Don’t Jump Off That Ledge

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I come from a small and very strange country. No, seriously.

It is a point of pride that the national poet for the ages — Luís de Camões for those who haven’t made an hobby of Portuguese history, and really, why would you — died as the Spaniards were taking over the throne of Portugal (during one of those bizarre disputes you can only understand if you view the royal families of Europe as a small and incredibly inbred tribe of people, swept off the streets of London in the seventeenth century, dropped into a holler in the Appalachia mountains, and they’ve never left since. Everyone marries their cousins, and everyone fights mightily over a limited number of chairs…. er …thrones.) Anyway, as the Spaniards took over and officially Portugal stopped existing, Camões is said to have declared, “The homeland dies, and I die with it.”

Ahem. Go look at a world map. I’ll wait. Okay. I presume your map is not from the 1600s. And yet, if you look, Portugal is in fact in it.

That is because the worst thing possible evah! occurred, and yet…. it wasn’t the end. Eventually (in about sixty years) the Spanish vice-roi was defenestrated, a bastard son of the last Portuguese king was called to the throne and with the help of England (he married Phillipa of Lancaster) Portugal was back, baby.

In fact, its biggest days were ahead. I was making some ridiculous joke about Portugal to my son and he said “mom. Portugal was one of two countries that divided the world in two. Kind of the original superpower. Mom. You can’t really make fun of that.”

Well, actually I can, because imagine what they could have done if everyone weren’t a squirrel with ADHD? But (ducks, bobs and weaves, avoiding the three Portuguese who read this blog regularly) the point is, the poet who wrote the verse-history of the country to that time, thought it was all over.

In fact, its golden days were yet to come.

We are, and no mistake, having to put up with a lot of nonsense. And it does remind me of the “Spanish Interregnum” in that they purposely set about to give away, destroy and despoil everything that made Portugal powerful.

But it didn’t work. Because invaders, whether foreign or internal, corrupted Marxists, don’t understand that which they’re trying to destroy.

Which means all of their efforts end up coming up …. thwarted.

Look guys, and I say this conscious of a long line of ancestors saying “That’s impossible” but these guys? They’re worse than the Spaniards. At least the Spaniards had enough competency to pick up the other half of the world.

These guys? they got nothing.

They are unable to understand anything that is not them. They keep trying to do the things they think we’re doing, and trying to attack us by taking out “leaders” on the assumption we are their mirror image.

They don’t understand us. And the sheer Americanness of us keeps sucker punching them, every time they turn around.

Can they still do a lot of damage? Sure. Of course they can. But in the end?

We might be beaten, have a bloody lip, and a black eye, but we’re going to win this.

Let the death cult of the left embrace death.

America?

Our best days are ahead of us.

I bet you we’re going to the stars.

312 thoughts on “Don’t Jump Off That Ledge”

    2. If they thought that their position was tenable, they wouldn’t be looting the treasury.

      Or they’re just that incompetent. I can’t rule out the possibility.

  2. Best cryptocurrency advice I’ve seen: If you want a stable coin, buy Swiss francs.

    After Biden saying “ultra-MAGA” as some sort of insult, Trump’s supporters started selling teeshirts.

    “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…” — 2 Corinthians 4:7-9 ESV

    The Marines on Wake Island were alleged to have said “Send more Japs…” (apologies for the period reference).

    John Paul Jones, as the Bon Homme Richard was sinking, said “I have not yet begun to fight!” And captured the Serapis.

    Travis, knowing he was doomed, wrote, “Victory or death!” And underlined it three times.

    Are we the lesser children of greater parents, as Saruman insulted Theoden?

    Can we not take inspiration from our ancestors who did great things and, with the bountiful blessing of the current environment, do equal or greater things?

    1. As I said on Twitter yesterday:

      I notice they’re trying to make “Extreme MAGA” a thing. Have they already used MAGA as a curse word so much that it is ineffective already?

