Blessed Are Those Who Believe Without Seeing

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

This is not a religious post. The title is the title because it’s one of those undeniable bits of wisdom. More important, blessed are those who believe without touching.

It’s not most of us.

Okay, so the posts this week could be entitled in common “An unfortunate series of posts, composed of Sarah having experienced unfortunate things, knowledge of which she dearly hoped would never be needed in America.”

Yet, here we are.

Other than my suspecting that the People’s Convoy glows in the dark, I know there are many other convoys with spread-out start dates. I worry for all of them. I agree that it would be a lot more rational for truckers (and anyone who does real work) to just stay home for a week starting today.

But unfortunately this type of situation isn’t rational. It’s emotional gossamer, composed of feel and see and touch. Because humans aren’t rational about things that matter deeply for survival, like “How can all of us live together? Under what rule?” Or how to make things better when they’ve gone profoundly wrong, like now.

Look, yes, a general strike of truckers or of anyone really would be far more effective in bringing the country to its knees. (It also would make it much easier to demonize people. Bear with me.)

A general strike is usually, for good and sufficient reason, the last step in this type of thing, not the first. You have to know you’re not alone, first. You have to be bonded as a group, first, to be able to say “We’re all staying home” and get any significant buy in. (The left seems to have forgotten this. They knew it in the old days, but now they’ve tried it several times to no effect. And for us, of course, it’s all new.)

Look, a general strike would have done much better than the demonstration at which I almost got shot, back in the seventies. But it probably wouldn’t have rolled tyranny.

And the trucker convoys are more dangerous individually than a general strike — prove any individual person isn’t just staying home because they had a positive COVID TEST (particularly since they have. I mean, if you take fiver tests in a row it’s almost guaranteed one will be positive. Papayas and Mangos can test positive and so can you.) — but it is also far less effective.

Sure we now have the internet, and can know things the media doesn’t show, but there’s still a difference between various podcasts of people staying home, because they’re trying to bring “I can’t believe it’s not socialism” to its knees, and seeing a convoy go by with normal people honking their horns and their trucks plastered with flags and slogans about freedom.

The first is easier to demonize, to believe these are a small fringe, that these people are weird (everyone looks weird on camera on the net) etc. As opposed to seeing people just like you, who have had enough.

This is why the Trudescu regime wanted to take down the bouncy castles and harmless dancing, national anthem singing truckers. Not because they were evil violent nazis, but because they were normal working people. Normal working people opposing the left is like apocalypse for them. It can’t be reconciled with their cosmogony, and therefore it must be destroyed, so they can keep their illusions.

It is why the tea party in the US had to be demonized and destroyed. And the January 6 protesters too. Because unlike the ante-fa with their utter bizarre weirdness (most of them move like aliens, or psychos) and the anger that pours out of them, or beardo the weirdo on the corner, waving his “No blood for oil” sign, the tea parties and the January 6 protesters were bog standard Americans, and usually had all the indications of your nicer family members.

I know, I went to three tea parties. I was probably the weirdest person there, and I’m honestly not weird enough for my own circles. These were nice, middle class people. (Though at least in the springs, there was probably proportional (national) representation of races. Which is amazing because the springs is more white than the rest of the country.)

But it was effective, and though the demonization was effective too, briefly, it didn’t stick. Because almost everyone knew someone in the tea parties, or had driven by one, or seen pictures. It’s very hard to get up there and scream blood murder about neo nazis, when mostly it’s aunt mildred, with her pink pouffy jacket, and a sign that says “Taxed Enough Already.” Because you know aunt Mildred carries little packets of candy to give kids, and never cares what color the kids (or the candy, for that matter) are.

The tea parties were the beginning of the end for the left controlling the image of the right. And so, probably are the trucker convoys in Canada. Here, if they can avoid the glowies doing something stupid, it shoudl be at least the middle of the end.

That’s one side of “why in person?” Because people are social. they need to see, and feel and smell before they believe.

The other side is humans being social. Having a party over zoom is not the same. And having a demonstration long distance is not the same. Sure, you might get a lot of people who say they’re going to strike, but when push comes to shove it’s all “Look I had to go in, because my kid needs shoes, and that day’s pay–“

Because humans are social. There’s a reason when some place is on strike, people are expected to show up for the picket line.

A general strike — and it MIGHT come to that — would be way more effective and have more participation of you say “everyone on general strike go to your neighborhood meeting point. There will be signs to hold.”

Yeah, okay, it is more dangerous, both because of glowies, and because, well…. tyrants still have power, as the Great Asshole of the North proved. They can get you beaten or worse.

But that too works, because it means evil has to remove its mask, and attack completely normal persons, that could be your next door neighbor.

And people will remember that. And the world changes.

So, should we have trucker convoys? We’re going to need a lot of things like. Convoys and marches, and demonstrations.

People out there need to know they’re not alone in resistance. They’re part of a greater whole. The country isn’t happy.

Yes, it’s very dangerous.

It’s also necessary.

Let’s try to avoid the glowies and minimize the butcher’s bill.

Unfortunately it might not be fully avoidable.

And yet, in the list of causes you can give your life for, human liberty is up there (granted below some for me, but not many things.) Because even the Author wrote us with freedom to choose. Who is mere human to take it away.

If the time comes for you to march, or drive, or light a candle in the window (um…..) or whatever is called for to say “I’m here, and I am against tyranny” pray that you have enough strength.

Then do it.

233 thoughts on “Blessed Are Those Who Believe Without Seeing”

        1. Which novel? One with lots of young pretty young women, and an American living with a close-knit community in a remote valley in Ukraine?

            1. Hey, hey, ‘Ghost’ doesn’t live anywhere. There is no ‘Ghost’ and there never was.

              Now, the Kildar lives in Georgia, just north of Alerrso and one valley over from the Pankisi Gorge.
              ———————————
              “You realize you’re running away from a bunch of teenage girls.”

              “Yup, as fast as I can.”

              1. >> ‘“You realize you’re running away from a bunch of teenage girls.”

                “Yup, as fast as I can.”’

                I don’t recognize this one. What’s that from?

                1. Kildar, of course. I probably didn’t get the quote quite right, but it’s when he’s getting ready to leave for Uzbekistan to look for a harem manager. Neilson tries to make fun of him for running away from a group of teenage girls and his response is pretty much “You bet I am!”

