When The Wheels Come Off

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

Last night I dreamed I was making a purse, because the one I have been using for ten years — the think geek bag of holding made of fake leather — had finally fallen completely apart (it’s patched) and I couldn’t buy one, at a price I could afford.

What annoyed me about the dream was how plausible it is. I could make a purse. The only daunting bit is applying a zipper, as zippers scare me. (Shuddup. I’m just not good at putting them on. I KNOW the theory, but….) And I actually have high quality fake leather from the repurpose website (50 yards WIDE for $150, and I’m covering a bunch of chairs so the cats can’t baptize them. Like my editing chair. I have also threatened to make a coozy for son’s car while he’s with us, because it doesn’t fit in the garage.)

And I woke up thinking: you know, part of this is that if the left is hoping to hit the economy really hard with a hammer till the wheels come off, it’s probably getting frustrating about now.

Let me explain: to some extent this plan is always stupid because humans are resourceful. Even back in the seventies, in Portugal when the bakers kept going on strike (and to understand how much this touched the normal person, you have to understand that back then we were used to getting our bread delivered to the door before we woke up. Tie a bag to the back door, leave a note of what you wanted, wake up to crackling fresh rolls and baguettes. This is one the things I really missed when I moved here. Then I found bread machines, and made do.) The first couple of weeks were pandemonium and people were deeply unhappy because their routine — worse, their waking up routine — was disrupted.

And then things… changed. So, some people started making their own bread. Some people started making their own bread, other people heard and suddenly they were showing up at the back door and placing an order for the morning, then coming in the morning and knocking a certain way to receive your order. It was annoying, but life went on, and not everyone had to bake their own bread anyway.

Oh, and bonus, you didn’t have to pay taxes on the bread you sold. You were obliging your neighbors, and if they wanted to give you some money in return to help with expenses, it would be rude to refuse. (And since everyone was doing it, they couldn’t chase everyone, even in a tiny country.) Oh, and to understand this one, and the reason I use this expense, I don’t think people in Portugal had baked their own bread (Other than farmers makign broa) since before Roman times. Artisanal bread wasn’t a thing. But people found a way.

I do realize with so much of our manufacturing in China, and the supply problems, etc, it seems like the world is coming down on top of our heads.

But people find a way. Look, in Cuba, a tiny country, they’ve kept 1950s cars going all these decades. They might be repaired with washing machines parts, but they keep going.

The US is a huge country, with a ton more resources, and perhaps genetically (As we’re immigrants or descended thereof) more adaptable people.

We’re n the first shock, so not much being done to get around this cr*p inflicted on us from above. But in a month or two, probably before the anger reaches the level (alas) that #teamheadsonpikes comes out to play, we’ll adapt, improvise, overcome.

People are already buying direct from farmers. I have no idea how the Christmas gift shopping is going, because since the kids haven’t been little, we usually pick ONE interesting or meaningful thing for them, and anyway, Dan and I always want the same “A book and a music-vehicle (used to be a CD)”. This year, with worry over selling the house, etc. I haven’t even looked. I keep hearing it will be lean, but I suspect Americans will make more stuff/etsy will have a boom year. And life will move on. Heck, I know someone considering going into 3-d printing to make those pieces that are stuck in containers or that China is not sending off, or whatever, to repair your car/washing machine/air conditioning. Yeah, copyright problems, but if you market it as a “Stop gap while you wait” and market to local repairmen? I bet it works.

The point is we’re not Portuguese or Cubans. Not a small country, easily stomped. Out in the heartland, people will go over, go under, get around almost by default.

And even in Portugal, in the seventies things were…. fluid. Push hard enough and people don’t fall into line. At least not if your plan amounts to running around with pants on your head screaming “cuckoo!” So instead they do the other thing. The one you didn’t want.

So for instance when unemployment was something absurd like 70% (I probably misremember) everyone was busy, and eating and getting things done. Just not officially. We knew a family where the dad was laid off, and they found the local textile factory burned their “end of rolls/leftovers/trash fabric” at the end of the day. So the family asked if they could take them instead. Got four sewing machines, and sat around the dinner table making pot holders and small goods which they sold at the local fair. Incredibly lucrative? Well, you know, the material was free and they weren’t paying taxes. Eventually as things eased, they expanded the business and became fabric goods distributors. So, they didn’t do too badly.

More importantly, students were making stuff, and selling in craft fairs that popped up all over (did it occasionally, mostly for bus fare.) As a teen there was never a lack of affordable jewelry or decor items to buy. Of course, none of these were paying taxes, which is too bad for the central planners.

And again, there were places where you knocked a certain way and they sold you an already roasted roast or the produce or whatever. Even when the stores were empty.

HERE? In the US, with our distributed communication, our vast land, and our bizarre amount of abilities (Seriously guys, Americans take hobbies WAY seriously. I’ve never been anywhere else where pretty much everyone has a hobby and works hard at it. Most other countries, people go to their paid jobs, come home and veg in front of the TV. Yeah, mom sews, but it’s mostly mending.) I think those who want the wheels off are going to get a massive shock.

Now, keep in mind that this means the poor who are poor due to lack of will power or inventiveness will suffer. But some of them might actually discover they can do things. All of us will be very busy. BUT life will go on.

Of course the downside of this is that team #headsonpikes might not come out to play. (What? I never hid my bloodthirstiness. I just know it’s inadvisable, for a society.) That’s also the upside, of course.

Does it mean we’ll just endure the boot on our necks?

I don’t think so for three reasons:

1- the people wearing the boot are too stupid to pour piss out of it with the instructions written on the heel.

2- They’re in panic mode that they can’t help but keep accelerating, so the stupid crap they do will get worse, and even if we’re surviving, it’s going to piss people off. If they’re lucky, they get put on a container and sent to China. If they’re really lucky, we’ll punch in air holes.

3- What they’re doing is going to encourage more and more going under/going over/going around. Which makes people more independent and resourceful and less likely to fall for their bag of tricks. As everything they’ve done since 2016, they’re just accelerating the demise of their cult.

So, what I mean is, the country is vast enough and resourceful enough (I mean, just the repurpose site. And a million thrift stores, and and and) that the wheels never really come off. Or they do, but new wheels pop up from under them and we all go FIDO (F*** it, drive on.)

It’s the most likely outcome.

The point is the parasite class that thinks they’re elites don’t know that. And they’ve never done anything useful in their lives. And they think everyone is like them.

Buy popcorn. The story is about to get interesting.

Yeah, it will go nasty in spots. Keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.

But remember what you’re watching is the stomping around of the Marxian regimes as they die. It’s a blind, fatally wounded monster trying to take us to the hash heap of history with it.

Don’t let it. Adapt, Improvise, Overcome.

Remember you’re Americans. They ain’t seen nothing like us yet. And they will….

348 thoughts on “When The Wheels Come Off”

  1. Excellent article! I am glad to see you are being positive again. I was getting concerned these past few days when your literary efforts were getting down into the frustrated and angry band.

    Keep up the good work!

    David

    David St Lawrence Spiritual Rescue Technology Counseling https://caring-communication.com/SRTHOME/

    On Fri, Nov 12, 2021 at 12:58 PM According To Hoyt wrote:

    > accordingtohoyt posted: ” Last night I dreamed I was making a purse, > because the one I have been using for ten years — the think geek bag of > holding made of fake leather — had finally fallen completely apart (it’s > patched) and I couldn’t buy one, at a price I could afford. ” >

  2. Though I most certainly applaud: team #headsonpikes
    I might lean more towards: team #VladImpaler

    Agree strongly with you essay!

            1. A suggested name for a political thriller, “The Ceausescu Option.” On second thought, the title makes the outcome obvious.

            1. “When dealing with situations like this, I recommend a good pair of running shoes.” — Ignition!

            4. No, absolutely not.

              Any chemical the Nazis were afraid to utilize in pursuit of the Final Solution has to be approached with extreme trepidation.

              Hell, almost all chemicals which include fluorine need to be approached with extreme trepidation, the freaking electron thrives.

  3. I’m looking forward to Christmas. Getting together with family, sharing worship and food and drink and laughter, is a kick in the teeth to the humorless scolds who want us cowed and fearful. Their fury at our refusal to comply is fun to watch. Not that I’m not wary, because furious creatures can do a lot of damage, but I am not afraid of them. And that’s a great feeling.

    2. They really are humorless scolds. And instantly ready to take offense. The judge in the Rittenhouse case made a joke about the ships in Long Beach harbor and they turned it into an “anti-Asian slur.”
      Same people who have no problem calling a 17-year-old a “white supremacist.”

      1. Just listen to them repeat “racist, RACIST, RRRAAACISSST!!! Kyle is racist, the defense lawyer is racist, the judge is racist, the whole damn court is racist!

        Remember, this is a white kid on trial for shooting three white criminals that tried to kill him in the middle of a riot. I’m just not seeing the racism here.

        The prosecution has put on a clown show, the evidence proves he’s innocent, but the jurors are being threatened with riots, arson and lynchings if they don’t convict him. Have we all blundered into a Franz Kafka story while we weren’t paying attention?
        ———————————
        The Democrats trust violent criminals and terrorists with guns more than they trust you.

        1. Interesting bits on Twitter…people confessing they were progressive, and sincerely convinced Rittenhouse shot black people, was there to kill black people, crossed a state line to kill people….and then saw footage from the trial and discovered everything their trusted sources had told them was wrong. At least one was apologizing for believing it.

          1. I’ve been seeing that too. Bill Ackman the hedge fund guy was talking in terms of GelMann Amnesia. He’s realizing that he’s been lied to and wondering what else he’s been lied to about.

            Evil will oft doth evil mar.

        2. Actually from the insane view of the SJW/Tranzi folks they ARE racist. They are white (presumably) Cis-Het males. The vilest most reprehensible creature that has ever walked the Earth, Lucifer’s own spawn (except they don’t believe in the Father of Lies). Their doctrine is clear in that. And so ANY punishment is suitable for creatures such as that. It’s part of why if/when the cold civil war turns hot it would be extremely ugly. There is a nastiness there that rivals the 30 Years War or the hate for the Shia by the Sunni as the SJW creed is effectively a heretical off shoot of Christianity where there is still original sin, but no grace, only works (and only for some). As we are not human to them there will be neither quarter asked or given. The only comfort I see is that the Author predetermined the outcome of these things and his representative has already paid the price and won the battle.

