks it…

      1. You mean Malik? he’s a known Muslim Brotherhood operative. Malik is not reliable for anything, tho he has said that probably O is no relation. (There’s video of O visiting his purported father’s family in Africa. They all look alike, even the random half-sibs; O looks totally different, but damn similar to Frank Marshall Davis, whom his mother had previously shacked up with. She was already pregnant when she married O Sr.)

        Michelle didn’t used to look like a trannie. Someone noted that the pretty and the smiles stopped when she married O, and when I looked back through old pictures… sure enough. She used to be quite pretty and feminine, with a big smile, and didn’t have her present rawboned look.

      2. I’ve seen the Ellen DeGeneres dancing clip. Something wasn’t quite right down there…

        1. If you mean Michelle, once in a while you could see her lumpy great monthly nappie under a tight dress. Some people need to look in the mirror more often.

    3. TBF I do know we wore the same size at one point, (Vera Wang dress, bought in thrift, and yeah mentioned somewhere she wore this size which is… deceptive, shall we say, from the same designer.)
      And I look like nothing much but a potato now, and was lumpier back then. (I gained some back during covidiocy, mostly because I’m a stress eater. ANd it was like “worst hits of Sarah’s teen years” back to back) And I was STUNNING as a young woman.
      But…. well. We all age. Except Melania, who is fey or something.

      1. Well, there are many stories of the Fey in the region where she was born.

        More likely, though, is that Melania was a professional model – and I have noticed that those who keep up the rather rigorous regimen required for success in that field tend to not show their true age (at least in public).

  12. It’ll be interesting to see what happens here in California with the recall. Unlike when Davis got recalled, I haven’t been hearing much about who’s running. The only names I remember hearing are Jenner, and Larry Elder.

    Cheating by Newsome is all but guaranteed. The questions are, how much will be needed, how blatant will the Dems be in pushing it, and how hard will the local Republicans try and prevent it? The state party apparatus has been fairly supine. But the local party orgs seemed to be pro-active this last election in figuring out ways to harness the ballot harvesting rules. So maybe the local party affiliates will figure something out.

    1. From a distance at least, it looks like Larry Elder is coming out of the chute breathing fire. If he can get real folks energized, it looks to be interesting.

  13. They keep pushing because we have NEVER been violent to them. They don’t believe we ever will. They believe that we will grumble and rant and then cave like the Republicans have always done. Like the Party leaders in the Senate are currently doing. The Democrats have been pushing the Republicans around for ever and don’t believe that will change. Why would they believe otherwise??

    The 1/6 was a Joke compared to a Democrat Riot. I believe that the Democrats organized that riot and were astounded that the Actual Republicans there tried to STOP people attacking the Capital and after they were let into the Capital stayed between the Velvet Ropes. The Democrats were shocked that there was almost no damage, that the Republicans were so peaceful and well mannered. Yet MORE PROOF that the Democrats have NOTHING to FEAR from us.

    They just can not comprehend that people that are as law abiding and peaceful as the Republicans could or would possibly do ANYTHING against them. They think we are cowards. They see the people online warning them that with us violence is a switch NOT a dial. Because the SWITCH hasn’t been thrown, the Democrats don’t believe there is a SWITCH just cowards trying to bluff the Democrats.

    As Sarah says the Democrats DO NOT know people and they have little touch with reality. The Democrats will continue to PUSH until reality hits them upside the head and when it does they will truly be surprised. They will want to stop it but will be unable to because the SWITCH is a LOT harder to turn OFF then it is to turn ON. We Fight ourselves to NOT turn the SWITCH ON. To the Democrats that is cowardice.

    1. Switch vs Dial is a useful concept, but like most analogies fall apart if you try to push it too far.

      There is a “dial”, and it is turning. Remember that before Fauci’s Folly officially showed up there was the Lobby Day protest. Hell, that was probably a factor in the enemy’s actions last year with the riots and lockdowns.

      1. The dial is turning. The switch is that little CLICK at the end where it goes from BAKE to BROIL.

    2. As one of my characters puts it:

      “Because we have conscience, because we make the distinction between right and wrong, those like him consider us weak. They never believe we can be just as cold and ruthless as they are when we need to be, and they’re always surprised when they find out how wrong they were.”