                  When he gets back with Anastasia Rakovich somebody else quips, “What, you’ve got a house full of girls and you went on a long trip to get another one?” His answer is, “This one is to keep the rest under control.”
                  ———————————
                  The Soviets had managed to create buildings of oppressive ugliness without really trying.

          3. That one is in Georgia, but mostly the response of TBTB of the leftoid persuasion in certain stories, as well as certain illnesses and their spread and disastrous responses to said same, and the Urkle effect (yes, yes you did do that) and attempts to become John Lovitz’s Liar character and expect everyone to take them at their word and and and

              1. On the other hand given quite a few of the alternatives, Starship Troopers still seems like one of the better scenarios.

                1. Can we skip the Bugs? Please?

                  I know, Some of TPTB can scare off the Queen Bug (avoids glancing towards Chicago City Hall), but at least none of them have nuked Rio de Janeiro. Yet.
                  Y

                    1. With sufficient mass it’s damn hard to tell the difference.
                      For reference see The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

                    3. As I recall in the story Earth accused the Loonies of using nukes as apparently with that big of a kinetic strike there is some residual radiation. I believe the same has been confirmed by those who study really ancient major meteor strikes.

        2. It’s worse that it’s beginning to resemble the Koontz “Jane Hawk” series. Although I liked it, I *really* regret reading it recently.

  2. I’m sure you’ve seen the articles, commenting on the big WHY Fidel-Lite rescinded the emergency order after two days. Castrudeau and his vile attack-bitch, screwed up, bigly, and not just for Canuckstan but for all the WEF reset plans, namely the transition to a cashless, digital society and all that implies.
    The over-the-top policing actions, sure that grabs some attention, but most normies go, meh, I won’t be walking in downtown Ottawa I can live with that.
    But bank and money seizures? Even the dumbest normie gets that and right quick. They may even get to the point of understanding banks aren’t paying ANY interest now, so why give them your money anyway? Yes we have set up a world whereby cash is not the most convenient way to transact. But convenience be damned when you realize the danger, and many will wake up to that fact and at least remove any excess funds not needed for daily/weekly transactions.
    And be still my heart, if a lot of people do this and we have banks runs and the normies then find out, the banks don’t have even the old 10% of deposits in CASH to hand out, well then game on.
    Defunding the banks will have more impact than any other activity imo, because if we ever get corraled into digital everything we be done, forever, no way out.

      1. Oh I agree 100% I think, think mind you, we may just have turned the corner on these evil mofos, but yeah a hard slog ahead and your call for prepping is so crucial. We are at war, and our army like all armies need supplies and the normal supply routes, well ya know, stay alert.
        That was a big IF I qualified with and again I agree I don’t think it will happen. But “IF” it does the level of control would be horrifying.

      2. And a cash crunch will motivate people to figured out how to replace electronic banking with something both as convenient and more personally controlled.

        I’m not sure exactly how, but it doesn’t need to be me who figures it out, just someone sufficiently bright and sufficiently motivated.

          1. And if the SWIFT embargo happens that could actually accelerate that. There are a bunch of tech companies with dev teams in Russia and headquarters in Europe who would just have to straight up dissolve if they can’t move money between their halves.

            Interesting times indeed…

            2. In which case, who else might SWIFT disconnect at the direction of … which country??

              They seem less than keen to be a political tool:

              https://www.swift.com/about-us/legal/compliance-0/swift-and-sanctions

              ===
              Has SWIFT ever disconnected banks for sanctions purposes?

              In March 2012, pursuant to international and multilateral action to intensify financial sanctions against Iran, EU Regulation 267/2012 was passed. The Regulation prohibits specialised financial messaging providers, such as SWIFT, from providing services to EU-sanctioned Iranian banks. SWIFT is incorporated under Belgian law and has to comply with this decision as confirmed by its home country government. SWIFT implemented the regulatory obligation by disconnecting the related EU-sanctioned banks.
              ===

              Also, consider the folly of forcing Russia into becoming, not to put too find a point on it, economically a client state of China.

          2. As of a decade ago, 13 states had contingencies in place to coin silver.

            Granted, 10 years is a lot of time for government reserves to quietly walk out the door…

        2. Within local communities, probably some form of script or token. “I got 10 tokens from George for splitting his firewood for him, so I can buy a dozen eggs @ 2 tokens a dozen.”. Local means of verification, likely by community leaders will arise, and simplified “banking” for dealing with the script from the next town over.

      3. Standard box of five double ought? Three packages of bean seeds? Five gallons of gasoline?

        (And why are people protesting crypto-mining farms? So they use electricity and only produce digital currency of unknown value; and this bugs you because?)

        1. You’ll find that most of the people bugged by it have also bought into Glowbull Wormening, and generating enough power makes them break out in hives.

          The rest of them are bugged by some of the more unsavory miners who put out malware to hijack any spare resources your system has.

          1. The latter are the ones that bug me, but I don’t protest against cryptomining farms. If people want to spend their own money mining crypto, I’m happy to let ’em do what they want. It’s only the ones who want to spend my money mining crypto for their own benefit that I object to. Hey, if you’re running your software on my computer, running up my electricity bill for the extra power used, then I want to benefit from any crypto coins you happen to mine in the process. Otherwise you’re just committing theft.

              1. There aren’t that many trying to steal CPU cycles, and so far the one that I used worked anyway. (Since defunct, tho.)

                I default JS off anyway, and selectively enable it with NoScript.

                1. Pale Moon deprecated NoScript, but eMatrix does a good job, and has a lot of options, both via website and globally. It’s nice to permanuke Fakebook cookies…

                  1. I mostly use an older version of SeaMonkey that still plays nice with PrefBar and NoScript. On the rare occasions when I see the unfiltered web, I wonder how anyone doesn’t poke their eyes out with a fork.

                    I also have most of the crap blocked in HOSTS.

                    https://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

            1. I give credit to the Inventor of the Internet*: “Gorebull Warming”. 🙂

              (*) Retrieves rolled eyes from under the couch.