        3. It’s also interesting that Kyle shot 3 convicted felons, and ONLY 3 convicted felons. Such criminals make up a very small proportion of the general population. If he’d been running around shooting people at random, the odds that all 3 of them would be felons are literally a million to one.

          Violent criminals make up a disproportionately large percentage of the ‘gun violence victims’ we are supposed to protect by banning guns. Something like 20 or 30 times their percentage in the general population. Gee, it’s almost like ‘gun violence’ somehow selectively targets those most in need of receiving it.
          ———————————
          If you call 9-1-1 and tell them that somebody with a gun is breaking into your house, they will send two cops in 10 or 15 minutes. If you tell them that somebody is breaking into your house and YOU have a gun, they will send 10 or 15 cops in two minutes.

          1. Also that the left is outraged that Rittenhouse had a gun, but not the three convicted felons had them, which violates every single gun law that the left has pushed for.

    3. Spiritual strength is something they do not have, do not understand, and are terrified by. This has been the second year my synagogue has been unable to have the one big High Holiday service scene (~300 member families). So we had several small indoor services, services in rented tents outside, youth services in a park pavilion. A gazillion working parts, with everybody cooperating to make it work. And our community is stronger and closer than ever. We added more community service functions over the last two years, and we will be keeping them when all this is in the rear view mirror. To break one of us, they would pretty much have to break all of us. And that would be a heavy lift.

      1. “To break one of us, they would pretty much have to break all of us. And that would be a heavy lift.”

        I love this. Thank you 🙂

  4. I love these essays, they give much needed perspective.
    And I must frivolously point out: Now you can afford such a purse!

    1. Except we’re not even getting showings on the house, so we’re keeping it as tight as we can till the house sells…. I don’t want to have to ask again and sound like a mooch.
      As is I’m blessed it more than double funded. It never occurred to me we’d not get SHOWINGS.
      I did splurge (ah) on a sit-in-bed pillow, since I often do insty posting from bed while husband sleeps. And a second set of matching dishes, so if both kids come over we can eat. Also, because it’s one of those things I’m afraid won’t be available later.

      2. Hate to say it, but how well do you know, and how much do you trust, your realtor?

        Mama & Papa Raptor got stuck with a scumbag realtor when we moved from the Philly area (it was a corporate relocation so the scumbag got assigned to us). Something like six months and we got a handful of showings and no serious (IMO) offers. Mama & Papa Raptor finally got sick of the assclown (for too many reasons to list here) and told the corporate relocation outfit to either get them another realtor or they’d sell the house themselves. They got a new, competent realtor, and in four weeks they had more showings than assclown scumbag had managed in six month, and the house sold.

        I never got the whole story, but we later came to find out that there was strong evidence that the assclown scumbag realtor was involved in some pretty unethical stuff behind the scenes and was deliberately doing us dirty for personal reasons.

        So if whoever you’re dealing with can’t manage to get the house shown, fire their ass and go with somebody else.

        1. I’ve heard of realtors who deliberately “hide” a property til the seller gets desperate, then suddenly there’s a buyer for pennies on the dollar and the realtor somehow ends up owning and flipping it.

          Assclown realtors are a reason to only sign contracts for no more than a month at a time. If they’ve got you for six months, where’s the incentive to hurry up and sell it?

          There’s no reason that nice of a house in that hot of a market isn’t getting at least lookie-loos, unless the realtor is falling down on the job or it’s somehow priced way out of range, which I doubt.

            1. Have you checked social media postings of the realtor; maybe the “woke” and see an opportunity to hurt an ideological opponent. Wouldn’t be the first time.

            1. Makes no sense. There’s not been any change in mortgage rates or volumes. Maybe a deceleration but still trending. Herb could probably tell you better than I.

              My daughter bought a house in Maryland and we were shocked she got it since it’s a really nice house in good nick in a great neighborhood priced to sell and had sat on the market for some time. No one looked at it. It was on the market so long that we were suspicious about the condition, sometimes that’s just the way it goes.

                1. Let’s just hope the NEXT realtor doesn’t have to explain any funny smells coming from the basement… 😛

                2. Sister came back with her guy in the Bay area, who does deal with people leaving the state and would be good to talk to. I’ll send you an email with his personal contact info. She’s known and used him for decades.

                  [doomgold dot com is my email domain, if you need to whitelist or spamdive]

                    1. Yep. We had a plumber pull stuff on us (did one repair and “discovered,” additional (expensive and unnecessary) repairs needed). A bit later he turned up on Eyewitness News after pulling the same crap on a woman with chronic illness. That was amusing. The woman got the needed repairs and he got news of an incoming warrant.

            2. When you price low, it scares off people in your real price range, because lowball asking price is a very good indicator of a problem property. Start a little high and be willing to negotiate, and remember you can always go down, but you can’t go up (unless you get a bidding war).

              However… [goes off, finds listing] judging by what else is immediately around it, that’s a fair enough price (and it’s near the top of the nearby offerings), if numerically a little odd. And I don’t see any scare-aways in the way the listing is currently written. The staging is picture-perfect.

              The main problem I see is that in that price range, you’re waiting for someone from California to show up. So what you really need is a broker in California who is helping someone there sell and flee the state.

                1. HMMMM. Either this dude (I presume dude) is incredibly incompetent OR he has a client in mind and he is intentionally torpedoing other sales. Why you might ask? Because if he is both the listing AND the selling agent he gets the WHOLE fee rather than the split he gets (usually 1/2) as listing agent only. Even with a lower selling price its a win for him. Its a jerk move, but sadly one that some realtors do to maximize their income. Legalistically it is highly questionable (they are YOUR agent and in most states they have a fiduciary duty to you) but proving it would be an issue.

                2. Since you’re planning to fire the bastard anyway, just do it now. Don’t let him waste any more of your time, nerves and middle finger fatigue. The ‘mistakes’ you’ve described indicate either utter incompetence, or malfeasance. Does it matter which one it is?
                  ———————————
                  Long ago, when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks they called it witchcraft. Now they call it golf.

                    1. Well, that sucks.

                      Here’s hoping you get shut of that contract without the rascal taking anything from you.

          3. In our case, we think the realtor was “working both sides,” so to speak, i.e. he was representing both the sellers (us) AND the prospective buyers. We figured this out because, a) everyone who saw the house or made the offer was working with the same (obviously very junior) realtor, and b) one dumbass buyer who’d actually made an offer on the house called us by mistake, thinking he’d called an inspector or something, and said that our realtor told him to tell the inspector to make up some bullsh*t about how the hardwood floors all needed to be replaced and wanted to know how much he should demand Mama and Papa Raptor knock off the asking price as a result. But he was very clear that it was our realtor, not his, who he talked to. That’s when Mama & Papa Raptor called the corporate relo people and told them to get him off our listing.

            Plus, we think he resented being forced to do a corporate relo sale because (my understanding is that) the corporate relo company would take a percentage of his commission on the sale. Hence why he verbally and emotionally abused the sh*t out of Mama Raptor, to the point where I came home from work and found her crying more than once.

            Our new realtor, who was actually a family friend, grimaced and said something to the effect of, “Oh God, not HIM!” when she found out who we’d been forced to deal with.

            But, if nothing else, I’ve found my own Joe Buckly. This dude is gonna get humiliated (and probably die horribly) in every story that I ever write.

              1. Why direct threat?

                What about “You know I am a writer. Who writes for a living? … I’m keeping notes … Anything in fiction is totally 100% not related to anyone …”

                I know. I know. Dan will shut this down too … In a month … Next realtor and old realtor gets a one star review?

              2. That’s pretty much what I told Mama & Papa Raptor they should do, along with filing complaints to his boss and whatever licensing board governs realtors. But they’re too nice. So they didn’t.

                I’d remind Dan of The Dalton Rule: “Be nice. Until it’s time not to be nice.” If it’s been more than a month and the house hasn’t gotten a single showing, I’d say it’s time to start not being nice.”

                1. My daughter is just starting out as a realtor – I mean, the ink on her license is just barely dry. She’s working on building up her client base, by calling local brokerages who have houses which have sat on the market for more than a month and offering to do a showing. This is a freebie for them and for the seller, and lets her collect names and addresses of potential clients. She says that having done this a good few times, it’s obvious why the property isn’t selling – either priced too high, or of such an iffy location or a design that it has limited appeal, like the 1960s house that looked straight out of the Brady Bunch. Classic mid-century architectural modern – perfect for someone who adores it, but everyone else edging away, uneasily.

                  1. In this case, he had an OUTRIGHT LIE in the description. “Renovated from the studs out” — which it wasn’t for F’s sake. It was painted. — So, we got people in complaining it wasn’t perfect (because duh, it’s a 20 year old house) on the first day, then nothing since.
                    WHY? Because the “studs out” on a 20 year old (not Victorian) house in CO would mean one of two things: Either moving soil that cracked all the inside walls, OR crack house. I wouldn’t go near it, FFS.
                    I DID make him remove that, today.
                    Second, he describes the land behind us as “agricultural.” It’s not. It’s undeveloped (and likely to remain that way at least 20 years more) land chockful of wildlife, where sometimes you see a few cows grazing, because pasturage rights get leased.
                    AGRICULTURAL LAND BEHIND would mean a wokring farm. which would LOWER the price considerably. Also, no mention of fact it’s one of seven houses on a cul de sac, and there are no and will never be any houses across the street. (Beause it’s a drainage culvert.)
                    So, you know…..

                    1. Okay, this guy is NOT on the up-and-up. That’s too much negative description that if he has any experience at all, he should know better… especially since his commission depends on the selling price, so if anything he should be shouting its praises in the most positive manner possible..

                      So he’s angling for a lowball offer for some reason that’s still lurking out behind the barn.

                      I’ll talk to a close family friend who is a realtor (and very firmly in our Basket of Deplorables) and see if he can recommend someone in the area.

                    5. Also agreed with Reziac. Don’t know what this yahoo’s deal is or what his ulterior motive is, but he is DEFINITELY doing you dirty.

              4. “You actually work at selling our house, and play it straight, or I may have to file a complaint with the Board of Realtors.”

                Dunno if that still has any value, but there was a time when it did.