    1. It’s a civil war if a large percentage of the population supports the tyrannical government. Technically speaking, the American War for Independence was a civil war in the overall British Empire, as most of the BE either supported the King and Parliament, or at least went along with them. It was a Revolution among the American Colonies because there wasn’t a significant amount of support for the Brits. (But there was some, and occasionally very nasty.)

    3. A revolution aims to overthrow, remove, and dramatically replace the legitimate government.

      We don’t have a legitimate government.

      What we’re about to have is an insurrection (that is, an organized opposition to or rebellion against the orders from an established authority; ie. a mutiny).

      “Revolution is aimed at new arrangements; insurrection leads us no longer to let ourselves be arranged, but to arrange ourselves, and set no glittering hope on institutions.”
      — Max Stirner (1806-1856)

  15. I hate myself for laughing at this article:https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/story/2021-07-21/bicyclist-killed-in-balboa-park-crash-was-a-prominent-architect-planner. Summary is: prominent architect focusing on “sustainability” run down and killed by drunk Prius driver at 730am. I live in the city where our former “bicycle mayor” who is now running for governor against “French Laundry” Governor Nuisance. Bicycle Mayor continues to annoy since he’s blocked off multiple residential streets to through traffic to cater to cyclists who ignore it anyway and ride down the next street over. We lost several of our best local biotech Chinese scientists in the last month on their bicycles. Now I have to go to Confession.

    1. You glossed over a very interesting bit. The Prius driver was drunk, at 7:30 AM. What kind of person both a) drives a Prius, and b) is drunk by 7:30 AM? Well, if I had to drive a Prius maybe I’d feel the need to be blotto that early too, I don’t know…

      1. “b) is drunk by 7:30 AM?”

        I’ll take “What is Irish Breakfast” for a thousand…..

      2. Yeah, as Glenn Reynolds says, “The 21st century is not turning out as I hoped.”

      3. Priuses (Priusi?) aren’t that bad. Wife’s has been going fine for almost 10 years and 150,000 miles. Now if she’d only stop running over or into stuff with it,…

        1. I’ve decided it’s a neuter noun, so I’d say “Priua”.

          Y’know, if it weren’t such an awkward collection of vowels.

          1. That’s what I use. Fr. Romanus (Latin teacher) and I had a somewhat esoteric discussion over which declension “Prius” would be. The students just stared at us . . .

      4. Might not have been ‘drunk by 7:30 AM’ but ‘still drunk at 7:30 AM’

        1. I misread as ‘Paris’ driver, and couldn’t figure out why you all were surprised at drunk at 7:30 am.

          No, I’ve never been to Paris, but my mother lived there for a year just 55 years ago (watched the moon landing there) and from her stories . . .

      5. From the article, the driver was (I read slightly between the lines) a methhead:

        Police have said they believe the driver of the Prius was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash.

        Adam Milavetz, 38, was arrested Tuesday and booked into county jail. On Thursday, Milavetz was charged in San Diego Superior Court with murder, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence of drugs and causing injury. He pleaded not guilty.

        Deputy District Attorney Kelsey Hollander said Milavetz got out of his car after the crash, ran across the street and tossed two bags over a fence. Police later recovered the bags, which contained “what appeared to be methamphetamine,” Hollander said.

        Milavetz also showed “signs and symptoms of being under the influence” of drugs when officers met with him, she said. She added that Milavetz was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of driving under the influence of methamphetamine.

    2. prominent architect focusing on “sustainability” run down and killed by drunk Prius driver

      I mean, that’s awful and I feel for his family.

      But … I snorted.

      1. Her family. Which is good as far as I’m concerned because if it had been a he there was a non-trivial possibility that I knew the guy.

    3. A few years back, the county rolled out their “Blue Zone” project. Healthy foods, reserved parking spaces a fair distance from the grocery stores, with one of the staff doctors at the hospital as the lead.

      The entire project fizzled out when the doctor decided to go sledding on the city street. Seems she couldn’t or didn’t stop and had a close encounter of the fatal kind with a legally driven pickup. I feel sorry for the driver.

      (The unspoken narrative was if the lead on Blue Zone was such an idiot, the best thing to do is to ignore it.)

    4. Frank,
      You may have noticed something interesting.

      Any one else know of any deaths of good life scientists who are Chinese?