      It took 4+ decades to do that with racist, about 2 decades for homophobic, half a decade with transphobic,
      and now about 3 with MAGA.

      Now it’s already “ultra-MAGA”, “Extreme MAGA” from last week already doesn’t work. Now Ultra-MAGA has failed.

      As Daddy Warpig said, it should be Mega-MAGA because that sounds like a Transformer.

    2. Travis, knowing he was doomed, wrote, “Victory or death!” And underlined it three times.

      And Jim Bowie asked (demanded?) he be carried across Travis’s line in the dirt of the old mission.

      1. Big sign. Take it to one of those protests the lefties like to clump up at. Put some generic MAGA phrase on it. Pro-life, Pro-2a, doesn’t matter. Walk up to the protesters. Attempt to strike up a conversation.

        They will not talk to you, but chant silly slogans. This is to be expected, they don’t want to be “confused” by you. They might (prepare the fainting couches, minions!)…

        whispers

        Actually have to think.

        normal tone of voice

        When the inevitable inane chanting occurs, strip off the clever covering form the sign. New sign reads:

        THE POWER OF MAGA COMPELS YOU! CHANT! CHANT, FUTURE MINIONS! REEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

    4. After Biden saying “ultra-MAGA” as some sort of insult, Trump’s supporters started selling teeshirts.

      Just like with “Deplorables”, “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy”. All the way back to “Yankee Doodle”, we take the insults and make them our own. Like, what did they think was going to happen?

      On the other hand, the Left gives themselves fun titles, like “Anti-fa”, “Woke”, etc., then when the Right calls them that, complains about all the mean things the Right makes up about them.

      Seriously, they went from being proud of being “Anti-fa” to insisting that the Right was making up the whole “Anti-fa” thing so fast, it made my head spin.

      1. Ante-fa. They are the tools of fascist wannabes. Thus, they precede the fascists. To soak up enemy fire. They’re a forlorn hope, without the hope. Disposable, but situationally useful. To wannabe fascists.

        1. Oooh, that’s good! Signs: “ANTEFA!” Any bets on whether the meaning registers with them? I’d say “no” given their [lack of] education…

      2. I was enormously amused in the mid-oughts (I think?) to see someone explaining that atheists and agnostics should take to calling themselves Brights, “in the spirit of reclaiming the slur”. Even the left laughed him off the Internet.

        Even then, the left couldn’t meme…

      3. Antifa is an international revolutionary Marxist terrorist organization that uses violence against political opponents in not only North America, but Europe, and has carried out assassinations of politicians in Europe. It is well past time that they are treated as such.

          1. Nah, they are commies. Literally – they started out as the street violence wing of the German Communist Party

            ________________________________

              1. Yep. I judge by actions and policies. And based on that, the difference is almost zero; the main difference is the name they pick. And they deserve equal treatment.

              2. True, but words matter, and it is better to accurately describe them. For starters, fascists would be a hell of a lot more competent at public presentation.

                2. Words can indeed matter, but I question whether they do in this case. When the organizations in question are both composed of fanatic collectivists who believe the individual is unimportant and should always be subservient to the State, and who are willing to use violence against everyone who disagrees with them, up to and including murder, to gain maximum power, giving them different names seems a bit silly, since neither has any distinguishing attributes WRT the other (and neither did their models, the USSR and the NSDAP). Or can you think of anything meaningful which distinguishes them? I can’t.

                  1. This is why I’m coming to to embrace the terms “statism” and “collectivism.” The specific forms don’t matter, and trying to choose between them is a mug’s game.

                    1. Agreed, although I’d argue that those terms are also essentially equivalent, as least as practiced.

    5. The Marines on Wake were alleged to have said that, yes. They didn’t actually say it. But the first attempted landing on Wake was a mess of incompetence on the part of the Japanese (for example, iirc the IJN ship that was supposed to be providing naval gunfire support was overshooting the entire island), and was a big declaration for all who cared to see that the Japanese were not invincible.

      This was a huge contrast to what was happening pretty much everywhere else – particularly in Singapore.