                1. And find out if he or his agency have Yelp pages, listings with the BBB, etc., so you can file bad reviews / complaints there.

              5. Dual agency (same agent representing both buyer and seller) is illegal in Colorado. However, both can be with the same brokerage.

                https://law.justia.com/codes/colorado/2016/title-12/general-continued/article-61/part-8/section-12-61-806/

                CO Rev Stat § 12-61-806 (2016)
                (1) A broker shall not establish dual agency with any seller, landlord, buyer, or tenant.

                And here’s a mildly-outdated by-state summary for the rest of us:

                listwithclever DOT com/dual-agency/
                link under Colorado goes to complete text of the law.

                [site went kablooie last time I tried to post this, hopefully won’t kill it again]

      3. My daughter’s (Moving her family, goats, dogs, chickens and geese [She sold the cows.] to this compound,) trying to sell her off grid place with few viewings at this moment. Our real estate market went in a little more than a year, from normal to sold before showing often at more than the asking price, to slower than normal sales. I think this will be a short lull and the get out of Dodge, escape from L.A., we want rural but not too rural, buying frenzy will come back even stronger.

        As you know, when times they are a changing, lots of folks are changing locations.

      4. Has there been an open house yet? Seems like the house down the street was on market forever, but 3 days after open house, multiple offers (3 is multiple). BIL’s mother’s house same way, they only had 2 offers. Both during the “hot” real estate time. Both “seemed” to be on the market longer with few showings.

      5. Skimming through the comments about no showings, I’d be suspicious of the realtor. Our friend we had dinner with tonight is looking to move (Michigan) and just about every house she’s looked at in her range has been “less than new.”

        The ONE she looked at that was really nice and in her range got 9(!!) offers (she lost.)

        The market right now is HOT, I’d say find a different realtor.

  5. Be prepared to go over, around, and through. Find the points that they don’t have guards on-and push whole armored regiments in, without lube. Keep them so busy trying to stop us in one place, go a different direction. And, the places they think they are the strongest…that’s where they’re the most fragile.

    If I was a state governor? I’d be getting all my people in a room and going, “how do we get out of people’s way so that they come to our state, bring industries back from offshore, and keep them busy? And, without adding extra work for them or extra taxes? We’ll make more money on the back end, anyways.”

    2. If I was a governor, I would be pointing out to universities in state that if disease is such a huge public concern, then there is an issue of whether the public can trust universities to run disease labs, and not have leaks, and not cover up leaks of serious dangers.

      Things are known about industrial safety with different flavors of organization. They are not type of government neutral, they are not culture neutral, and they are not ethically neutral.

      People who violate basic principles of medical ethics cannot be trusted in leadership or management positions over disease labs.

      It is not a question of ‘must coerce people, or we cannot operate’. It is a question of whether they should be allowed to operate at all, and the coercion moves things towards ‘not’, and towards using state appointed boards of regents to dismantle state universities so that the public can better supervise and trust the remaining operational components.

      1. This with bells on. I think one of the major issues were seeing with the whole vaccine thing is we’ve gotten a cadre of medical researchers who grew up in the “no liability” “fetal rains aren’t from real humans” “credentials are next to godhood” world that they view everyone else as cardboard cutouts, and act accordingly.

        And it’s going to get worse before it gets better. There are just a lot of incentives to pretend people aren’t really human for it to be easily given up. And it requires people to realize they’ve been doing highly unethical things for years.

        Not easy, even when they didn’t know. Much harder when they’ve already been pretending it was fine.

        1. It’s not just the medical researchers, medical research is simply the area where public lay necessities are easiest to explain.

          There are university presidents and university HR staff pushing some of this stuff, perhaps without having any personal background with medical research.

          It may be that each profession has its own standard of professional ethics, and that what carries this forward is mostly not the teaching faculty at professional schools. So, University administrations pushing bullcrap on the teaching faculty may be not directly dangerous.

          Getting away with pushing bullcrap onto teaching faculty, for now, does make a university administration unfit to be trusted with carrying out research that requires enough professional ethics to meet the demands of public trust.

          There are specific administrators who have shown a lack of appreciation for ‘first, do no harm’, and informed consent. There are specific administrators who in obviously picking and choosing what orders to follow, and in defending actions as ‘following orders’, have shown a lack of understanding for where that got Eichmann.

          Additionally, university administration efforts to silence dissent and squelch personal initiative have the effect of preventing the base level workers necessary to industrial safety from being able to patch the safety holes in the central policy.

          Disease research carried out in the PRC can be expected to leak, because totalitarian governments necessarily make every business and every government organization bad at industrial safety. The duplicitous opportunism shown by certain* US universities suggest that leaks are also to be expected from some US research institutions.

          *I would hesitate to condemn every single university and college based only on what little information I have.

          1. It is not necessary to condemn. Any group handling hazardous process has a requirement to be able to know an explain how they are ensuring a safe environment at will.

            If you walk up to, say, a Class 4 Laser lab, knock on the door, and the people there cannot explain how they are ensuring people don’t get blinded or otherwise seriously injured, at the drop of a hat, then they need to be shut down on the spot.

          2. No. Most medical schools are rotten through with wokeness and politics. During the BLM riots medical students organized “die ins” from White coats for black lives. During the lock downs they came out to shriek at normal human beings tired of being locked down.
            Rotten through. The profession is going to tumble in public trust after this. Has been on the way since classes started writing their own oaths, instead of sticking with the Hippocratic oath.
            I’m not thrilled about this. But there it is.

            1. One of the dirty little secrets in medicine is that most doctors now are employees of big healthcare groups and don’t have their own practices anymore. Makes them more compliant to pressures from above.

                1. In Flyover Falls, the entry level/gatekeeper docs are largely corporate, with some small clinics elsewhere in the county. (At least one the hospital tried and failed to put it out of business. The guy is good, but they wanted his business. He makes a bundle doing flu vaccines, though he discourages the COVID not-Vax.)

                  The specialists vary. Some are corporate, frequently loosely affiliated with the hospital, while others are solo. Dental was one-or-two DDS/DMDs, but corporate practices are coming in, with varied reputations.

                  Most of the veterinarians are one-or-two doc practices, usually with a few techs per doc. I’m aware of one fancy practice put up near the animal shelter, but don’t know anybody who uses it. The few large-animal vets I know of are solo.

                  1. Our veterinarian clinic started small. When the old veterinarian got old enough to retire, he brought on an young veterinarian out of residency and past the two year supervision (or whatever it is). Who bought the practice. She is still there, but has expanded into a multiple veterinarian clinic varying from 4 to 6 veterinarians, and many techs. She is getting ready retire. Based on reliable resource, our clinic has been sold to a corporation. That reliable source is still an independent veterinarian. Based on what he has said, he is in the same boat. He doesn’t want to sell to a corporation, but he may not have any choice. Worse, one of his clinics is one of the few feline radiation thyroid treatment in Oregon, Washington, N. California, and N. California. We’d switch to him because an independent veterinarian has somewhat more flexibility. But we’ve been at our clinic since ’85 and with Dr. Johnson since ’92 or so. The other veterinarian knows we won’t change clinics, his are too far away.

                    Besides the costs going up. Used to be if we brought in multiple animals we’d get a break after the 4th vaccination. Not charged on 4+ animal’s exam. Since we were bringing in 6 animals (5 cats and a dog), it was a huge help. Plus, as long as healthy, only went in every 3 years after the puppy/kitten year. Now it is an annual exam to keep getting the flea medicines that actually work. I do push it, hard. But dang.

                  2. Don’t know many large animal veterinarians. Most of them appear to be mobile and go client to client. Then too we are only 40 miles, max, from OSU Large Veterinarian Clinics through the Tri-State Veterinarian school.

                2. We.found a decently priced.veterinarian the next county over. He treats livestock and know people can’t pay outrageous bills worth more than the animal. The suburban vets are in it for the money. They guilt people into the most ridiculous and expensive tests before they will neuter an animal!

                  1. Back around 1997ish, my old vet (who graduated from Cornell back in the Before Times, and was best buds with Dr.Carmichael who then ran Baker Institute) said the problem is that vet schools no longer teach medicine until 2nd year. First year is all marketing. And if you sub to Veterinary Practice News, you can see this is so. It’s all about upselling needless “care” because that’s where all the money is.

                    And yeah, if you want both reasonable prices and practical no-nonsense care — you have to find an old-timey livestock vet who is still willing to touch small animals. Many no longer will, probably due to liability concerns.

                    To wit: I have personally witnessed a case of four vets colluding to file yank-your-license claims against a low-cost vet (who I knew pretty well) they regarded as unfair competition. Uh, those homeless people he served for cheap or free are not big-money customers anyway, but that didn’t matter!!

                    1. Locally we have a Spay & Neuter Clinic which also offers shots and flea medicines (cannot buy in bulk however). There is also at least one pet vaccination van that has regular schedules around the county; at the Mini Petmart on Division Avenue and The Feed Store on 6th/7th (right where hwy 99 splits). The problem is, that is ALL either does. You still have to have a relationship with a clinic veterinarian for anything else, be it travel (Canada), or if horses to cross some state lines; or something more serious. Even if you utilize the emergency clinic, they are going to pass you off to a regular clinic, as soon as they have the pet stabilized.

                      I’ve never used the mobile clinic. Have utilized the Emergency and the Spay/Neuter Clinic. The latter because our rescue puppy’s fee covered her puppy shots (through 6 months), and spay, if we used the Spay/Neuter Clinic. When I found out their charges, I talked to the veterinarian’s and staff and they said this was an “option” but they didn’t recommend it unless we really couldn’t afford anything else. The Emergency Clinic we’ve had to use, over the years, too many times. It is $60 just to walk in the door, some of which applies to treatment, but not all of it.

              2. Obamacare was deliberately designed to consolidate the healthcare sector in a couple of mega-conglomerates., Since they couldn’t impose communist style socialized medicine right away, they went the “let’s use fascist economic structures” to achieve the same goal route., We are seeing the results.