      Certain MOs might fit…

      I might simply be too paranoid.

      1. Bob, seems my memory is faulty (big surprise!) It was 2 bicycling scientists in separate incidents in late June, but one was a 30 something woman from India, and the other a 74 year old man from Kansas. Must be my subconscious that’s paranoid.

        2. There was one in the Middle East a few years ago. Two-car hit squad with automatic weapons got him on the sidewalk. I remember wondering what a biologist did to rate that.

  16. Based on what you’re saying, I suspect that you pretty much suck at all sports. (That’s okay, I suck at writing novels.) Most sports require being able to do 2 or more things at once. And to do them at the upper level of performance requires you to be able to enter a flow state almost at will.

    Common problem with adults learning fencing: too much thinking. Come to think of it, also applies to shooting. More to the point though, is athletes have already done their thinking ahead of time. We’ve programmed our minds and bodies to react to known stimuli in certain patterns for success.

    Now, the fastest way I know to screw up someone running in a flow state;
    Do something totally unexpected.

    Musical chairs? Do something weird and totally unexpected. Turn around and run in the opposite direction. Grab a chair and carry it with you. Grab a chair from the side of the room. Stay in the chair you were sitting in. Pretend to sit in a chair and tell them they’re not “woke” enough to see your imaginary chair.

    Deadly Delta my butt. Too Bad Fraudulent Fauci. You lied to us before, so you have zero authority now, and any “mandates” from you or the government will not only get non-compliance, we will push back this time. We’ll run in the opposite direction regardless of whether you are right or wrong this time.

    —

    I hope Larry Elder takes the California Secretary of State to the cleaners on his being left off the list of candidates.

    1. Already won the lawsuit, and will be included on the ballot.

      Assuming, of course, no other shenanigans ensue. He’s really the only one who can and will rock the boat, and there are sharks out there…

      Couple days ago on Rubin, Larry was talking about the CA Gov’s special powers, notably the ability to declare a public emergency for any number of reasons. Very interesting….

    2. He did. A judge ruled that he has to be on the ballot, and the SecState couldn’t make release of tax returns a requirement for the special election.

    3. I do the best at the range when I say, “Oh chuck it” and just focus on being smooth. Everything else falls into place from there, including speed. Ditto fencing, back when I fenced.

      1. Once I reached flow state when I was riding. It was . . . very hard to describe. I was totally aware of my body, the horse, and what was going around us, but yet not conscious of myself.

        1. It’s so awesome when it happens. The easiest task I’ve ever entered flow state in is playing Tetris. Just a few basic patterns, 3 rotations per object at most, everything is a close visual area you can see all at once, slow start, gradually building faster makes this a task that is easily mastered and you can pop into the zone quickly. And I was able to do it while doing keypunch data entry which drove my co-workers nuts because I was done in less than half the time they took, and it sounded like a machine gun coming from the keypunch booth when I was doing it.
          I used to do it occasionally practicing Tae Kwon Do forms. Hard to do it fencing, but maybe that’s because I’ve only been doing it for 6 years and the actions are rarely repetitive unless you’re doing something like parry-riposte drills.

        2. Sort of the opposite of dissociation (as I likely misunderstand it) where your mind is sort of idling back and just watching your body Do Things, figuring as long as there’s no problem then then there’s no need to exert control?

      2. Saw an interview with an Olympic shooter a while back. Turns out the secret to accuracy is a smooth pull on the trigger, and just letting the recoil happen. For the perfect shot, you’re supposed to be surprised when the gun goes off.

        Also turns out 99% of his practice was in dry firing with as little motion as possible. He looked like a statue the entire shot cycle. Just mindblowing.

  17. FWIW, we have traveled through or stayed in Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and now Colorado. Don’t have a read on CO yet, but have had no, “Put on your mask!” moments in any of the other stages. In general, mask wearer seem to be older or younger,a d it’s sad to se young parents masking thei kids. Kids will grow up feeling uncomfortable without a mask, poor things.

      1. LA County is not. And from what I saw at the grocery store the last few weeks, a majority of people aren’t even when the government isn’t forcing them.

        1. West of the Cascades in grocery stores and Costco, maybe 30% of people were wearing them. (More like 5-10% over here in the flyover counties.) Demographics Westside seem to be the very old and the very Karen, frequently enforcing masks on small children.