      Another instance was the last battle of the USS Edsel. Yes, she was eventually sunk. But an IJN group consisting of battleships and cruisers eventually had to call in an air strike from a nearby carrier (the specific carrier varies depending on the source, though it appears to have been one of the four that were later lost at Midway) to put her down.

    6. Extreme MAGA, much more extreme than Trump, is coming… We have not yet begun to fight…BTW, Trump endorsed candidates are 56-0 in the primaries.

    7. Better to stand on the shoulders of giants than cower in the shadows of our predecessors.

    8. His current scripter must think it’s gold because now Biden can’t stop saying “MAGA”.

  3. I find it amusing (for values) that recently Biden has been repeatedly disparaging his political opposition as the ‘MAGA Crowd.’ Even if you get the concept in terms of Realpolitick, his repeated mockery of ‘Make America Great Again’ just telegraphs the real progressive intent of weakening and destroying America.

    1. I get the distinct impression that “Ultra-MAGA” is going to be as effective for Brandon as “Deplorables” was for BroomHillary.

      Size XXL, 100% cotton sounds right for a tshirt…

        1. We have seized the memes of production. Or the production of memes. Or something. Anyway, the left is annoyed.

      2. Ditto 2XL, one size fits all, cotton. Please.

        Hats work too.

        (I like loose T-shirts.)

          3. Yes, how terrible it’s going to be when they sell and make you money. Oh, woe is you!

        2. Sigh. 2XL would reach to the floor and beyond. I must protest. And beg at least an M.

            1. Not quite on me. But it does cover the butt … on me. 5’4″ & very short between shoulders and waist. Now a one size for all 2XL, Tall, makes a good short t-shirt dress or night gown.

            2. I’m flexible if 2XL is the choice. I’ll wear a little ribbon belt to keep it off the floor. 😀

    2. Frau Professor Edith is not politically competent enough to obtain political power using her own ability.

      If Joe Biden ever understood how he sounds to other people, he no longer does.

      The strongest critique you can make of MAGA, for an audience that isn’t communist, is that excellence and winning can be very difficult. To easily make something great, there have to be easy paths to greatness that are not being pursued, or which are actively being sabotaged.

      Frankly, even if it would be difficult, making America great would be a worthy challenge. Even if the looseness of the ‘great’ project specification gives me hives when it comes to working at a sizable project.

      However, there are easy low hanging fruit when it comes to making America great, that can be well defined, because now there are clearly criminal conspiracies of communists who are deliberately and knowingly trying to make America worse.

      Everyone and their yellow dog can see this clearly.

      Joe Biden’s pattern of behavior, itself, is evidence of a communist criminal conspiracy, and an argument that MAGA is easily, ethically, and properly achievable.

      1. “If Joe Biden ever understood how he sounds to other people, he no longer does.”

        I doubt he ever did. Thirty to forty years ago he was known around the DC area as a buffoon, per family friends who were there back then.

        1. Delaware as well. The former resident I knew said no one could figure out how he won elections ’cause no one admitted voting for him. He also met him once and said he was obviously not smart, and came across as incompetent, even on the campaign trail as an incumbent senator.
          {this is what a fought to post on my phone, and WP or my phone browser kept changing it, and then at “send”, tacked it to the bottom of the post and it’s and early draft I thought I corrected spelling on.}

        2. The 1988 implosion of his presidential campaign (getting caught plagiarizing a speech can do it) cemented that reputation nationwide.

          (And that was broken by the NYT, no less.)

          1. Not just one speech. He stole bits and pieces from several speeches Including the infamous Neil Kinnock one as well as JFK and a couple others. To say he wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer is a masterpiece of understatement. He was a kumquat in the silverware drawer. At least at that point he mostly knew when he was making things up. Now he’s your crazy great uncle who can hardly remember his own name.