  6. A couple of commenters at Chicagoboyz are theorizing that this economic crash is being deliberately arranged by the Powers That Be. It’s all to calculated to be anything but deliberate. But then again, advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from deliberate malice …

    Oh, people will make do, and I don’t think Americans are any slouch at all, when it comes to making our hobbies and amusements into a reliable income stream. We had a neighbor who did fancy woodwork in his garage. Turned a replacement lid for a bread crock on his lathe, in exchange for a dozen eggs from our hens. Another neighbor, who is a dab hand at breadbaking did bread in exchange for eggs. The Neighborhood Handy Guy does house-painting, floor and tile installation, carpentry, and some electrics and emergency plumbing – he’s so busy, it’s a matter of scheduling! I sew, my daughter does crafts … as a matter of fact, we have a table at a local holiday craft fair this weekend.

    We’ll get by.

    1. One of the biggest determinants of “how far do we fall” is going to be whether they can replace cash with a government-run cryptocurrency. If they manage that, we’re going back to a barter economy, and the official economy will shrink to 1/10th of its original size.

      Why? Because I guarantee you government-run crypto won’t be actual money–it won’t be fungible. They’ll be able to control what you use each “dollar” for, because it will have contracts embedded into the ledger. How much you spend on replacement parts for your old car, the price of milk, nobody can pay that deplorable guy over there anything at all. There’s no way they won’t use that power.

        1. Yes, which will most likely be balkanized–in very strange ways. Money that is valid within “affinity groups”. That would be the thing that starts the process toward the Snow Crash world.

            1. You may be right, but it would require heads on pikes. Government-run crypto is anathema to a functioning economy.

              1. Didn’t in Portugal. They just ran away. Granted, then we got national socialists, but that was the spirit of the age. Oh, a couple of the anarchists got Romanian Christmas gifts, but….

          3. Snerk. I have to bite my tounge at running the [gauntlet vs gantlet], though the latter has been almost erased from the lexicon.

              2. How about the tenets (not ‘tenants’) of capitalism, or something being canon (not ‘cannon’) when in accordance with established precedent (not ‘president’).

      2. I agree this would be the end but more in a Germany 1923 way than a confiscation. For me, this is THE doomsday inflation scenario. Right now they’re pushing on the monetary string because no one wants to borrow to invest, but if they can simply create it directly then it’s Katy, bar the door!

        1. They’re not pushing on a string anymore. They’ve got more inflation than they intended, but they can’t raise rates without destroying the welfare system.

            1. But not fine by them, which is why they won’t do it.

              At least, that’s neil’s point. Myself, I’m not persuaded they understand it that well, and think they might do it just out of sheer economic idiocy.

          2. They have supply shortage and dislocated demand. Think of it like the end of a war: sharp, hard price increases caused by a mismatch in supply and demand followed by a glut. There’s no monetary inflation, yet. I really hate to agree with the FRB but this is still transitory. The way to look at is is through the bond markets and gold, neither of which are signaling inflation.

            Nope, deflation caused by demographics are the problem. they’re pushing on a string.

            Should they get the ability to put money directly into pockets then I might believe it, or.perhaps their boondoggle fiscal plan, or what seems to be going on in China where they have 30% of the economy and the vast majority of the population’s wealth in the process of unwinding. But not yet.

            Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon and bank reserves are not money and that’s all the Fed has produced.

            1. Every demographic model I’ve followed over the years predicted an upturn in inflationary pressures right about now due to millenials’ family formation.

              That Friedman quote is one of the things he got very, very wrong. As you point out with your comment about demographics, there are many other variables.

              1. Only the US, which is why the US, essentially alone in the developed world, has interest rates GT zero. The market is global and the developed world population is declining. US population increases begin to wane then decline faster than you might think. it’s all done bar the shouting by 2030.

                Germany and Switzerland bonds are negative out to 30 years and Japan is the path that seems to be destiny. The baby boom was throughout the developed world and you had women entering the workforce, both these produced demand greater than supply and, thus, price inflation. The money supply has been increasing but the calculation is more complicated than that since it’s artificial money that’s the problem. The problem is lack of good investment opportunities, that’s what pushing on a string refers to whether your a Keynesian — boo — or a Monetarist — boo — or an Austrian — huzzah! The FRB has only created bank reserves, which are still sitting as cas on bank balance sheets. bank reserves are not money.

                China is the wildcard since they have a truly epic problem given the concentration of the population’s wealth in empty apartments that are built of straw along with an unstoppable collapse in the working age population. They are going to have to print money. it’s going to fail as it always does but it’s all they can do and the CCP faces genuine heads on spikes as tyrants always do. Given the Yuan is essentially scrip and China’s actual currency is the dollar how they’ll do that will be …. Interesting.

                I simply do not share the common view that the authorities control nearly as much as they would have you believe. the best case for the view that they do is the FRB and they don’t really, never did. The big banks and the bond market do. The FRB is all about managing and forming expectations, you know, BS. They need the narrative about control because that’s all they have — the narrative.

                What the FRB does is provide the opportunity for large firms, financial and otherwise, to extract rents. The large firms rule, not the Fed. At this point, all the Fed can do is swap assets and jawbone. just don’t look behind that curtain and everything will be fine.

                Just a technical note, the vast majority of dollars are not accounted for in the M’s. The dollar is the world’s reserve currency and most dollars are actually created in London by the bank’s based there. The real boom was 1996 to 2007 and it’s been a deflationary bust slowed but nit reversed by everything the world’s central banks could throw at it. the only thing that kept it from spinning into an actual depression is the US echo boom.

      3. Democrats have been pushing to eliminate physical money to go “cashless” since early in the Obama administration. They used the same reason that they want to monitor everyone’s bank accounts “to make sure the rich pay their fair share”. What they really intend is to use it as means of totalitarian control.

      4. Another thing that is currently being done with government crypto is expiration dates. China has “money” with expiration dates, linked to your social credit score. Need to grow the economy? Set the date closer in so people have to spend their money or lose it. Low social credit score? Your money doesn’t last as long as your neighbor with a high social credit score.

        1. Which screams, “Do everything you can to turn this garbage into precious metals that you HOLD IN YOUR HAND.” (not held somewhere else, by someone else, which could all also be make-believe.)

          1. And then, like FDR did, the governments will ban the private possession of certain metals.

      5. To be honest, I don’t think it’s the ‘replaced with Crypto’ part. It’s the ‘got rid of cash’. Look at what they do with Paypal, credit cards, etc against businesses and people they don’t like already. Look at how they’re trying to get reporting requirements for $600 and up.

        I think you’re absolutely correct they want to have that 100% control, I just don’t believe it will be through replacing cash with crypto. And they seem to be experts at skipping over all the little consequences of their decisions that make the big ones fall flat on their faces.

        What I find interesting is there are several crypto coins that are completely anonymous. If *they* take off… I think they might first become illegal, and then start toppling governments…

        1. “What I find interesting is there are several crypto coins that are completely anonymous. ”

          At the present state of technology, there is no such thing, and for one simple reason: sooner or later, anything you purchase in meatspace can be questioned as to source of income. “Where did you get the money for…..” anything and everything can be asked, and there are now a number of felonies on the books that basically say “you did this to commit tax fraud unless you can prove otherwise, it’s off to the slammer with you.”

          Stricter scrutiny can be had if you are a “Customer with political exposure”.

          Working on a contract for a worldwide finance player / bank / etc. and taking the training they require of their new hires is an enlightening experience.

          Free example: Make n cash transactions totaling over $1000 in a day and the institution must file a “cash transaction report”. And yes, they are drowning in data…. but if they decide you need a lesson, they can administer it.

    2. We need to stop giving them so much credit. These idiots aren’t failing on purpose, they’re just failing. they’re stupid and incompetent, not super smart competent conspirators. We underestimate their stupidity and how much damage stupidity can do.

      Stupidity can be indistinguishable from malice but even if they were doing what they’re doing maliciously they’d f-ck it up. We are in the situation where most of our “ruling” class have failed up, or they’re pedos, or failed pedos — take your pick — and look at the most recent news about Epstein, who didn’t kill himself.

      Noli Timere and Brandone ilicet.

        1. I agree and I did too, and family., OMG family. My uncle went off to fight for the republic in the Spanish Civil war until he found out what was really going on. He was, as many in my family are, Christian anarchists. They would have gone to the wall first come the revolution. A fair few of the rest were actual fascists. Reality never seemed to penetrate.

          It’s stupidity, not malice. Stupidity is much harder to fight because there’s no cure for it, except of course the Edward II solution Herb described with such glee.

      2. Even where not stupid, incentives matter, and their incentives are personal and local while their powers are extensive and widespread. We’ve been incentivizing “spend all your department’s money so you’ll get more to spend next year” for so long that the bureaucracy is completely corrupted and really doesn’t care about the effects on anyone else as long as they get more money to spend. (At best, they have to avoid screwing up so very badly that Congress thwaps them on the nose, but even that tends to be a personal incentive, not a departmental one.)

  7. My kids are growing. Shoes are already an issue, and may become even more of one. I don’t *mind* good quality second hand shoes, but *finding* them in the *right sizes* is an issue, not just because of the search, but because of how fast my daughter in particular is growing through sizes.

    Clothes…well, I never learned to use a sewing machine because of mental trauma a possessed sewing machine caused me in my early teens. But I’m in the last stages of getting my great (great?) grandma’s treadle machine up and going, and by gum, I’m going to freakin’ *learn* to sew.

    1. And yes, I *am* pissed off that the FICUS and his muppet-masters are so busy making it hard for me to provide for what my kids need. But I can’t do anything to affect that, so I’m focusing on what I *can* do to mitigate things.

      1. And the latest is they’re going to shut down a pipeline that supplies most of … Michigan? Cuz, ya know, midwinter is a great time for a northern state to be short on gasoline and fuel oil.

        1. Having no propane in Michigan winter would result. They are evil enough to do it. Also saw that current inflation is 14% when 1970’s measurement formula is used! Yes , inflation equal to the worst Carter years. Plan ahead, be flexible.

          1. Low-end dry dog food is a great inflation indexer. Combines domestic commodities, trucking, and manufacturing costs all in one handy package, with little or no middleman markup. (Most of the price of high end pet food is middleman markup.)

            It’s gone up about 20% in the past year, after having been slowly declining for the previous couple years.

            1. The economist magazine had, maybe still does, I don’t read it anymore, a Big Mac index to measure international purchasing power since it’s one of the world’s few uniform products.