  18. It’s not us the goats they should be afraid of. It’s the herd turning, in sudden unreasoning fury. (So should we. Some of us will get caught up in the right’s horrible lack of targeting ability when it comes to profiling the left.)

    An interesting example of this is WhatIfAltHist’s speculative video, “What if the Handmaid’s Tale Actually Happened?”

    His argument is that it is reasonable Gillead is centered in Boston because the sweep of that kind of fundamentalism all of a sudden would rush through those without religion who needed it for some reason (such as broader societal collapse) instead of the already religious. After all, the needs being fulfilled by the sudden rush to a new faith were already being met in those with an established faith.

    On one level it seems ludicrous to think those same women who mocked Trump by dressing as handmaids would welcome the chance to be Wives, Marthas, Handmaids, or Econowives.

    Yet it is the same groups of people who chanted “my body, my choice” to defend abortion who are now screaming “your body, my danger” when it comes to the vaccine. If they stay in this same state when people panic about demographics those Handmaid cosplayers will be the Aunts of our real Gillead (more a social role in the backlash, I don’t think we’d see the real thing).

    And in the process it won’t be the Trump voters they mocked they’ll turn on.

      1. It makes sense given his argument.

        What frightens me is not just his argument makes sense, but it provides a good explanation of the vaccine and mask hysteria. If you couple that with Haight’s work on the psychological foundations of morality it gets scary. Haight’s observation that the major division between liberal and conservative world views is the later engage all the foundations his research identified (care/no-harm, fairness, group loyalty, respect for authority, purity, and freedom) while liberals only engage first two should scare us. Nature abhors a vacuum. Even Haight wondered (about a decade ago) if the organic and anti-GMO food movements were the return of purity to liberal morality.

        Well, with vax and mask it is back full bore. I’d argue both are also creating responses in liberals on the purity and authority dimensions, with Fauchi a prophet. All it really needs is a metaphysics and community to met the four things a religion provides (the others being ethics and rituals, already present in spades). I think if it gets one of those two the other will naturally occur.

        Also, witness things like “atheist Sunday services” (https://seattleatheist.church).

        You just need a figure to pull it together and all of our progressive friends will create a theocracy to rival the Commonwealth under Cromwell.

  19. See, they think they got a lock on the flock of herbivores, but they’ll be finding many are not sheep, but bloody Cape Buff and it is going to be nasty

  20. I’ve seen what a “boss” cow and her herd will do to one coyote or even human who bother them. I wish I could eat popcorn because the next few months will be quite a show.

  21. Surprisingly, there’s been nothing said in Philly about anything. At the state level Wolf the Ridiculous is being held accountable by the legislature which is very nice. I have seen a small uptick in mask-wearing indoors and small but noticeable uptick outdoors. But those people generally look uncomfortable, especially when surrounded by so many free faces.

    I agree that there won’t be another lockdown. It simply won’t be tolerated. And, I’ve noticed that WH discussion of going door-to-door to check vax status has died down. I wouldn’t be surprised if that just dies a quiet death off stage somewhere.

    1. My apartment complex put up a sign that masks are “encouraged” indoors. I wonder what the word “encouraged” implies. I have immediately suspended all my social activities in the building. I am doing my isolation protocol. –only taking the dog out really early morning and late 7p.m. before I do my dialysis. I don’t want to deal with building management Karens.

      1. Probably “we’re not liable if you have a bad consequence.”

        I was once told that employers would never TELL you to go home because of a snowstorm while it was happening for fear of liability.

  22. Pingback: I forgot that little detail | Dio's Workshop

  23. Heh, consider yourself lucky on the game itself… I had to play it in school a few times and it sucked for me for similar reasons that it did for you. Wonder how much that, and my general ineptitude with sports, is due to biological reasons like that. On the big picture, I hope you’re right… Even here in small town GA there’s a feeling of resignation that mask mandates are going to come back over delta. Not from the state, at least not until Abrams and the Democrats fraud their way into power next year, anyway, but from Big Business going no muzzle, no job or service. And there’s lambda to fearmonger over now, too? Joy… This whole thing is beyond exhausting.