  5. First! (Well, yes, I do read Ace of Spades. Why do you ask?)
    When I opened my email this morning to read this very (and very necessary) essay, the lead story on Yahoo “News” was … wait for it … “Study shows odds of climate catastrophe within 5 years.” Which just goes to show how desperate the eneMedia are getting about inflicting their permanent emergency, if the perennial timeline for it has been cut in half. Just saying … and also saying that we might actually be starting to turn this madness around. So there! Please keep the encouragement coming, Space Princess, and I’ll follow wherever it takes.

    1. Dang! I type too slowly, and WordPress has no editing feature. Oh, for the Love of Life Orchestra….

    2. Five years means 3-4 of eating my own peppers in or with everything from air fryer cooked Italian sausage on a bun toasted in the fryer in the last minutes of cooking to Billionaire’s Beans and Franks to Paella.

    3. Let’s see. We froze to death in the 1970s. We had megadroughts in the 1980s. There was no snowpack and thus terrible droughts in the 2000s. Melting ice sheets submerged the world in the 1990s and 2010s. Oh, and a nuclear war and nuclear winter got tucked in between 1980-1993.

      And despite all the predictions and warnings, I missed every [darn] one. Well, horsepuckey!

      1. Forecasting is hard, especially about the future. David Rosenberg did a study of the quality of the Fed “Beige Book” forecasts going back to the 1960’s. Since then, we’ve had eight named recessions and at least three that should have been named, the Fed, which is the largest employer of economists in the world, predicted not one of them in the quarter they occurred.
        , never mind earlier. The Fed can’t forecast what’s happening while it’s happening. Now, much of that is political, because economic forecasting is a political process and the Fed is in the nudge business, but the simple fact is that forecasts of multi-dimensional, non-linear phenomena are, essentially, useless.

        Oh, every one of those downturns was preceded by a run up in price inflation, particularly oil prices, and each run up in prices had been preceded by large run ups in money. The Fed causes inflation, which causes price inflation, which causes people to cut back on real spending, which causes a reduction in real economic activity, which is what a recession is, Just sayin. Odd sort of world when the soi disant monetary economists don’t understand money.

        One can confirm this observation on the FRED economic data site.

        Maybe it’ll be different this time.

        1. I do not know if it is that the Ded hires bad economists, or the Fed only promotes bad economists. Because the result of the Fed monkeying with the economy is, well…

          waves hands in the direction of gas prices, product availability, value of the US dollar, 2021,2022…

        2. Man proposes, God disposes
          and
          Economists forecast, God rolls on the floor laughing

          1. Some years ago I read an article which was posted in a university math department display board, which claimed that economists made forecasts, not because they knew any more about it than anyone else, but because they were asked. It made sense to me, at the time. I haven’t noticed that econometric methods have vastly improved since then,

        3. I’ll admit, I’ve been looking around on what to do with the 401K (company changed managing groups and they default dumped everyone into a managed retirement plan thing)

          The most frustrating thing is all the people going “well it’s all screwed anyways so don’t worry about it.”

          It just seems like “eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we go bankrupt” does seem to be a self-fulfilling sort of prophecy.

          1. I have a mixture of value stocks, energy, index put options, mixed duration treasury bonds, and long term call options on long duration treasury bonds. It’s a recession play. I’ve had the bonds on about a month so it’s been very, very painful but I think it’s starting to come good.

            Merrill Lynch had a thing called the investment clock that gave a rough idea about asset allocation over the cycle. It’s a good place to start if you’re willing to put the work in, otherwise it’s about your investing time frame and risk tolerance and you should do as little as possible and not look at it for a couple of years. This too shall pass.

            1. Ok. I’ll read up on that. Honestly, it’s easy for me not to look at it, but I know I need to at least now, because of the whole reset thing.

              I’d originally had it in large cap index funds (retirement is decades away) but the new default is some sort of managed fund that changes it from stocks to bonds as you get older and charges you for the privilege…

              I just figure the can’s probably going to stop getting kicked as some point in the next couple years. On the other hand, getting it back into simple low overhead index funds and just not touching it may be the most idiot-proof plan for me.