                1. True, but they are a uniform product all over the world and it’s the labor and ingredient cost they were measuring. it’s harder than you think to define purchasing power since the product baskets are different across,countries. It was also a bit jokey in an aren’t we so clever Economist mag sort of way.

                  1. Ah, I see what they’re going for.

                    Me, I’m only interested in the cost of something I buy by the pallet. 😛

                1. Me too, when they went All Warmist All The Time. Knowing what was going on in the Czech Republic Ministry of Health wasn’t worth it anymore.

                  1. I sent them a letter when I dropped it referencing their childlike faith in global warming. Made me feel better, anyway.

    2. Treadle machines are great. And they don’t need power.
      Know a mission center that reconditions treadle sewing machines and ships them to Africa. Story they tell is of woman in husband’s village after he dies. Village goes, “You aren’t one of us, we owe you nothing,” and she’s looking at making a living on her back. Then she got a treadle machine and started an alterations business. Which grew into a garment business, which let her buy more machines and hire more women, and…
      Her son wound up coming to America for college, because she got a treadle machine (and wasn’t afraid to use it).

      1. Yup. I’d read about similar instances with old cell phones and pay-as-you-go cards growing into small businesses, too.

        What I love most about this treadle machine is this: it was my grandma’s. She said it had been her mother’s. And the serial number says it could have been my grandma’s grandma’s (made in 1898). And sometime in the (distant) future, it will be my daughter’s. All it needs is oiled and a new treadle belt from time to time, and maybe a bobbin shuttle or new bobbins every so often. The gears and things are all solid metal, and there’s only a little surface rust. They used to make things to *last.*

            1. That’s what mine is. You may have a lot more luck between the mountain ranges–I’ve seen something like four or five in local flea markets.

                1. A *working* one (or one that only needs a belt) shouldn’t cost much. When the time comes…talk to Ray about it, so he can help you *not* overpay.

                2. My mom has a Singer treadle. (I’ll check, but I’m pretty sure that’s the brand.) It’s really nice but none of us kids use it, and neither does Mom. (It belonged to her mom and so on.) It folds down into a nice piece of furniture, except on the rare occasions when Mom breaks it out, so it’s dust-free and in good condition. Works good.

                  So yeah, keep us in mind….

                3. Somebody is still manufacturing treadle machines. I saw rows and rows of them in the bazaars in Delhi and Hyderabad a few years ago. Now, how you get hold of one here, that’s another issue. But they do exist!

                  1. A couple of years ago, Costco was selling a Janome set up for treadle. It was the sewing body only–build or buy a treadle and stand.

                    The ‘zon has a sort-of listing, “Currently unavailable” (Oh, that’s the 712T, another model is barely in stock elsewhere–the hd1000.)

                    1. Do they have a policy against public figures using the service? I get the feeling I’m missing something obvious, but I don’t see the problem there.

                    2. Anti-fraud in the system; a “public figure” page is run with the assumption it can and will be accessed by multiple people, so yardsailing isn’t enabled.

                  2. No. My page is not “public figure” — I MEAN I’m a public figure. With political opinions. Showing up at someone’s house is risky, let alone my not telling people where exactly I live right now. Okay?
                    Yes, I’m probably paranoid. But you know….

              2. I saw one of those a couple of weeks ago at a local garage sale. They only wanted $55 for it. I should have bought it, but I already have more stuff than I need.

            2. They used to be a staple at local flea markets. People would throw away the sewing machine part, put a glass top on, and then sell them as “rustic” tables.

            3. Three on my local Craigslist right now. Two Franklin and a “White Rotary”. Going price for one with all the attachments and stuff seems to be $250 to $300, tho I see one in a rough cabinet for $100…

              Seems to me that spinning wheels and manual looms would also be good investments.

              1. Spinning wheels are…interesting. New ones will set you back at least $300, probably closer to 500-600 not counting accessories. Antiques usually need work, but can be usable. Of course, you also need fiber to spin and fiber takes a fair amount of prep.
                Not saying it’s a bad idea, but reading up on the techniques is a good idea.

          2. Lehman’s used to sell brand new sewing machines, the ones with all the zig zag and other stitches, that had been adapted to treadle use by the Amish. Don’t know if they still do.

            I have a 1871 treadle machine (and a 1949 Featherlight and a brand new Bernina) because my grandmas started teaching me to sew before I went to Kindergarden and I sew everything from clothing to slipcovers and curtains. I use them all.

            If you’re a novice sewer, I’d advise you to do what we did in middle school Home Ec. all those decades ago: start with an unthreaded machine and a piece of paper, draw some lines on it and practice “sewing” on that. You’ll get used to your particular machine without the frustration of knotted wads of bobbin thread to ease out of the machine, and you’ll start to develop the eye/hand coordination that really needs to become second nature when sewing with a machine. If you’ve got a treadle, be aware that you MUST keep the wheel on the treadle machine rotating towards you; these old machines do not go backwards like modern machines and accidentally reversing will guarantee a thread mess and possibly a broken needle.

            Parts for treadle machines aren’t always easy to come by. Bobbins are pretty widely available, but the bobbin case differs ever so slightly from model to model and the correct one for your machine is usually really, really hard to find. If I were looking to buy a treadle machine right now, I would make absolutely sure that it comes with its bobbin winder (built on the front of the machine) and the proper bobbin case. If it lacks either or both of those, you’re not going to be able to use it until you can find those parts, if ever.

            If you are going to buy a new machine, here’s some info from the nice guy who services sewing machines locally: stay away from all new Singer, Brother, White, and associated brands. Buy a Bernina. Why? All sewing machines except Bernina, regardless of brand, are manufactured in the same factories in China, and I can tell you from sad, first-hand experience that they’re badly made and exceedingly frustrating to use, even for an experienced person. I cannot imagine learning on one of them. If you want a Singer, stick to models from the mid-70s or earlier. Seriously. Do not waste your hard-earned money. Bernina is more expensive (you get what you pay for), but I bought my not-top-of-Bernina’s-line, an excellent machine, last year for about $350, which is money very well spent, given what I save by sewing.

    3. Sewing well is mostly a combination of:

      a) not being intimidated by the machine itself, usually threading it
      b) getting the machine tuned so it stitches reliably (this may require a trip to a sewing shop)
      c) learning how to interpret badly-printed commercial pattern instructions, esp. right side/wrong side of fabric
      d) screwing up and having to unpick seams and do them over.

      As for (d), I’ve been sewing for over 25 years and I still usually make one egregious error per garment, often by setting in the sleeves so they go into the body. Oops.

      Buy a good “how to sew” book (I think Singer still publishes a big fat comprehensive one) and read the whole thing, even the advanced stuff, because when your pattern says, e.g., “make a bar tack here” you’ll have a clue what it’s talking about. Buy a good sharp pair of scissors (and reserve them for fabric) and more pins than you think you’ll need. You’ll need them.

  8. The topic of purses: my mom is making and selling patchwork denim bags and purses from mostly repurposed jeans and she’s currently got a bunch of her stuff on sale in hopes of clearing it out before she has to do year end inventory: https://www.etsy.com/shop/CarolynsJeanBags

    I’m shocked you’ve not gotten ANY showings. Has the real-estate crash hit already? I knew it was coming, but wow. When my parents sold their house last year, as a fixer-upper, they got way more than they were asking because there was a bidding war going on. Admittedly the house is just outside of Boston MA in a nice neighborhood, but still.

  9. Sarah, thanks for the perspective. Appreciated.

    If your waking self actually needs a new purse, I’d be happy to send one or two of DDWs. I have pictures I can send. DDW favored large purses and I haven’t been able to bring myself to take her fancy large leather purse to GoodWill where it would go for peanuts I’m sure. I don’t need the money, and I’d rather see it go to a good home. You can respond to me here if you don’t still have my email. You mentioned that things were getting lost in your Yahoo email, so I’m posting offer here. We can take it to private email if you’re interested.

  10. As focused as Americans might be, what I’ve heard about the Japanese is even worse, with many Japanese putting a ridiculous amount of time and intensity into their hobby.

    The place where things are going to get interesting if things go squirrelly is the biggest cities. Cities pull resources in, but don’t produce much physical product on their own. I can’t comment more than that as Greater LA (where I live) is an odd mix of urban sprawl where just minutes after leaving an urban area you might be passing a dairy farm. So what applies here might not apply elsewhere. And I’m not really even sure what does apply here, aside from a prediction that things will get tight.

  12. that #teamheadsonpikes comes out to play, we’ll adapt, improvise, overcome.

    I hear that alas.

    Although I need to find other fuels given gasoline is getting pricey.

  14. Hopeful we won’t go all out Marxist, fascist totalitarian, yes. but…

    I was just thinking how those crews gained power elsewhere and elsewhen. Reasonable, rational folks knew it was all a tempest in a teapot, can’t happen, none will take it seriously, it’ll blow over if we just sit back. -& then it was too late, they came for…

    I am beginning to wonder if lamp pole decorating is the only way to counter it.

  15. I do not take my hobby seriously! After all, I don’t have a publication schedule set up for the next year, lined out and with wordcount milestones per title per week in order to hit it…

    Yet…

    Excuse me, I need to go start the curry and watch 3 professional development videos for my hobby, then try to get some more word count in. No, I’m not doing NaNoWriMo, I’m just trying to get this story out of the way so I can get back to the one I was writing!

    But it’s a hobby!

  16. U.S. citizens are resourceful, and mad. That’s a terrible combination for those so willing to try and take their liberty.

    While many are gnashing their teeth over the problems today, it’s not that far back, when Reagan took the entire country in what was probably the usual corrupt election. With today’s awareness, the shenanigans of vote stealing is becoming harder each day.

    Regardless of what the media spouts, the country is far from being a socialist experiment, and the Socialists are far outnumbered.

        1. Beware the man who has nothing to lose.

          And as regards the Rittenhouse trial: if the right to self-defense is effectively dead, why shouldn’t someone faced with a “them or me” situation just shoot to kill as many of “them” as possible without judicious regard to whether each particular “them” was threatening at that particular moment?

          1. I have said before that that’s what’s coming. For more than just self defense. If your life is going to ruined for any transgressions- people are going to start removing the complainants and prosecutors.