  24. I got an interesting GOP spam today. Seems James Craig, the just-retired chief of police of — wtf — DETROIT is running for governor of Michigan. He points out an example of a local crime cleanup he spearheaded, and then… “So, when the unfortunate situation happened with George Floyd, and outsiders came here to try and burn us down, Detroit did not burn.”

    Seems to me this guy might get himself elected.

    1. We who live here can hope he runs, and pray he wins, but cynical me suspects that Darth Whitmer will just spend him into the ground. Saw something indicating she’s already got ~$10million in her campaign coffers…

      And for whatever reason, the R’s seem to have an aversion to ponying up and backing up candidates in this state.

      1. What’s she going to *do* with the money? Just buy votes outright like the Romans?

        Schmoozing and advertising aren’t going to get more votes from her supporters, whoever those may be. And they’re unlikely to persuade any of the people who hate her, who are many. So that leaves the unicorn “undecided voter”, which will be swayed by media appeals they always ignored before…

        She might spend the money trying to smear her opposition, but I expect the anti-Whitmers would vote for Stalin if he was their only choice other then Whitmer.

        Advertising is practically a religion in America, but I don’t think it’s all that effective in politics.

        1. “What’s she going to *do* with the money? Just buy votes outright like the Romans?”

          I guess voting machines won’t hack themselves. She’s going to make sure the counters get the proper bribes.

    2. I’ve been fairly impressed by James Craig so far. He seemed like he did a good job in Cincinnati. In Detroit, he pushed for prosecution as a hate crime the “youths” who brutally beat that white trucker who’d accidentally struck a black pedestrian. He’s made at least one statement about guns deterring crime.

    3. Wow. I’m impressed at how he referred to the George Floyd thing–ie, not calling it a murder or similar. Even most conservative news sites still call it something like “the police killing of Floyd” despite publicly released autopsy reports making it awfully clear it really wasn’t.

  25. If you use the Greek alphabet, you need Greek order. epsilon is next. alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lamda – long way to get to lamda. I see some else posted it. Our alphabet follows Latin, not Greek though the word alphabet comes from the first two letters.

    Anyway, on topic, I vote for God being in control. I don’t know what will happen, but there is power in massive civil disobedience.

    1. I would add that there is worth in individually obeying God, and in doing so defying worldly authority.

  26. Re: the recent Biden “town hall”/exhibition of dementia — Apparently it took place at Mount St Joseph University in Cincinnati (not to be confused with similarly named seminary), which is run by the wokie Sisters of Charity (not to be confused with the pre-Vatican II version of the order).

    Archbishop Schnurr, who in the past has been best described as “cagey,” actually sent out a press release saying that the event people hadn’t consulted him, and that (because Biden is pro-abortion) that he wouldn’t have given permission for Biden to appear at any local Catholic institution.

    Ouch. And it’s interesting that he decided to put out this press release, because nobody forced him to do it. He WANTED to. Apparently somebody in the Democratic Party is treading on his last nerve.

    OTOH, I kinda feel sorry for Schnurr, because the guy who until recently had the job one step up from his old job (Schnurr was an associate general secretary for the USCCB, and this other guy, Burrill, was the general secretary – but they never served together as far as I can tell) got connected to his smartphone having a Grindr account, and being on the app a lot.

    Like, all the time. At the USCCB workplace while ostensibly working or attending meetings, for instance. I mean, not only is that creepy, not only is that an offense to man, God, and priestly chastity, but… this guy Burrill couldn’t possibly have had his mind on the job at any time. And yet he got advancement, and collected a salary, no problem. Maybe he was really good at delegation?

    1. In re Burrill: I have to say I wonder how many other clerics are now desperately deleting apps from their phones and doing everything they can to make sure they have as much deniability as possible if it turns out the Pillar has their smartphone movements too.

      But the bigger lesson of the Burrill affair for the rest of us is that your smartphone is a spy. If you want to do something that will get you into trouble leave the smartphone behind

    1. He asks: “Do you know one person who died? Or became seriously ill? Have you even HEARD second- or third-hand of a person who was not over 75 or already seriously ill or morbidly obese who died?”

      This is actually a good question. Despite living in Japan (I know of no one in Japan who has even knowingly caught the wuflu let alone suffered or died) I actually know a number of people who died and quite a few more who were seriously ill. For many of them it was a nasty illness and if they died the wuflu was a major factor in the death. However his overall point stands, among my acquaintances no one has died who was not someone I was particularly surprised to have died. In fact it made me realize just how unhealthy many of my acquaintances are.