              1. (retirement is decades away)

                –
                There is a point, even if you haven’t retired, or left the company, where you can contribute to the 401(k), get company match, and immediately roll into your own self managed (or at least directed) IRA. But it is based on age. Don’t think that is an option, yet, for you.

                FYI. That is what I recommend if you move to a new company. Do not roll the old company 401(k) into the new company 401(k), even if allowed. Roll it into self managed IRA. If your regular IRA doesn’t have non-tax free funds in it, you can roll it directly into there. If it does, suggest a separate IRA. Note ours did, but the percentage was so low we just individually combined everything. (Ooooo. Look we don’t have to pay taxes on < 0.5% of what we pull out of accounts … and that was before we combined in each of our rolled over 401(k) plans. Rolls eyes.)

                1. Ok. I’ll have to remember that, if/when I change companies. Definitely will go find an accountant to walk through it though. As near as I can tell, regulators get paid by the line, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s new regs or changes to old ones.

              2. Yeah. They like their fees and this is a great way to get active management fees from index fund effort and buy high sell low results. It’s a racket, almost as bad as ESG.

                There’s an old rule that the proportion of bonds in your portfolio ought to be your age. It’s a good rule except when there is financial repression, like now and the last 20 years. The advice I give to those few I give advice to is to let the retirement account sit in stocks, max the employer match, dollar cost average and pay no attention to it, good or bad. When you get to 5-7 years before retirement start to pay attention. You’re betting on America essentially and should that not perform over your lifetime, then the bonds won’t pay off either so why worry, your 401k would be the least of your problems. Your mileage might differ and nothing is guaranteed.

                I’m turning 60 this year, so my calculations are different, but I also use options so my loss profile is different too. I do have a company 401k but I figured out how to minimize fees and get my desired allocation. You probably could too. might be worth it. You’re not getting anything for the fee and the cumulative drain on your portfolio can be substantial.

                1. Yeah. Going to try and sort that this weekend. Last time I really had time and was thinking about it was in the freeze when everything was transitioning to the new systems. And of course, the new stuff was really not ready for prime time either, so much fun ensued…

                  Given all the bs we’re in now, we’re probably going to be in a golden age by the time I’m hitting retirement myself.

                  Honestly, I really got lucky, just old enough to get through college before the impacts of the student loan nationalization hit, but late enough that I’m not trying to retire during the debt crash, and in a fairly stable spot in my career too.

        6. If economists actually understood economics, they’d all be billionaires, and wouldn’t need to be supported by the State.

          Warren Buffet understands economics better than any ‘economist’.

      2. Don’t forget the Population Explosion (Harry Harrison’s Make Room, Make Room).

        And don’t forget the poisonous air & water caused by pollution. 😈

          2. Hey! I stood nuclear alerts when Carter was in the WH…

            Difficult to MAGA? Cue up JFK’s speech about going to the Moon BECAUSE it was difficult.

            I’m in.

          1. Cats have nothing on us with their measley nine lives.

            That’s why we are the dominant species.

            Don’t tell them I said that.

                  1. Mouse heads, mouse heads
                    Rolley Polley mouse heads.
                    Mouse heads, mouse heads
                    Serve them up, yum.

                    1. He made pyramids of them
                      We called it an hecatombe to our glory. But considering that’s the cat who liked to cozy up to me and be very serious while I was praying, maybe it wasn’t to MY glory.

                    5. > “But considering that’s the cat who liked to cozy up to me and be very serious while I was praying, maybe it wasn’t to MY glory.”

                      “Hey Mom, while you’re phoning God tell him about all the smiting I’ve done in His name.”

            1. acid rain. And somehow by the early 2000s we were supposed to run around in gas masks all the time too.
              Reading old books, sometimes I go “What in heck…. oh. I remember.”