  17. I sell my paintings at a Farmers Market off a card table every weekend. I don’t even have to pay the FM Manager rent because I help her with stuff she’s too busy to deal with or could just use an extra pair of hands for. I’m worried art will take a big dip in demand if there’s a economic disaster so I’m trying to figure out what else I can do. A good book to read is “Patriots” by James Wesley Rawles, especially the Barter Faire chapter.

  18. This just clicked with me about something else I’ve been thinking about. I’m sure many of us are following the trial. A day or so ago, I got to thinking, what happens if they convict and pressure off all attorneys from representing him? A lot of convicts spend their time learning the law and filing appeals. If they put him away, is he really just going to go quietly into the night?

    I think we’ve been underestimating that kid the entire time, and I wonder if, even if they win this round, if they have merely given birth to their own nemesis.

    1. “what happens if they convict and pressure off all attorneys from representing him?”

      Nationwide, it will give the Left carte blanche to urge their pet street thugs to be even more violent and destructive. People will initially be afraid to fight back because they’re afraid they’ll end up like Chauvin and/or Rittenhouse, however eventually they’ll get so angry/desperate to learn to strike the thugs anonymously and safely (by either sniping at a distance or following the thugs home to where they think they’re safe) then they’ll eventually learn to go after the soft, leftist smug enablers of said thugs, who might be rich enough to afford fancy personal security but aren’t really all that tough.

      1. Ya know, if we learn nothing else from the left, it’s that making martyrs is dangerous. We won’t burn cities, because we don’t attack the innocent. But the guilty had better hide…

      2. To me it comes down to “Damn if we do. Damn if we don’t. How many would rather be damned for something they are actually guilty of ? …” Or the story of the Chinese worker who asked his companions “What happens if we revolt? Ans: We die. What happens if we are late? Ans: We die. Well comrades, we’re late …”

        The smart ones will not be upfront about it. It won’t always involve firearms either.

        1. We don’t *need* firearms. Cut off their phones and internet, and they’re helpless.

          Then all you need is ropee.

      3. And there are bound to be a few who get cornered into a self defense situation, and take the view of “my life is over, better sell it as dearly as possible”.

        Because the left are exactly the sort of fools who don’t leave their enemy a path to retreat.

        1. Akshully, the old TF2 ‘Meet the Engineer’ video is Alt-Right Trumpist propaganda now.

          (At the moment, my mood is edging into ‘Meet the Pyro’ territory.)

  19. Puts me in mind of a tale. Two men were sitting in a pub having a pint, of course. The older one asked, “Of all the bards died off at once, how many generations would it take to replace them?”

    The younger man thinks and says, “I don’t know but it would take many.”

    The older man shakes his head and holds up a finger. “One”, he says. “There would be such a void that the songs in people’s hearts would come forth and replace them in one generation.”

  20. Sarah, you are overlooking a fundamental issue, best encapsulated in these two statements:

    “Look, in Cuba, a tiny country, they’ve kept 1950s cars going all these decades. They might be repaired with washing machines parts, but they keep going.”

    “I know someone considering going into 3-d printing to make those pieces that are stuck in containers or that China is not sending off.”

    Those 1950s cars were made to be serviced with hand tools and without the ICs that the most modern 3D printer can’t duplicate, materials or software. Those same ICs that control whether or not your car made since 2000 or so will even start. Oh, and where are the feedstocks for the 3D printing made? Here in the US? Parts for the printers?

    1. Feedstock for 3D printers is, technically, made in China. The plastic pellets that go into the feedstock is made on the Gulf Coast, because that’s where the oil is. There are a million things like that.

    2. Also, the whole “I can’t fix an ECU the way I can fix a carburetor” is a boomer problem. The rest of us LIKE to chip our cars.

      1. As long as you can get the chips…. and the tools to work on said chips… and, and, and.

        Which is the point you and Sarah missed.

        2. If you can’t get replacement chips, you can’t get replacement carburetors either. And diff gears are right out.

          1. I can actually MAKE a replacement carburetor out of scrap. I can’t make silicon chip material. Period.

            1. For a lawn mower, sure. And I don’t think you understand how MANY sources there are for semiconductors. Don’t believe people who say “they all come from China”.

              1. The only semiconductors which come from Chyna are the low value ones and (some) discrete components. Vital yes, but the really hard stuff is from Taiwan and more fabs are being built here.

                This is yet another case of people who claim to disagree with central planning deciding that because they don’t know the central plan for X problem there is doom around the corner.

                  2. You are out of date. Chyna made the mistake of playing games with REs some years back. Now everyone has plans for mines which can start up in a matter of months, and keep a supply stockpiled to ride out that startup time.

                    Keep on gaslighting, Ian.

                    …….

                    What is blog policy on telling someone to fuck off again?

                    2. Your own data includes numerous countries with huge reserves and existing mining infrastructure.

                      And this has happened before with oil. OPEC spent decades playing games, then dropping the price as soon as alternatives were on the verge of getting traction. Then one cycle fracking got good enough to break them.

                    3. It wouldn’t be the first time. Of course, someone told me that I was full of it when I said back in 2012 that doctors would be losing their licenses for not toeing the Party line. Who was right?

                    5. How long do you think it takes to start up a mine in this country, including environmental approvals, legal challenges & litigation, getting the mining equipment, doing the actual digging, and processing the material once you’ve dug it?

                      See my post here, which includes a link to a very detailed study of materials sources and processing for ‘green energy’ materials:

                      https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/66042.html

                      On the positive side, and in keeping with the ‘resilience’ them of this post, some companies are doing research on alternative materials for these. But they’re not there yet.

                  3. You’ve confused two very different things. Rare earths has little to do with semiconductors. Rare earths are used primarily in electromagnetics.

                    But really, you’re talking complete nonsense from the get-go anyway. When was the last time you had to replace the ECU in a vehicle? You’re much more likely to need to replace a mechanical part.

                    1. Ah yes, confusing the “I’m frequently right.” with “I’m always right.” Oops.

                      Silicon ICs don’t get that exotic. Boron, Phosphorus, Arsenic, Aluminum will get you most of the way. Until around 200X, most of the necessary equipment was made in the USA.

                      The last automotive electronis failure I had was on an 11 year old Chevy pickup, where the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned no-lead solder joints failed on the instrument panel. (They can be made to work, but it was a skill with a substantial learning curve. OTOH, there were repair places around the country.)

                      Random thought: how long will it take for automotive manufactures to come up with de-featurized vehicles that use simpler, and more readily available electronic components. Not sure I’d want a Pentium under the hood, but I could see something similar.

                    2. I don’t know much about cars, but if it’s true that most automotive ICs are three or four generations behind, then I suspect a Raspberry Pi Zero could probably replace them.

                    3. When IP shutdown the Western Timber Division all employees were given an option to participate in Dislocated Workers program, because, Timber shutdown. Mostly they were looking to get the loggers and foresters out of timber career tract. Would pay for either a two year degree or training program through Lane Community College. More creative option was to get a seminar or two for “skills update”. I got 2 seminars out of them, plus travel mileage (which paid for the airline tickets and most the week hotel). (What? I already had two BS and one AA degree. Top 25 matches were computer related. Duh, I was the division programmer.) But foresters and loggers got into the Hyundai Chip Factory program that was starting up … By 2001, they were out of a job, again … as it shuttered.

                    4. Right now, it’s entirely possible to gut a chassis down to the body and drivetrain and rebuild it with a 3rd-party ECU.

                    5. “You’ve confused two very different things.”

                      No, I haven’t. What I’ve done is provided a specific example in support of my general proposition, which is that lots of people with fond memories of what they used to do back when cars, etc. were built using entirely different parts, tools, and methods are ignoring or minimizing the simple fact that those parts tools and methods are replaced by ones that can’t exist without the manufacturing infrastructure to support them.

                      Sorry if that confuses you.

                    6. No, what you’ve done is minimize the complexity of the economy of the 1960’s, boiling it down to a 10-year-old’s understanding of what you *thought* you saw at the time.

                    7. The confusing part is bringing up rare earth elements when discussing semiconductor manufacturing. Sorry, but they don’t have anything to do with semis.

                      Regardless of the validity of rare earth elements, the following seems to be the straight story.

                      https://spectrum.ieee.org/chip-shortage

                      Quick summary, as the lockdowns hit, the automotive manufacturers dropped their orders. That capacity went to more processors for things like remote working/distance learning, and there wasn’t enough flexibility to restart the automotive chips while the system was building other orders. Just-in-time struck again.

              2. And all those readily accessible sources are why we literally can’t get enough to completely assemble new cars, or repair existing ones.

                “For a lawn mower, sure. ”

                Thank you for proving my point. My 1974 Plymouth Valiant had a manual carburetor that worked just like the one in my lawn mower. Now? Not so much.

                  1. Tolerances can be achieved. Again and again, you dodge the point that the underlying tools and components for today’s cars, generators, etc. literally CAN’T be made outside a factory well supplied with inputs that an individual CAN’T make..

                    1. No, those tolerances can’t be achieved without a Bridgeport. If you think you’re going to do it with your drill press, you don’t understand the technology.

                    3. You’ve allowed your nostalgia to denigrate your reason, so I’d say my odds are better than yours.

      1. Some cross-techs geek will look at a common computer chip, then at the car, then at the computer/calculator/whatever, then at the car and . . . “Yeah, it’s a Ford TI-80. Gets 22 to the gallon and does square roots!”

        1. I have a collection of Strictly IC for people making engines as a hobby. One used electronic-activated valves, so it’s not too far fetched.

          I wonder what could be done with a simple Arduino, or a cluster of them. Might have limited performance, but you probably could get a vehicle that would get you to the grocery store and back. (Assuming there’s stock in the grocery store to make the trip worth it…)

          1. Except for the entertainment/navigation system, my understanding is most of the chips they’re waiting on are older generation microcontrollers and maybe some custom chips. I suspect with reverse engineering and a bit of electronics and software knowledge, most of the electronic components of a vehicle could be replaced by hobbyists with something like an Arduino.

            I suspect the real reasons most automakers aren’t doing that are ROI, timeframe, and substitute chip availability. For example, if they have to replace a cancelled order for eight million chips of one type, with orders for a million each of eight different types, then the ROI and timeframe on redesigning the hardware, porting the software, and testing might not be attractive. If they expect it to take 8 months, and the chip shortage is expected to ease in 10 (just throwing numbers out for argument’s sake), is it worth the effort?