      4. Physical Gold and Silver, or something like serialized Berkshire Bucks backed by Gold and Silver. A localized currency with strict audit controls.
        We have to change our assumptions of what the future looks like. I suspect that the world that Jim Kunstler wrote about is going to be closer to how things end up rather than the WEF global fantasy.

      1. Gold isn’t a great medium for buying small lots like a candy bar, or even a steak or chicken. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are of even less security value than paper money. The normal process of providing a currency is to either have it of value itself (in the form of precious metals), or have it backed by a stockpile of consistent value (such as Ft Knox gold repository.) So what do we replace it with? A promissory note system of 1 hour or fraction there of of personal labor? That makes value of labor tricky, since very few would agree that an hour of work by your grocery store bagger is as valuable as an hour of labor by your personal physician.

          1. Others will pop up for sure.

            Horse trading does not always, in fact, nowadays it rarely involves horses.

          2. Milton Friedman and George Stigler have a story in their respective memoirs about an exchange the two of them had with a hotel clerk in Paris, shortly after WWII.

            “Could you direct me to the closest outlet for the black market in currency?”
            “Go no further, gentlemen,” the clerk answered as he extracted a wallet from his jacket.

        2. Putin sold almost all Russia’s US treasuries and bought gold. If our enemies think gold is important, we would do well to understand why.

          1. There’s a counterargument for a rare case where that isn’t true.

            Sometimes an enemy is crazy enough that any time trying to understand their thinking is wasted.

            Of course, without spending time on it, how would you tell if an enemy is in that category or not?

            1. Just so, the assumption one’s opponent is “rational” is one of the primary causes of failure in diplomacy. Assuming your opponent shares your objectives even more so. Narrative thinking is the biggest barrier to understanding.

              In my business, It’s well known that Goldman tells you to buy when they want to sell and sell when they want to buy. The problem is that Goldman knows that I know, and I know that Goldman knows that I know and so on ad infinitum. The FRB is the same. The answer is to simply pay no attention to Goldman or the FRB.

              2. Regarding the rationality of opponents, Heinlein had a comment in “Between Planets” about that; rationality depends on position and objectives.

            2. That’s what begginers luck in Poker comes from. A newbie plays erratically and the other players lose because they can’t counter move using the logic of the game.

          2. I’m not sure if that says more about gold or US securities. Divesting one’s investments in one’s enemies to a completely reasonable thing to do. So did Putin go to gold because it was the best investment, or because it was the easiest, the most mobile, or just plain lazy goldbug thinking?

            1. I truly do not know. Someone in Russia was thinking ahead though since they have remarkably little financial exposure to the west. the actual impact of sanctions will be proportionately low. SWIFT is the only thing that would hurt them and SWIFT is not being considered.

              1. Gold is compact, portable, keeps forever, and always has value to someone, often at an inflated price over what it cost you. It can’t be torn up by someone outside your control. I think that’s sufficient motivation.

              2. Not for nothing that The US has been using the threat of pulling them out of Swift for years. So I’m sure that alternative plans have been developed.

              1. Maybe Putin is anticipating doing a high-altitude EMP burst or going full nuke; he has got to be looking at Biden and thinking, there is no way these people can launch nukes against him before his strikes can wipe a lot of stuff and the HarrisBiden cabal is so overtly anti-USA that he may very well believe that the cabal won’t respond in kind under any circumstances.

        3. Argies and Augies, based on the value of stockpiled supplies of silver and gold, and centi- of same.. Would make a centi-Aug worth (at current levels) about $20 FRN. and a centi-Arg @ 3 cents. At that point you can buy a pack of gum to freshen your breath.

          I initially thought Bernie von Nuthaus had a good idea with his Liberty Dollar, and got on board in a small way. Of course the Gubmint couldn’t countenance any competition, so they took him down. I suspect they wouldn’t have had their knickers in such a twist if he hadn’t used the term ‘dollar’ to label his currency. I stopped dealing with the stuff when he did the ‘revaluing’ (which was, IIRC, one of the things they used against him), but compared to the shenanigans the Fed gets up to he was a piker.

    3. I notice the fact-checker brigades tried to deny that the WEF said that in the future you’d have no privacy and own nothing and be happy, even though they literally said that.

      Keep the sun shining on them, folks. They can’t stand it.

    4. Regarding a medium of exchange, cash backed by something other than the good word of the government, I suggest looking into goldbacks, 1/1000th of a troy ounce of gold incorporated into a plastic bill. Over priced right now but an interesting concept.

      Me, I bought 1 0z silver rounds, Silver ask price today; $24.58/oz

      1. Having noted they’re over priced, I just bought a a hundred and some goldbacks none the less. Doesn’t hurt to get a few more bucks outside the banks, stored in one’s own hands, in various forms, just in case.

            1. Did anyone else just get the feeling that eastern Utah may wind up the center of the New America?

    5. Anyone with a book collection of thousands of books can, (with great regret) make a hard to discover storage place for currency. If you try to figure out which of the 12,000 books holds the treasure, you will search for a long time. So a major benefit. Think shawshank’s Bible, (written before king became woke, he is now dead to me).

      When we we cleaned out my wife’s parents house, we found her dad, (the WWII Marine) had stashed several firearms behind some of his thousands of books. Books can hold many surprises. Less lumpy than hiding cash under the mattress.

      1. When my inlaws cleared out her dad’s house, they found money stashed everywhere. When we cleaned out grandma and grandpa’s place in 2005, no matter how much we wanted to, we could not just park a dumpster near a window and start shoveling. We had to check everything. I do mean everything. Didn’t find as much cash stashed that my inlaws did. They found 10’s of thousands of dollars (’70s, when inflation and regular interest was not insignificant). Grandparents had maybe a couple thousand in small bills. Note, my inlaws and grandparents were the same WWII generation. Inlaws were 5 years younger. MIL’s father was 40 years older.

      2. Heck, I find cash in my books all the time, from when I used to use bills as bookmarks. Next time I open the book again… oh, hey, money.

        However, I firmly believe that Terry Pratchett in the voice of Moist VonLipwig was not wrong when he said, “Food will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no food.”

        I have been planning accordingly.

  3. A stupid and futile gesture is in the eye of the beholder. What seems to be stupid and futile to one person can create an iconic image for another.

    The whole world got to see Canadian truckers stand up for freedom and it was very inspiring. Bouncy castles and conga lines and Canadian flags!