              1. I take a small amount of pleasure in writing my apocalypse that features absolutely no references to the lunacy of cLImaTe cHanGE. Yes, I do mention wildfires in one of the 40s chapters. But its the twenty-third century and mankind has outposts and settlements in the solar system that can survive the seven years without contact with Earth!

                If there were any space climate nutjobs at any point in the fictional history, they were zombies before the zombie virus even hit. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

      4. “Climate catastrophe”? So they think global cooling is going on? That would be, and eventually will be a catastrophe in this crowded world…

        1. 100% Only I’d go back into the ’60s for “Climate Cooling, Ozone Hole, Nuclear Winter, …” just saying.

          By the way. The kids (< 40 ?) can thank us older (> 50) generation. You know. The ones who have ensured not (checks current *Oregon weather) … Okay! Fine! No burning rivers (better?) No field burning. No slash burning (wildfires do not count as slash burning). It is our generation who started the Beach Clean Up, Road Garbage Pickup, Recycling Principles (not our fault that it is another form of garbage collection now … at least in Oregon, thank the current PTB). I remember entire Recycling fairs showing pellets of recycled wood, recycled plastic, etc., and all the potential it had.

          Cousin keeps posting snow falling and accumulating in Baker. ODOT pictures of Willamette Pass. Snow. Not that anyone is complaining. We need the snow added to the snow pack. We need that spring snow to stick around. Things are not good further south for Lake Shasta (little snow pack, and the reservoir is lower than it has ever been).

          1. After spending Tuesday getting clobbered by a graupel* storm for an hour or three, I fervently wished that While We Need The Water [tm], I’d rather it come down as the liquid, clear stuff than white. At least in the middle of May. November into April, OK. May-October, rain, please.

            (*) If you don’t know, it’s in Wiki.

            1. Right now we’re going “We paid $8k for the sprinkler system!” We finally broke down and put one in, for reasons. It will save on water over the kluged system we were using, which saved water on what we had been doing (not on timers). Which will save money. We pay for our water.

          2. I just read the other day that Shasta is actually doing pretty good. And that’s from a source who pays attention and is close to there.

            1. Re: Shasta

              I don’t know. Reporting second hand what others have reported. Mom and her sources south that she meets with regularly. Hubby …

              What hubby saw on his down and back on I-5 golf trip south early March, this spring. Lake Shasta down (from last few high years) and not much snow on Mt Ashland or Mt Shasta. Granted the former Had snow, so that isn’t as bad as some prior bad years. OTOH there has been a lot of snow and rain since then. He contrasted this last spring to what Lake Shasta was like on the trip before the pandemic when the snow pack was especially good, including snow actually on the I-5 corridor road through the pass (same month) and the pass closed behind them for a blizzard.

        2. I have a t-shirt that has the Cascade/Sierra Volcanoes, in their cartoon relative extreme positioning and sizing (because I can’t spell the correct word that starts with ex) with Mt St Helen going “Okay Guys – On 3 – And 1, 2 …” all because of May 18, 1981 … I remember a few panicking theories from then were briefly predicted.

          1. Well, if Mt. Ranier goes, so will Seattle and a lot of other things downstream of the lahars (mud flows from the melting of the glacier).

            1. I am extremely glad that Mount Mazama is an ex-volcano rather than the Thunderbeast of tribal memory. No mudflows, but flying obsidian isn’t my preference, either. OTOH, our area was volcanic while it was the bottom of a sea. We have interesting geography here. And hard water that makes chemists cry. Lime descalers don’t work well with [metal of your choice] sulfates.

            2. if Hood goes, so does Portland Metro and the Willamette Valley. Willamette Will be Blocked, and that means flooding clear down to Eugene. How bad? Well, it “depends”.

              If Yellowstone mega volcano goes, we can all KAG (kiss our assets goodbye). The rest of the world will starve (years of no summer before the ash fallout falls out of the atmosphere).

              Did Helen blowing teach the volcanologist anything. Definitely. Can they stop it? No.

              The Pacific subjugation zone causing earthquake is going to turn most everything into a quagmire of jelly mud.