      2. I don’t doubt that; I just think the costs in lives and treasure when the tech keeping the American lifestyle going gets replaced is going to make #teamheadsonpikes look like the bargain it could have been.,

  21. John,
    Here is an encouraging article from a woman who emigrated here from Portugal as a younger woman. She is a good science fiction writer and, having escaped socialist Portugal, is very conservative. Her language is a little coarse, but communism tends to bring that out in people. Also, this is a daily blog with no editing for grammar, spelling, etc. Incidentally, any development with the airplane business?
    Best,
    Willis

  22. Thank you for this column.

    None of my business, but perhaps you should consider a new realtor…

  23. Nothing much to say except I have that purse and it’s awesome!

    Well that and I have it on good authority that my favorite little breakfast hole-in-the-wall when I visit Chicago-land, spent the months that restaurants were unable to open there operating a back door pancake speakeasy, which gives me hope for the rest of us. Go under, go around indeed.

    Also now I wonder if they paid any taxes for those 9 months or so. I mean, after all, if you’re turning in your sales tax receipts then the local authorities might figure out that you were illegally selling bootleg breakfast foods.

  24. The local meat market has meat. The regional chain has some meat. The national chain has . . . it depends on the day and the truck. The regional dairy + stuff has milk and meat and other things. Some of the national chain . . . milk depends on the day and the truck. So word gets passed as to who has what. Gee, this sounds like the USSR, except with text message instead of sneaker-net.

  25. If they’re really lucky, we’ll punch in air holes.

    Of course, we poke in air holes.

    And ever provide blowers.

    The flames will burn hotter and if we get enough smoke out and O2 in, they may actually be consumed by flames while alive instead of the easy death of suffocation or smoke inhalation.

    2. I love your never quit, never compromise attitude.

      I’ve seen the eyes of the East Germans, the East Berliners, and they mirror the eyes of the half-faced monsters here near Seattle: rage and terror.

      The only way we fight against this is violent and bloody. Not everyone. Not everywhere. But in enough places, and with enough force that they are stopped.

      They’re desperate, and we’re determined.

      1. It’s the American way of war, don’t fight until you have to, but once you do make as brutal as possible so it is over as soon as possible. Been true from Scott on, although it was Sherman who cemented it.

  26. These articles are why I’ve followed your blog for years. Thanks! And about those zippers…put them in first and use that section like one piece. ^_^

    4. You’re trying to make zippers easy!!

      Reminding me that someday I need to find both the zippers and the coats they’re supposed to be fixing.

    5. A sewing machine with a zipper foot attachment is also really helpful. (Basically a normal foot with one side missing, just line up the zipper so the teeth fill in the missing side and sew around, backstitching at beginning and end, one securely attached zipper as reward.)

  27. Speaking of treadmill machines, I learned to sew on one too.

    And although 3D printing is the hot new things these days, plenty of old timers still know how to make things using old fashioned planes, lathes, saws, and whatnot. And these old geezers (and geezettes) tend to have their equipment too. I personally know several people who could fashion any part for any metal object that needed one (cordless hole punchers included).
    Sort of a hobby for them. Although some of them make a living fixing and restoring old things. You just have to know the right people.

    1. Dave Gingery wrote a series on making a complete workshop from scrap. The first step is building a foundry using charcoal for fuel and a hair dryer for a blower. It’s not going to be CNC-heaven, but for a lot of jobs, you don’t need the exotic equipment.

      OTOH, there are people who have a Bridgeport milling machine in their basement. (Not me–no basement and no B’port.)

  29. “Heck, I know someone considering going into 3-d printing to make those pieces that are stuck in containers or that China is not sending off, or whatever, to repair your car/washing machine/air conditioning.”

    Yesplz. Had to get a dryer fixed two years ago and it needed one dial handle part, to the tune of $100. One. Plastic. Part. (Which we paid, because situation was beyond desperate and we had to have working dryer right bleeping now….) And that was before the parts shortage!

    Currently looking at all my hobby stuff (mostly beads) and saying, “Okay, what can I do that people will want?”

    1. A lot of personal things can be done that way…. it’s the critical industrial ones that will be fun.

    2. When our lab-aussie was a large puppy, she decided that the knob on the front of the washing machine was a good chewtoy. I ordered a replacement knob, but first, I went to the lathe. A bit of steel bar, some shop time, and some bottled bluing resulted in a dogproof knob.

      The current washing machine has controls out of reach of large puppies.

      If I had a 3D printer, I would likely have gone that route, and skipped the spare part order.

  30. What we NEED, and have lost, is the manufacturing capability AND the knowledge base to run it. To the best of my knowledge, there are no more 100t large presses currently in operation anywhere in the USA, for example. Little bits and pieces? Yeah, we can do those… bigger things, not so much, much less pharmaceuticals… We’ve got to get that capability back here, much the same with food production. Can we? Yes! Will we? I don’t honestly know…

    2. I think you maybe meant 100,000 tons? And AFAIK the US has never needed anything above the existing 50kt presses which are still operating.

      And a new wrinkle is that some of the parts which once used massive presses for their state of the art manufacturing now use either additive manufacturing, or composites.

    3. Joplin has a LOT of machining jobs in the area. Going begging. They want to TRAIN people to run the lathes, the presses, the machines that make the bits and bobs to make the machines.

      1. Yes. The shortage of machinists and operators goes back more than a generation.

        Look at how much they are willing to pay, and you’ll see why.

          1. The fast food places around Des Moines have starting $17+ signs up, and the ones desperate enough to put recruitment papers in the to-go meals state it’s benefits over 25 hours a week.

            1. Joplin’s median income is around 35K per household. It’s actually REALLY good pay for the area, and the fast food? Not jacking up their pay rated, and hiring teenagers during the afternoon and evening shifts…as the jobs were designed to do.

                1. It varies, depending on which telecommunications company you contract with, and where you live (there are some where you’ve got what amounts to a cable monopoly on the one hand and a phone monopoly on the other, and both bad, in some townships). AT&T are awful, unreliable, and jack the prices up every month even *with* a contract. We opted for internet and phone through a cable provider, and lucked out. Joplin’s got Comcast for part of the greater metro area (not–Joplin proper’s about 55K people, with another 30 spread through a bunch of bedroom communities), and CableOne/Sparklight for the other, and Sparklight’s excellent.

                    1. Nah, just aim for the right area. Cable One/Sparklight’s pretty awesome. And if you get in the right area/close enough to the transmitter antennas, the transmitted versions are pretty good, just really expensive for the area’s cost of living.

          2. And you’re stuck there forever, no opportunity for advancement. The more people trained up in machining, the lower the wages go. One of the machinists I knew was bragging on how much he made one time to me. I was making more part time selling things at a big box hardware store. (and even more as a boiler operator).

            SOME machinists make a lot of money. Many don’t.

            1. So in a free market, assuming there’s no monopoly/monopsony situation re machinists, and assuming that it’s true that there’s a widespread persistent demand for more machinists, why is the trade so poorly compensated? (Compared to other trades, or to mid-level white collar work.)

              1. Good question- one I don’t have a really good answer for. I suspect it’s that the term “machinist” covers a wide range of skills. Most machinists engage in routine work that can be done by just about anyone with minimal training. The highest paid machinists I know personally worked with tolerances down to 1 ten-thousandth of an inch. And had to account for the fact that the machining itself raised the temperature of the machined item, so it couldn’t be worked down to the final size, but had to machined slightly larger so it was the correct dimensions when cooled.

                There’s probably as much gap between a skilled machinist and an average machinist as there is between a skilled programmer and a programmer. The ones that make turbine blades are better compensated than the ones that turn brake discs. There’s less demand for the ones that make turbine blades, but a smaller supply of those that can do it correctly and consistently.

                And a lot of machinists work in small shops, not large businesses.

      2. Is Joplin a town or a business? I’ve been interested in learning how to make/use machine shop tools, but I don’t have work/storage space or the means to build a workshop. Getting paid well to learn sounds wonderful if I can find something in my area.

        1. Joplin’s a town in SW MO. We’ve got half a dozen precision machining businesses around here making everything from ball bearings to scales (of all types and sizes) to machinery to make machines…

  31. Americans know how to do things.
    Soap, laundry detergent, pulling edible things from lakes and rivers, growing edible things, making other things, bartering, teaching. I can do all these, and am learning more.

    I didn’t realize other countries aren’t as intense about their hobbies. Why do a hobby if you’re not going to go full tilt? Makes no sense to me. If I’m going to learn to climb, it’s not go to go up the street to the Post Office, it’s to climb the Eiger.

    1. At what SCALE? Like I said, the casualty list from the downsizing will make #teamheadsonpikes look attractive.

      1. But where? Almost by definition, most casualties of any disaster will be from metro areas, because that’s where the most people are. In supply shortage situations, that’s also where the fewest resources are.

        I think we can all agree that everyone can live without an NVIDEA card (although mine is supposed to arrive today – yay!), but food and water? Rural – even small town – folks have those (we can all live without out-of-season fruit, too). Do I want to spend the winter eating rice and beans? Of course not, but it will not kill me (probably). Aside from growing children, most people have more than enough clothing for a long time. I can’t remember the last time I saw something patched (that wasn’t made that way). Do they still even make those denim iron-on patches for jeans? My biggest small town concern here is “where do my electricity and natural gas come from?” I have no idea, having just moved.

        Some up-thread comments:
        As for repairing modern cars, don’t forget junk yards. Just because the car is totaled doesn’t mean the electronics are bad. Although, from what I’ve seen of junk yards, the “storage” conditions are far less than ideal.

        As for the automotive chip shortage, someone got it right: The orders were cancelled and then not re-accepted as capacity had moved to other customers – and there was probably some “screw you” attitude involved, too, as these were not small orders. Automotive chips are also previous, previous, previous, previous generation. Some plants were just shutdown without those orders to keep them going because no one else wanted anything that old. Tesla didn’t have a problem both because they didn’t cancel orders and because they are vertically integrated for the circuitry and software so if chip supplies change, they can adapt as needed. The wait for my NVIDEA card was due almost entirely to shipping.

    2. Hobbies are a form of going above and beyond. All the Europeans who naturally wanted to go above and beyond emigrated to America some generations back.