    The image of a disabled First Nations elder being trampled mercilessly by a police horse, walker and all was also inspiring in a very different way.

    Which one will turn out to be the stupid and futile gesture.

    Time will tell.

    1. The “You are not alone” signal is very important. That’s why Tyranny 101 includes working very hard to convince dissidents that they are all alone.

      As for the trampled lady:

  4. Ceausescu was brought down because of his regime’s treatment of students who protested. Sometimes, it takes patriots willing to stand up–and even die–when required.

    Someone should show that first Rambo movie to the “Neo-Gestapo”. And tell them we just want to be left alone.

    May God have mercy on us all.

    1. Again, note that I almost got killed in a demonstration that the government would have called “futile.”
      Actually it was funny, because their rule was that it wasn’t a demonstration, unless you were SHOUTING SLOGANS.
      So, we organized via phone tree and THOUSANDS of ordinary people (this was tea party type people!) walked from downtown to the military quarters in the city (across town) in absolute silence. Carrying signs. Just “happened to be walking that way.”
      The absolute silence was terrifying, and I was part of it. (You needed permission for demonstrations. So this wasn’t a demonstration. There’s always a work around.)
      And the regime blinked, and the corner was turned.

      1. Leftists tend to think and act like the Borg; they believe in the collective, that everyone must serve the collective in the role they are assigned by the collective, that drones are readily replaceable, that all must be assimilated into the collective, and that resistance is futile.

        Did I miss anything?

        1. You missed “That people will be *happy* to be part of the collective.

          A Southern farm is the beau ideal of Communism; it is a joint concern, in which the slave consumes more than the master, of the coarse products, and is far happier, because although the concern may fail, he is always sure of a support; he is only transferred to another master to participate in the profits of another concern; he marries when he pleases, because he knows he will have to work no more with a family than without one, and whether he live or die, that family will he taken care of; he exhibits all the pride of ownership, despises a partner in a smaller concern, “a poor man’s negro,” boasts of “our crops, horses, fields and cattle;”, and is as happy as a human being can be.

          – George Fitzhugh, *Sociology for the South: or, The failure of free society* (1854)

  5. “I’m honestly not weird enough for my own circles.”

    Dear lady, you are plenty weird enough for me, and I can say so because the first girl I ever dated way back in 1968 told her girlfriend that I was “too weird for words.” (It got back to me some time after we broke up.) Your brand of weirdness is of the sort that can save a nation. Long may it wave!

        1. Now it takes deliberate effort to be truly “weird.” Or a natural talent for not noticing that other people are looking at you funny. (Only once has anyone been critical of my choice of wardrobe. Most people either shrug, or gush about how cool my clothes are.)

          1. My beloved woke up with the sniffles Tuesday and the office freaked out. So he got tested for WuFlu and ordered to stay home. (In context, there have been four cases out of an office of roughly 15, one of which went into ICU, one was on oxygen for a few weeks and took a month to recover, one was mild and one was worse than mild…and her husband caught it and died. Cancer plus covid). When I went to get his files I was ordered out too. I suppose maybe I shouldn’t have walked up and down the hall calling, “Unclean, unclean,” but I enjoyed it. Spouse came up negative this morning and went back to work. OK, went back to the office; he worked at home for two days.

        2. On a tangent, reading computer stuff from 30-40 years ago, your name pops up quite a few times.

            1. No, I was replying to Jeff Duntemann. Or at least I was trying to. He’s mentioned in Michael Abrash’s programming books, and excerpts from his review of the JRT Pascal compiler fills out much of the Wiki entry on it (Jerry Pournelle’s review is also referenced). Jeff’s name just keeps popping up in the 80’s and early 90’s computing stuff I’ve been reading or reading about.

              3. Technical writing and publishing were my real career; I wrote SF when time permitted. I wrote a column in Dr. Dobb’s Journal for four years, edited two tech magazines, and (by now) there are about half a million books in the world with my name on them, as author or co-author. I co-owned Arizona’s largest book publisher until our investors destroyed it. I predicted Wikipedia in 1994 in a short article that got a lot of discussion. So my name is out there. I’ll be 70 in a few months, and while I’m glad I was a little famous for awhile, I no longer have the energy to put into that kind of output. I do appreciate the mention; thanks!

  6. You are so right about the fear generated with absolutely normal Americans start taking notice and standing up for their rights in a very public manner. The left in it’s hubris thought that “leave me the hell alone” meant that people supported them. That’s partially our fault for not speaking out earlier and more often. But it’s totally on them for continuing on to disturb our lives to the microscopic level.

    We have discussed attending demonstrations (should we hear of any) and such. If something occurs around here we will definitely attend. ATM we cannot afford to donate money, but we can donate time. We have also discussed prepping (we do it to the extent possible) and banking (how to insure access) among other things.

    1. “Leave me the hell alone” needs to be translated for them as, “Do ANYTHING to me, and I’m going to jump down your throat and kick your ass. Don’t stick more regulations on me, don’t cost me more money, and get the f*ck out of my way.”

      Although I’m beginning to think even that isn’t enough for them to get the message. You may need to give them an ass kicking just for them to get the message in the first place.

  7. The most frustrating thing is wanting to fix things in a big way, and realizing that I have the influence of one soul looking for work in North Idaho.
    Screaming “but I have potential!” has moved no one so far, and I’m overwhelmed enough to not be thinking very well.

    So watching the Republic and its citizens go through this monstrous, unnecessary (except for the enemy communists in our midst) is enormously frustrating.
    We will not be defeated because there are enough of us willing to sacrifice our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. We’ll do what it takes.

    1. I can operate a chain saw, heavy equipment, and figure out hard rock mining and quarrying. Add hunting and fishing to the list, and there ought to be some kind of jobs in Northern Idaho. I’m sure they need a few nurses and accountants.

    2. Potential is a weak argument, yes.

      I’ve a fair amount of experience with failed job searches, but that doesn’t mean that I know what I’m doing now.

      The two three big things, IMHO ATM? Follow an interest that you have. Pick a type of place that wants what you can deliver. Tell them the story of how you can deliver.

      You? Likes the outdoors for recreation, a bit stubborn, tries to be honest, and IIRC an Air Force vet.