      From personal observation in Japan and observation via the media in other countries, I’m pretty sure that a lot of people are asking themselves much the same question and answering it in much the same way.

      1. I know several who were sick – only one very seriously – and two who died. One had a preexisting condition, and the other developed a viral pneumonia, then had a stroke, and then died. So I wonder if the WuFlu piggybacked on top of something else in that second case. I probably had the WuFlu and it acted like one of those annoying viral things that go around every few years. I was coughing for about 6 weeks with somewhat diminished lung capacity, but it didn’t affect every-day stuff.

        1. Stroke might have been from covid since the spike protein can cause clots in some people.

        2. With the vaccine, interesting series of coincidences involving someone who is not dead.

      2. Dad lost some relatives, one of whom was relatively young. (This did not help dad’s covid-panic.) However, though we have very little contact with most of his relatives, I do know that a great many of them are in poor health overall, and I would bet money the younger one had at least one of the co-morbidities. And his dad, who was the other one who died, was quite elderly and, I think, a lifelong smoker.

        It’s very sad. But I’m not sure there would have been quite the same freakout if they’d died, say, of the flu. A bit “Whoa. Must have really caught it bad” surprise, but not the freakout. :/

        1. My cousin (10 years older than me) died. She was a nurse. I don’t know if there were any co-morbidities or not. But diabetes does run in that side of the family.

          My husband’s aunt and uncle died of it. They were 99 and 100, had been married for over 70 years, and died within weeks of each other.

          1. Yeah. The fact that Mom is diabetic, AND in kidney failure (although otherwise quite hale and healthy despite those), and that Dad’s also in the high risk category is why I opted to get stabbed. And why they opted to get stabbed, ultimately, and we got grandma stabbed so we have the option of putting her in a home when she finally hits the “treating the rest of us, especially her daughter, so badly we won’t put up with it anymore.” :p

  29. To teach brother and I to jump rope??? Grammar m’dear, grammar.

    But of course it would be so plebeian to use “me” when “I” is so much more refined and splendid.

      1. Shoot, she writes this for free, frequently before coffee.

        I only comment on typos when they’re funny, or say something more profound than the original (which happens often enough that I sometimes think her subconscious is messing with her).

        1. Yeah, it was lazy of me, but I had just levered myself painfully out of bed. I’ve also found it a bit wearing to use what I think is courtesy towards all of the regulars who are having a hard time with all of the stress. That idiot was pretty clearly trolling, so I decided that the acronym was an appropriate substitute for complete sentences.

          If someone isn’t reading for the ideas and observations, if they cannot read well enough to comprehend unless the wording is perfect, why are they even here?

          This is a place where one can have company while chewing ideas over. If one cannot handle an idea expressed awkwardly, one is missing a lot of the potential benefit?

          1. I’m exhausted. Starting this morning required ibuprofen. We’re trying to get house culled/packed/painted/floored before closing.
            WHILE I’m trying to get the Darkship series edited and back up, Bowl of Red finished, etc.
            Frankly I’m mildly astonished these posts are in any human language.

    2. Can you please get over your fucking self?
      I write these stream of consciousness. without coffee. First thing in the morning. No, I don’t proof. NO ONE PAYS ME FOR THESE.
      Oh, and this is my third language. So, while I think in English, some things default to what I first learned (erroneously) at 14.
      BUT MOSTLY: You want perfectly proofread and thought out. Fuck you. Pay me.

      1. NO ONE PAYS ME FOR THESE.

        Minor quibble: some of us are on paypal-in-lieu-of-patreon. I assume that is supposed to be the blog tipping mechanism.

        1. It is. I don’t use patreon. But even so — sorry — it pays FAR LESS than fiction. It’s a nice tip — I make about 4k per year in donations. Yes, I could make more, but then I’d have to treat this more as a job — which considering every day posts…. well…
          Yes, people TIP me for these. But still, I have “real writing” to do, so this gets short shrift.
          Sorry. Idiot annoyed me.

          2. Hey, I consider this as real writing! But I know what you mean.
            Small question – you had mentioned maybe your packing would include signed extras of your books you would box and sell. Seems like a bit of work when you don’t need more, but are you still thinking of doing it?