  32. Oh, hey, slightly to the side of the topic, and maybe everybody else knows about this already…

    Pascal’s Pensees #425 is all about the pursuit of happiness. “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end.” He sees it as a religious thing, because he believes it’s impossible for anyone to actually find happiness without finding God.

    Now, I know Jefferson was a big reader, and the Pensees were pretty much a must-read for his kind of political and literature interests. So was Jefferson making a purposeful religious freedom/initiative reference, in the first few bits of the Declaration?

    I mean, it makes sense, but I wonder if there’s any evidence?

  33. > Tie a bag to the back door, leave a note of what you wanted, wake up to crackling fresh rolls and baguettes.

    You can still get that in Arkansas, but they use a cardboard box instead of a bag. They deliver milk and ice cream, too.

  34. Pingback: F.I.D.O | Dio's Workshop

  35. Americans will cross s frozen river to kill you in your sleep on Christmas Day, if you get us mad enough. And a goodly number of Washington’s men used pikes, not muskets in that fight.

    The commies, aristocrats, moochers, and looters forget that.

    Mind you, it won’t be me. I’m too old and crippled; but Americans only take so much…

    May it please God we don’t need to find out in our lifetime.

    1. Walking on snow and ice, once across the river, with bare feet, few without warm clothing, and starving. They would not lay down and die. That is the legacy they gave us!

  36. before reading any of the comments, I want to say that this is absolutely prime AtH, the sort of stuff that recharges my soul and is the very spirit of why I enjoy coming here so much. Love letter and definition of water it’s impossible to see as fish all at the same time. ❤ i really love this place

  37. “…They’re in panic mode that they can’t help but keep accelerating, so the stupid crap they do will get worse, and even if we’re surviving, it’s going to piss people off. If they’re lucky, they get put on a container and sent to China. If they’re really lucky, we’ll punch in air holes.”

    Air holes? Oh, no. Those aren’t for air. Those are for water.

    You see, we’re having the container towed…by a submarine. 🙂

    P.S. – No zipper, get the plans for a Possibles Bag. All leather, has a big flap over the top. Those of us who shoot muzzle-loading guns have this figured out.

  38. I have circular sock machines from 1860 and sock yarn and can knit custom socks to fit. I think it may come in handy 😊

  39. For a good number of years now General Electric has been using metallic 3d printing to replicate replacement parts for their old water turbines and railroad engines that are long out of.production. They have a whole catalog of parts for sale to owners of outdated equipment that they no longer manufacturer using traditional methods because they wouldn’t be cost effective to do a production run.

    1. Nah, 3d printing is a fad, will never catch on. nOt As stRoNG aS mEtaL, cAN’t bE uSed fOr maSs pRodUcTion.

      *carefully ignores that all modern rocket engine injectors are printed*

      1. In my little corner of ruralville we have a business that went from machining jet turbine blades to printing them then smoothing them out. They were going to move the plant to Mexico. Ran into an old guy problem. The old guys who grew up with the whole process and the transitioning from one skill to another wouldn’t go down to Mexico to train people. And they also wouldn’t train anyone who didn’t already live in ruralville. No job actions, no strikes, just, we like it here, and our kids or our neighbor’s kids are going to take over our jobs.

        They had started putting in new machinery in the Mexico plant. It was all moved to ruralville.

        In a small specialized business the old guys wield a lot of soft power.

  40. Don’t know if it will help but my husband is a realtor here in Colorado, he would be happy to take a look at your listing and help rewrite it. Big lurker and fan
    Caren

  41. Interesting data point. In the heart of Mordor, (San Jose, at Stevens Creek and Winchester), you always had anti-war, anti-nuke, demonstrators. Today, I saw an amazing sight. An organized anti-vax demonstration there in the belly of the beast. An interesting example of unintended consequences. The boot descending has sparked rebellion in Capital City. We still have a long way to go, but a ray of hope. We are only partly dead. Don’t go looking thru our pants yet.

    I know we are Mordor West, but for now Gobble and Farcebook are still headquartered down the way. They have more power than Mordor East.

    1. Main thing I can see is throw an abject FIT if someone wants to be in the room with your kid for ANY medical treatment, because the statements would be consistent with framing someone who isn’t going along with something shady.

      If a medical person you trust objects to them? Throw your weight in as a parent. You trust that medical person, so TRUST them.

      Obvious non-fraud explanation? This nurse *doesn’t* harass kids that have problems with needles. I remember how much crud was given to the Marine that passed out when *I* was the one getting an IV.

      Less obvious options? My grandfather was killed by a doctor who did not do proper handling of injected medication. It sat on the unrefrigerated cart between surgeries, so they could bill each person for the whole bottle. He had maimed multiple people before that point, but my grandfather was the first to die.

      With all the temperature requirements for COVID vaccines, if I had the faintest interest in getting it, I would be VERY picky about making sure it was handled properly– and taht includes no more than 30 minutes outside of the fridge after it has been thawed, and no more than five days after thawing in the fridge.

      1. By the way– that doctor did not lose his license. Or even required to tell future hiring places that he had killed and maimed patients.

        1. Yeah, I had a great grandmother who we are fairly sure was killed by an incompetent or uncaring doctor.

          On the side of the family that isn’t the one where I got the reflexive refusal to unconditionally and automatically trust doctors from.

      2. Hm. That’s something I hadn’t thought of. It would be interesting to know if there’s any correlation between time out of the refrigerator and/or last shot from the bottle and side effects.

  43. Always nice to see these posts! Not sure what all’s going in terms of people working, making, and trading independently like that locally, though hopefully that won’t matter to me much one way or another soon enough. I do know there are plenty of hunters and fishermen around so that should be one source of food, at least until Atlanta finishes taking things over next year. Hopefully enough people will build over, under, and around for us to all make it to the other side of the Brandon Interregnum and rebuild from there!

    1. Around here, we’ve seen reenactors with the Colonial Heritage Festival plus Mountain Man Rendezvous gatherings, and the Pioneer villages do things like blacksmithing, spinning, weaving, baking in brick ovens over fires, tanning, etc, even use a historic recreation of a printing press. It is also farming, hunting, ranching, and orchard land. It might hurt for a while but people would be able to start filling gaps and teaching others how to’s even if we don’t have to go all the way back to 1700’s technology, but if necessary, those skills are there.

      1. Yes, but even before that, the “Maker” movement has been gaining steam all across the country. While I ultimately conspire to own a lot of the gear I have access to at my local space, being able to use a complete wood shop, metal shop (welders of various types, grinders, metal cutting saws), machine shop (manual mill and lathe), wood CNC machine, Laser Cutters, and various types of 3d printers for a small flat fee each month is a amazing boon to figuring out what to become good at. I’ve noticed that there are more than a few that use those tools to make money. From what I can see these have been popping up all over the country over the last decade.

        It’s true we can’t make our own integrated circuits, but even there, if you know how to write code, the modern chips can make a micro controller replace a ton of chips we used to have to buy and know how to design with. Some have even started figuring out how to repurpose toaster ovens to do the near microscopic circuit component assembly that surface mount electronics require.

        I think we are on the verge of a few large mega resource creating companies, and thousands of smaller shops using generic computing and electrical components to build all manner of cool customized stuff.

        If it wasn’t for the crazy totalitarians trying to run all of this, we would be celebrating a golden age.

        1. And honestly? Every geek (my husband and son can’t be unique) has bits and pieces of circuits everywhere (I’m going to tame it to 300 sq feet. I hope. Because it’s ridiculous.) And they can make improbable assemblages that do even weirder things after programming.

          1. *dry tone* You’ve been hanging out around the door to the robotics classroom at Day Job, I see. *end dry tone*

            As a, well, Something zoomed up the hall, student with controller trotting along behind, I had this great desire to break out with, “And it went Zip when it moved, and Pop when it stopped, and Whrrrr when it stood still . . .”

          2. >> “And honestly? Every geek (my husband and son can’t be unique) has bits and pieces of circuits everywhere”

            Hey, my old computer parts aren’t “everywhere!” They’re neatly packed – okay, messily shoved – into a couple of boxes! And a dresser drawer. And no, those parts on my desk don’t count. No, neither does that old, fried computer in the corner.

            …Look, just shut up and stay out of my room, okay?

              1. Not it. Must be some other Dan, that one. My parts are in only three… okay, five places, if you count works in progress and ones awaiting repairs. I know exactly where everything is as long as I don’t have to look for it that *exact* second.

                And that doesn’t count the half-disassembled electric tools, those are a separate issue. The gears are fine on the Dewalt, it just needs new brushes.

                There is a system, I swear. The “looks like an explosion went off in here” is just there to ward off curious bystanders, techies, and curious kitty cats. Any swearing you might here is purely a figment of your imagination when work is going on. Also, no hopes are dreams are being harmed by the existence of the filing system. It just works, okay?

                …And I can get away with it because I am single. ;p

              2. >> “DAN? Where did the G and the M come from?”

                [raised eyebrow]

                First I remind you of Younger Son, now you mistake me for your husband?

                This is a very odd relationship we’re developing here.

  44. This is how bad the local advice on how to stay afloat with all the inflation is. They had a financial planner on to discuss several points. Point 1: Save. Rambling about emergency purchases/repairs. Oh. Now is the time to buy/refinance before rates start increasing (now that most homes are out of range for those most in need of buying). And, hey. Upgrade your car to a more fuel efficient or even electric car ‘cuz have you seen those gas prices?

    She actually recommended getting a newer vehicle with hundreds in payments due a month to save $10s a month on gas. No other actual points were made.

    1. I’m more concerned with maintainance costs on the older vehicles, and for that matter if I can get parts. I’ve dropped $3k on my 14 year old car this year, just getting up to “Is a new car going to cost less than repairs?” state.

      Easier at least to budget for whatever the car payment is, than “Oh crap, I need $1500 this weekend so I can get to work Monday.”

      Maybe get an engine kit for my bicycle?

  46. This dovetails with a general principle of human nature I’ve deduced but never heard anyone else espouse:

    In a socialist/communist/collective society, a capitalist black market always forms. The opposite does not happen.

  47. Pingback: FIDO, The American Way | nebraskaenergyobserver
  48. Pingback: When The Wheels Come Off — According To Hoyt | The zombie apocalypse survival homestead

Comments are closed.