      There is a narrative to be told there.

      My guess, is look at jobs where they want people on their own outside visiting places, and looking at stuff. Okay, now it is cold for that sort of work.

      There will be places that have a hard time retaining people, because of stubbornness, honesty, hating the the outdoors, etc.

      I’m afraid that this is all the suggestion I have spoons right now to figure.

      Good Luck.

    3. If you’re within commuting distance of either Pullman, WA or Lewiston, ID, you should consider applying at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL).

      They’re one of the region’s biggest employers, they have a wide variety of jobs available, they pay well, and everyone I know who has worked there (quite a few people in varying jobs) have given me a highly favorable impression of the place. Not all have liked it, of course, but none have disliked it for reasons that would indicate it’s anything other than a generally very good company to work for.

    4. Depending on where you are, it might be useful to find where the old farmers hang out.
      Most of them have ties to the community going back many generations. They know people, and what’s going on in their community.

    5. Kathy, the company I work for is hiring remote workers right now. We’re based in Meridian, near Boise, but we’ve got people all over. If you are at all interested reach out to me:

      d r e i m e r s @ g m a i l dot c o m

  8. Bye bye Ukraine. Biden isn’t taking them out of SWIFT and only SWIFT matters, all the rest of it is BS and they’ll just clear through the Swiss or Luxembourg.

    Nasdaq is rallying hard and we have a short squeeze of epic proportions underway now. Wish I had malignancy’s list of what to buy on the dip.

    What a disgrace.

    1. Russia will own The Ukraine by the end of this week. And nobody in the world will do a damn thing about it. Taiwan will be the next to fall when China invades it in the next couple of months. The Biden Administration is an utterly impotent failure.

      1. Failure from the perspective of any sane American.

        These people are deliberately /trying/ to destroy anything they can that is good for Americans. From their perspective, it would be success.

      2. End of today possibly unless there’s a dramatic shift.

        Oil is almost back to unchanged for the day, wouldn’t do for the US oil companies to take advantage of the situation. NASDAQ is up large on the short squeeze and bouncing of the “bear market” line, S&P unchanged. Bond market on its way to unchanged.

        I have to wonder whether Taiwan has the bomb. They have the industry and know how to do it. I’m looking for South Korea to announce they have the bomb any day now.

        1. I believe it is highly likely that Taiwan, South Korea and Japan are one turn of a wrench away from being nuclear powers. The uncertainty causes China to pause and allows them to continue to ‘comply’ with the Non Proliferation Treaty. If I were in Xi’s shoes, I’d worry a lot more about that than any US intervention.

          1. Agreed – a single turn of the wrench, and considering how a resurgent China looms threateningly over them all …
            And they can’t count on any help from the Brandon Administration, so looking to their own defense might be a wise course anyway.

          2. Japan shut down a bunch of Plutonium-fueled reactors a while back.

            They have internal issues to address before and after crossing that Rubicon, but it is a choice and a month or two, not a major effort.

            They built Yamato and Mushashi in secret, in total breach of the naval treaties of that era.

            Japan won’t “announce” , but they may “get caught” digging deep cylindrical holes in odd locations.

        2. I read somewhere that Taiwan set up a series of traps, as it were. If China really invaded, supposedly the Taiwan PTB would detonate sufficient explosives to take out all the high tech factories and facilities that the Chinese want from Taiwan.

          No idea if it’s real or a bluff, but if it’s sufficiently convincing, violent takeover of Taiwan would be off the table. OTOH, there’s the “bribe them until they cave” approach.

      3. For varying degrees of “own”, possibly. Georgia was invaded and supine. Yet it’s still officially an independent country. Whether Ukraine is reintegrated into Russia or remains nominally independent is anyone’s guess right now.

        I think the Ukrainians hate the Russians more than the Georgians do, though. Something to consider.

        1. If you recall, Ukraine and Belarus were counted as “independent” after WWII so the Soviet Union could get a couple more UN General Assembly seats.

          1. Yes, which means that the Ukrainian civilian population might not take this as quietly as the Georgian population did. It’s too early to tell, though.

      4. Putin isn’t stopping at Ukraine. Ukraine isn’t a member of NATO so the NATO countries can refuse to intervene without violating NATO agreements. The Baltic states on the other hand, some did join NATO I recall (as did Poland), and there is no question that Putin’s army is going to use Ukraine as a jumping off point to go right through the Baltic states, while using Ukraine as his supply depot.

        1. The Ukraine offers no advantage as a jumping off point for attacking the Baltic states. Latvia and Estonia share borders with Russia, and Lithuania has Belarus between it and both Ukraine and Russian, except for Kalinin oblast (former East Prussia). It may help feed Russia, though.

        2. Pretty much all of the old Warsaw Pact is a part of NATO these days, as are the three Balts (the only members of the former USSR allowed to join). Unfortunately, most of them aren’t taking their commitments seriously. Only Poland, Romania, and two of the Baltic nations are meeting the required GDP expenditures on the military. Orban, for all of his bluster, isn’t.

          Putin’s focus will likely remain on former Soviet states. Ukraine doesn’t help with them. It would help if he wanted to pick a fight with Poland. But Poland can make a real fight of it.

    2. >> “Wish I had malignancy’s list of what to buy on the dip.”

      If prices drop a little more I might grab another share or three of GameStop.

  9. Sarah, I have to disagree with your premise that strikes are not as effective as convoys.
    Perhaps a modified strike would be better. No supply caravans within a 50 mile radius of a seat of power. Sieges do work; you just have to be patient.
    But no food deliveries to the DC area, no fuel deliveries to gas stations or aviation centers – and pretty soon you’ll have the fat cats wanting power slimming down some.
    Unfortunately, We the people has traversed to Up Against the Wall, M’F’er.
    The only action likely to actually work is direct action against those holding power.

  10. “Look, yes, a general strike of truckers or of anyone really would be far more effective in bringing the country to its knees… A general strike is usually, for good and sufficient reason, the last step in this type of thing, not the first.”

    Another tactical / strategic reason for “slow” and incremental escalation is that, as the old saying goes, the enemy gets a vote — which may be costly to “our” side but returns benefits in information. So at each successive ‘milepost’ on the escalation ‘road’ we arrive later but with more raw intelligence. (Or if we’re insanely lucky, we find we never have to go there at all).