            1. yes. We are. Because honestly, we don’t want to carry them and we need money for reflooring the new place.
              So…. This will be “mystery boxes, containing a minimum of x books in this format, signed. If you get something you already have, maybe you can give them away. It will also include posters, or t-shirts or memorabilia. Oh, and rubber fishies 😀 (they’re like pinkie sized. It’s just a fun thing.)
              we’re going to try to have the $25 and the $50 sizes. And trust me, they’ll be bargains. Because I want this stuff gone. I keep finding more boxes of books/promo posters, etc.

      2. >> “NO ONE PAYS ME FOR THESE.”

        And yet, some people still feel entitled to a refund. [rolls eyes]

  30. As for musical chairs, I was never the first one out– but I always managed to last around the middle. I had two problems — clumsiness and eyesight. At the time I was almost blind. I had no peripheral vision so it was hard to compete with people who did. I quit playing when I got old enough to say no. (they started getting us to play this in kindergarten–)

    1. Yeah. No one noticed I was astigmatic AF. Until concussion ALSO made me nearsighted, I had to wear glasses JUST for the astigmatism.
      90% of my issue with “ball sports” was due to that, but no one was set up to diagnose it in my childhood and teen years.

  31. I know one, he’d had his bone marrow sterilized and his “cleaned up,” marrow implanted, and the cancer had just come back. He segued straight into pneumonia.
    His wife also had it and was miserably sick for at least a week. One young and healthy employee was miserable for a day, but had to wait until she “passed,” a test to come back.
    Several people who got thoroughly ill in early 2020 who were never diagnosed but sure had the symptoms.
    We’re popping extra Vitamin D and so far, so good.

    1. I strongly suspect both Mom and I actually had it in March 2020. The fact that we both got really sick on the vaccine also supports this theory–anecdotal data says those what had it, got more sick with the vaccine than those what had not.

        1. December 2019. No medical patting me on the head, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, is going to convince me otherwise. I wasn’t super inconvenienced when I got the vaccine. Sore arm, achy and tired, a headache, both times. Screwed with my blood sugar too. But was that the vaccine? Or is age and my reactive hypoglycemia acting up, again. Who knows? What I do know is I had the cold from H3LL, only was a dry cough that reached my toes, and ran a fever. It wasn’t whooping cough, cough wasn’t THAT bad. I never lost sense of smell or taste.

          1. Mu daughter and I had something, something in late 2019 that knocked us both out for a week, and feeling feeble for another week or so following. The symptoms basically matched the Commie Crud – hit fast, temperature, no sense of taste lingering for a while.
            And we haven’t been sick since, and it’s not as if we were all that careful about handwashing, and mask-wearing, and all that. Another good reason for me to avoid getting the shot – the reaction if you have had the Commie Crud is ever so much worse …
            I hated having to get the mandatory yearly flu shot when I was active duty. I usually got a worse reaction from the shot than I would have from the flu itself. I’ve abjured a yearly flu shot since I retired … and only gotten sick twice since then. My own conclusion is that I have a very robust immune system. When I was a kid, and the whole family got sick – I’d have the lightest case, or wouldn’t get sick at all. (Whereas my younger sister would get the worst case of whatever was going around.)

            1. Our house missed Christmas service– and the next two weeks of Mass– in ’19, as well. Set in not long after Thanksgiving, as sick as I’ve felt since…hm… the last time I got a flu shot…

              *wry*

  32. I keep my Covid shot card in my shirt pocket, so that I can pull it out, hold it in my left arm, and raise my right arm up at 45 degrees, und zay, “Hier ist mein papier, Herr/Frau OBERST!!”, should I have the opportunity… Haven’, yet…

    1. Most of them probably wouldn’t get the point anyway. They are completely unaware that they are following the Nazi playbook page-for-page. Next they’ll require the unvaccinated to wear yellow tags on their clothing.

      The National Socialist Workers Party Of Germany was right-wing, dontchaknow.
      ———————————
      Those who do not remember the lessons of history are doomed to repeat the mistakes. Those who do remember are doomed to watch everybody else repeat them.

  33. Completely agree, great immigrant lady! I don’t even hesitate to use choice words when talking back to a Covid true believer.

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