    How much less would we know about Trudeau, Freeland, and the other Liberals in Canada — along with the rest of the “uncommitted” population who just likes their bank accounts — if the Freedom Convoy had never happened? A lot. (So this is part of what we all owe Tamara Lich and all the rest.)

    How different would the situation be if Canada had skipped that step and gone much further, first? Hard to know, but probably a lot and in no good direction.

  11. Ah, but now we must rally around Our Leader in this time of crisis! (I need to moderate sarcasm, now I’m a bit queasy).
    In other news, there have apparently been anti-war protests…..in Russia. Yes, they’re very short and there have been hundreds of arrests…..but still.
    Hang on indeed, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

        2. I wonder how long it will take those 100 russias that Ivan the terrible united to remember themselves… Cossack regions still have a strong identity.

        3. Okay, that was interesting. I was aware that Russia is crazy for buffers, and I knew there were some easy access corridors. But not that they really are surrounded by easy access corridors.

          Honestly, it would be a lot easier to build some artificial mountains and lake barriers, than to keep invading everybody. You could probably also play with improving your climate through landscaping.

          1. Buffers, marches and Cossack in the marches gave them some security. I don’t remember the exact number of years but for something like five hundred years until into WW II, Russia in every generation. had a foreign invader somewhere on their soil.

            1. I think you can start with the Mongols. Then the Teutonic Knights, then Poland and the Ottomans, then Poland-Lithuania, Ottomans and Poland again [Time of Troubles], Ottomans, Ottomans and Swedes, Ottomans, French and Ottomans, Germans and Germans. That covers 1200-1945.

            2. Part of the problem is that the Russian government, like most Old World governments, tends to define “their territory” by the furthest their armies have ever been able to invade. I’m sure if you asked Putin he’d say that the Baltics and Ukraine are properly Russian soil.

        4. That was fascinating. His analysis of food production, demographics, and how American power is based on the wheat fields of the Midwest passes the intelligent man test in that it agrees with mine. The part about the access routes was new to me and I hadn’t actually thought about how the Russian population is distributed.

          One might consider that China is even more tightly concentrated and how much of their population is downstream of the three gorges dam.

              1. The 3 Gorges Dam is a very simple structure, and as such difficult to sabotage and unlikely to fail, short of MAJOR catastrophe. If you look at engineered dams, Hoover forex, it is an arch. The water behind the dam pushes on the arch, and the arch transmits the force to the banks at either end. Break the arch at any point, and the arch fails. 3 gorges, you may notice, is just a straight line. It is, in essence, a big pile of concrete and steel blocking the water. If it wouldn’t wash away, the equivalent mass of dirt would work just as well, as far as blocking to water. Of course concrete makes it easier to put in spillways power generation features etc. But if you blow a hole in the 3 Gorges dam, all you have done is opened a spillway. There is no transmission of force along the dam, and so the damage does not spread. To cause complete failure a flood (or explosion) would need to impact the dam hard enough to push the bulk of the dam out of position.

                1. Damage will most certainly spread through wear once the structure is breached. The indicators we have point to the engineering and materials of the dam being decidedly subpar.

                2. The St. Francis dam was only very slightly arched, and had no abutments to take the load. It was, essentially, a straight dam with a bit of a curve to it. When a small breach opened up, water pressure and erosion took out everything but a small section near the center. Folks downstream found themselves in deep…mud. I would expect something similar to happen if 3 Gorges cracks.

        5. This was very fascinating. It was so good I looked at another of his videos. Which was when he lost me. He is blaming current events on Trump’s “twitter diplomacy”. And thinks Biden is “really trying”.

          So right about so much and so wrong about the causes of it all.

          Even so, he does have a lot of information packed into his presentations.

            1. Indeed. I don’t understand how otherwise smart — and by smart I mean, they walk and talk at the same time — people can convince themselves Biden or his handlers are trying to do ANYTHING good.

              2. That would I suspect depend entirely on their personal definition of “good.”
                Whole bunch of rabid socialists and Trump haters (not precisely the same, but currently closely aligned) who are pleased as punch at what the puppet in charge and his handlers are accomplishing.

          2. He also praises Trump for a bunch of things.

            Everyone makes mistakes; it’s nice when they are ones which are easily detectable and filterable.

  12. Well, now there’s one reason to support Ukraine — Zelenskyy has issued a directive that citizens can carry guns. Apparently, any guns they can get their hands on, no restrictions. Somehow, I don’t think there’s going to be a huge increase in crime.
    ———————————
    The Democrats trust violent criminals and terrorists with guns more than they trust you.

    2. Whether you see a surge in crime depends on whether you’re a Russian soldier, I suspect.

      😛

      I hope the Russians are forced out. I’m not getting my hopes up, but it would be very appropriate, imo, if the Ukrainian people were able to cause Putin’s political downfall.

  13. get at least one bank account that does not have your name or SS attached. couple of ways to do this legally and no I am not going to detail how. make sure u have a months worth in it. do NOT use the card to buy – go pull out cash.

    1. and no I am not going to detail how

      Well that sure was helpful for the people who don’t even know what to look for. Were you trying to be helpful, or just look smarter than thou?

      2. >> “Well that sure was helpful for the people who don’t even know what to look for.”

        Hopefully Amy will include such matters in her guest post.

  15. Here’s a thought worthy of Bob, could it be that Putin and Biden thought THIS up? That Putin didn’t reneg on the deal but that this was the deal? Could it be that Ukraine was going to release more about Burisma and the Biden crime family finances? I’ve spent my life trying to avoid conspiracy rabbit holes, but damn.

    2. I think my exact words were “It’s amazing how many inconvenient witnesses and incriminating documents could disappear in a ‘minor incursion’.”

    3. I suspect Putin primarily wants the state of affairs to return to the way it was before the color revolution, albeit with a properly-cowed Ukraine this time that won’t get any funny ideas. I don’t know whether he negotiated anything with Biden. But Biden’s ability to do anything useful went out the window when Biden undid Trump’s energy policy. So it’s largely immaterial. I suspect a lot of people in The West are happy about the possibility of Zelensky going away, since Zelensky appears to have been investigating Burisma.

  16. According to the prophecy…..

    https://thepostmillennial.com/39-trucking-businesses-shut-down-after-freedom-convoy-protests

    “The Ontario Ministry of Transportation shut down 39 trucking businesses following the Freedom Convoy protests.
    The ministry confirmed to Truck News that there has been 12 suspension and seizure orders issued onto large truck businesses that were involved in the protests. This allowed the suspension of their operating authority in Canada. It also allows them to seize all plates registered to the companies.

    Another 27 seizure orders were issued to large truck operators outside of the province. This effectively bans them from operating a commercial motor vehicle in Ontario.
    “In an effort to preserve future police investigations into the illegal occupation in Ottawa, the ministry will not release the names of affected businesses at this time,” a ministry spokesperson said.”

    This is not Vladimir Poutine, and has nothing to do with the Emergency Act, Just ordinary “process as punishment.”

    1. So exactly who is going to be carrying the loads with all those seized trucks and arrested truck drivers?

      1. They didn’t arrest the truck drivers. Truck drivers have to be tried and convicted. Refusing to issue licenses to the trucks so they can’t be operated can be dragged out for years.

        It will be far easier to pay the ransom and fire the actual drivers…. which isn’t a criminal matter either.

        1. But again, who drives the trucks. There is a shortage of drivers both in the US and Canada, because people have been discouraged for decades from taking such blue collar jobs, and many left their jobs for good during the CCP Virus shutdowns. If they fire existing drivers, the shortages will be even greater.

          1. That is what will be interesting. A lot of the ones at the protests were Sikh immigrants. I mean if we can hire doctors and nurses and engineers from India / Pakistan / wherever, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Canadian equivalent of H2B and H1B visas issued.

    2. Nobody should drive a truck into Ottawa while the ‘investigations’ are being conducted. Wouldn’t want to interfere in the ‘investigations’ after all.

      If the government tries to ‘seize the trucks’ I suspect they’ll find they’ll find that those targeted companies have taken the opportunity of this downtime to perform extensive maintenance on their trucks, like completely overhauling the engines and transmissions.

      “Where are your trucks?”

      “Well, some of ’em are here, some of ’em are over there, most of the heads are out being rebuilt…”

      “What about that one?”

      “Fuel pump’s on order, but looks like it’s going to be a long time before it gets here.”

    1. No not yet. The Turnip in Chief seems to be REALLY declining. When we started this mess in 2020 with the Democrat Primaries he reminded me of some of the older forgetful folks at Church. Decent folk, but don’t put them on a committee or anything trying to get stuff done as they just can’t track any more. The bits and pieces I’ve seen lately are horrifying. He looks like some of the folks that were in the memory wing at the old folks home where my Father in Law was (Father in Law was NOT in memory wing, but the residents of it often were out wandering until some one of the aides or nurses took them back to their rooms). There’s a real nobody home what am I doing here look to TiC. And that whisper/loud thing seems familiar too. It’s pretty fricking dastardly to do that to someone although TiC kind of deserves it. Not a good thing when everybody is getting all proddy. Probably Russia and China are doing this BECAUSE they see weakness in the west. It will be interesting, Putin is old line KGB, I hope he remembers China is NOT his friend or he may gain Ukraine to lose bits and pieces of the far east where there are nice natural resources.

      1. I keep reminding people, “Putin is Soviet Era. He’s KGB. That’s a very different mindset than what you think it is.”

        3. Yup Putin is ex KGB from the old era. But he’s also a massive fan of Peter the Great. He REALLY wants Russia to be a great power instead of the third world crap hole it is (yes I know its second world under the old view, but there’s a lot of the old third world, like India and Brazil which are far healthier than Russia has been for 30+ years). It’s not clear if Putin is just playing realpolitik based on the incapacity of the west, or if he has some delusion of grandeur, and perhaps embracing the power of AND is the right thing here…

          1. Remember that Putin is also getting old. He’s only got so much time left to be remembered as the man who put Russia back on the path to greatness.

                1. NY Post had an articale refering to him as Vlad the Mad. I wonder if that’s not closer to the truth than we might like. We’ve got a Turnip, Russia has a madman that wants the “glory days” of the USSR back, and XI is chuckling all the way to the bank as the Middle Kingdom follows a very Sun Tsu methodology of “Let’s You and Him fight…”
                  And our Flag officers have read more of White Fragility and its ilk than Sun Tsu, Von Clauswitz, Musashi or Machiavelli combined.

                  1. I look at pictures of SecDef Austin, an ambulating 400-lb pile of comorbities, walking by the troops — outdoors, mind you — and he is vaxxed to a fare-the-well, waring a mask AND a face-shield — and I wonder what he is afraid of, exactly. He looks all the world like Darth Vader in that get-up. I wonder if he breathes heavily…

                    1. I wonder if he breathes heavily…

                      –
                      Most assuredly.
                      ———————————
                      “My advice is to start drinking heavily.”
                      “You should listen to him, he’s pre-med!”

      2. My wife works with hospice and she says that Biden clearly has dementia. Look at his skull face, he’s not a well man.

        1. I believe this crisis will accelerate the process of Biden’s replacement with an unelected president of the cabal’s choosing. The longer it goes on, the harder it will be to hide his decline. Even the fact-checkers don’t bother trying to tell us Biden is fine.

          1. The only way “Dr” Jill is letting him out of the White house is if he lies in state in the Capitol rotunda. She seems truly quite a piece of work. Kamala should watch her posterior fundament around Jill, or ANY Clintonista for that matter. Of course that ends us up with President Pelosi. Man there are NO good options, you need to get down to 11th in line Sec Labor Marty Walsh before there’s anyone even faintly palatable, and he ain’t great

            1. Unlike during the Wilson administration, we now have a constitutional way to force the president out if he becomes incapacitated. If it’s invoked, there’s not a thing Dr. Jill can do.

              1. That would be true. However have you EVER looked at the requirements. With Both the House and Senate so close the supermajorities you need to override ain’t happening. Heck I suspect some in the GOP would refuse to vote for just to leave the other side holding the bag…

      3. I’ve been noticing the way Biden holds his mouth. It reminds me of my mother when she got to the point she couldn’t read a familiar Bible story from beginning to end without losing her train of thought.

        I’m thinking Biden is a lot worse off than we realize, simply because his handlers are able to get him to appear composed for a brief time in front of the cameras.

          1. With TiC that would have been a good idea even in his prime in the ’80s. He’s not just NOT the Sharpest knife in the drawer the butter knives laugh at him and always have. Corn Pop my maiden Aunts backside.

  18. In related news, a whole lot of countries are about to find out that letting an autistic teenager dictate their energy policies wasn’t such a brilliant idea.

  19. I have never seen an electron but I do believe in their existence. If you doubt they exist, I have a cattle prod I’m willing to apply as an argument. Electrons speak for themselves.

      1. Democrats will use it to double down on the Green Leap Forward; they want gas and oil shortages and they want skyrocketing prices. They want to have a pretext they can use to seize control of the energy sector of the economy and to impose rationing. Remember, they oppose nuclear power, which is CO2 emission free, because nuclear generated power “doesn’t advance the cause of social justice”

        They will also arrest anyone who has ever said anything nice about Russia as “a traitor” and will once again peddle the Russia-collusion hoax to go after political opponents yet again, this time with “treason arrests” based on the Russia invasion of Ukraine.

        Anybody who doesn’t think that the Democrats don’t welcome the Ukraine invasion for its use in imposing their agenda domestically hasn’t been paying attention.

        1. The corrupt members of both parties probably welcome the invasion as a means to dispose of the evidence of their corrupt dealings in the Ukraine. Although if Putin’s smart, he might just sweep that evidence up and use it to blackmail them, so our government can be jointly owned by China and Russia.

      1. A couple of things to add –

        One of the reasons to start slowly and showily and then build up is that it encourages fence-sitters to come over to your side. The truckers had bouncy castles. The cops trampled old ladies. Lots of fence-sitters are going to hear about this, and start to sympathize more with the truckers. And then when the truckers do drop a figurative hammer, the fence-sitters will say, “Well, of course they did! Look at how they were treated! They were justified in doing so!”. Meanwhile, they’ve lost nothing from the overall cause.

        Second, the “showy” stage has been going on in the US since at least the Obama administration. The Tea Party was step one. Trump was step two. As has often been noted, the left will almost certainly like step three even less. Meanwhile, we’re allowing people to openly attack our enemies for their overreactions to the social aspect. Even Bill Freaking Maher is calling what much of the left is doing completely nuts. I know people who pay attention to what he says.

          1. Rarer than hens teeth. I think CRT’s disappeared like the dinosaurs about 2010. Admittedly if you meet a CRT make darn sure it is discharged. I was working on my h19 (heathkit) terminal one day and managed to discharge it when my elbow brushed it and my hand was grounded touching the frame. Hurt like hell. Luckily it went down the arm not across the chest to my other arm, although 20 something me (probably) would have survived…

  20. Canada going the full 1984 route, as they are pushing through a law that bans “thought-crime”; that is correct; they are not only criminalizing speech they don’t like, they are doing so in a way that punishes INTENT to engage in such speech, even if you never actually do so:

    https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/02/24/proposed-canadian-law-would-penalize-intent-to-commit-online-hate-speech/

    Who needs Putin when we have our own totalitarian dictators right here in North America.

    1. Canada has had hate speech laws for a while. Ask Ezra Levant. For that matter so has Britain, Australia, etc.

      1. Yes, but this makes it criminal to THINK of posting “hate speech”; i.e, one can never post anything whatsoever and still be declared guilty. That is thoughtcrime.

        1. Any “hate crimes” are thoughtcrimes. I suspect that this will be approached in a similar fashion to “conspiracy” without a tie to an overt act.

  21. I agree with a lot of what you said.
    However, in my opinion, this convoy will be declared the second insurrection. What happened north of the United States will happen in the United States.
    Marshall Law.
    Then the regime can do all kinds of crazy stuff. How about gun confiscation. You for the good of the people.

      1. Well, there was the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after WW2, and the Blue Oyster Cult song on their 1980 Cultosaurus Erectus album. 😀

        I’m pretty sure Orville meant Martial Law, under which the government treats the whole country like a military prison.
        ———————————
        Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!

  22. John Kerry’s biggest concern is that Putin remain “committed to stopping change” and that people will be more worried about the invasion of Ukraine than “stopping global warming”.

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/02/24/john-kerry-roasted-for-hoping-putin-would-stay-on-track-with-climate-change/

    Putin, XI, the Mullahs, etc., must be laughing themselves silly over this idiocy. With these idiots running things, these people have to believe they have nothing to fear if they go on campaigns of conquest.

    1. And folks have been quick to note that Kerry travelled in a smoke spewing private jet to deliver his speech proclaiming that everyone was ignoring the most existential threat of all time, ie climate change.
      Only part I caught was where he claimed that the US and China were the two biggest polluters. China without question, but last I knew the US was the only country to have met the requirements established in the Kyoto accords even though we never signed on to them.

  23. Arguably even better than a general strike would be truckers refusing ANY loads of ANY thing to Blue metros. They’d really hate that – seeing the little people in flyo over country and counties fed and clothed and – nada – in their stores.

    1. The problem with that thinking is that a sizeable amount of what comes into the country *starts* in some of those blue metros. That’s where the ports are located, after all.

  24. A Trucker Blockade–or any other vehicle blockade–would be most useful very late on voting day surrounding the blocks around anywhere the ballots are being counted and only letting through late boxes of ballots that have providence and a chain of custody.

      1. Just realized that I have the perfect solution to our southern border.
        Somebody needs to create a credible report that convinces our left wing nuts that undocumented immigrants tend to vote Republican once firmly ensconced in America.
        Border security will snap shut tighter than a snare drum in short order.

  26. This certainly doesn’t help the nuclear non-proliferation cause, does it? Of the two countries that peacefully and publicly agreed to give up nuclear weapons/WMD, both Libya and Ukraine have been invaded by foreign powers.

  27. In other news, online mobile game Azur Lane, which features World War 2 warships anthropomorphized as young women, released a new event today. The event features the game’s stand-in for the Soviet Union. And one of the new ships is the historically incomplete destroyer Kiev.

    Not the best timing…

  29. In other news, everyone’s favorite rant-o-matic goes off again, this time on the Ukraine situation:

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