              Question: “What can be done?” Answer. Nothing.
              Question: “What can I do?” Answer: Move. But where? Where else is “safer”?

              Disaster prepping will help. If both you and your supplies survive the initial event.

              All this was brought up in extreme by news. A few saner heads replied with “Yes. But …” and were drowned out. Living in the community they were trying to panic, I learned to to actually hear the “Yes. But …” of the sane. (Hey, I was 23, May 1980.)

              1. Pacific subjugation zone

                Now, that’s an inspired typo! Newsome/Brown/Inslee. SMOD and Saint Andreas, please deliver us!

                1. Um. Again. Okay. I picked it from the list of “suggested correctly spelled words” based on what looked right; no typos involved. 🙂

      6. You forgot the whole world starved to death several times over from 1975-2000

      7. The first time I died was in the nuclear holocaust in the 60s. Then I died from the New Ice Age, and then acid rain in the 70. The hole in the ozone layer killed me in the 80s.

        1. I’ve died to nuclear war twice; once under Reagan and again under Trump. Damn it, why did they each have to go and start WW3?

          More recently I’ve probably died about 3 times so far to COVID, if Biden is to be believed. I say probably because all these repeated deaths are hard on the ol’ memory circuits.

      1. This. There are at least five “First!” comments per post.

        …Not that I read the comments. No. Never me. The comments section on AOS will make you crazy. Ask me how I know.

        1. Depends on the comments section. The ONT comments, for example, tend to be much more relaxed, with noticeably less vitriol, than the comments sections during the middle of the day.

                    1. Perhaps Bob has been tonsured. That would not be bad. We could use more monks praying, for us and everyone else.

                    2. There’s only one comb-over that really works, and it is the biggest, blondest, most swept up piece of artistry the world has ever seen. Unprecedented. Never before has there been a comb-over like that comb-over, let me tell you.

                    4. There is a picture floating around today that has the regular comb-over on top “MAGA” and below is Ultra MAGA with the comb over so huge it looks like a Marge Simpson, only blonde. I laughed so hard I snorted.

                    7. Back in the day of the orange man, Russia was kept on a leash, and the man in the Oval Office knew his name and what office he held. Those were the days.

    6. News was pointing to collapse of surf-side houses on the Outer Banks during the recent blow as being climate related; the local semi-socialist (who has two jobs) that I fathered said it’s because that sandbank has been migrating for centuries.

        1. Its the same thing with the sand bar known as Miami Beach. If you build on sand bars, the things you build on them will eventually flood and collapse as the sand bars move as they have for many thousands of years. Here is a suggestion; STOP BUILDING ON SAND BARS

  6. This! Times may get rough, but we’ll get through this. I saw that pushback is starting to Adm Richard Levine’s ‘gender affirming’ treatment position. European governments are backing away from that and more physicians are starting to speak up here.

      1. In MAR Barker’s Tekumel mythos, the dreaded Ssu were said to smell of musty cinnamon…

        I miss my old gaming group. We played SSI games and EPT…

        1. Holy Carp Someone else played Empire of the Petal Throne? I tried to start that up a couple times in high school but (pun intended) no dice. Also love The Fantasy Trip and the Metagaming Melee system.

        1. Hey, FICUS hailed Trump as “The Great MAGA King” today.

          I’m not sure if he was trying to be insulting, or to stoke fear, but either way, he failed as only Biden can.

          (Unfortunately, the audio is absolutely atrocious. Echoes from hell. Presumably somebody can clean it up enough to be useful, but doing so is beyond my competence level.)

      4. > ‘“the scent of cinnamon” was the devil, according to writers of the time.’

        Interesting. Now I’m wondering how the smell of brimstone became associated with hell in modern times.

  8. “And it does remind me of the “Spanish Interregnum” in that they purposely set about to give away, destroy and despoil everything that made Portugal powerful.”

    I didn’t expect some kind of Spanish Interregnum . . .

      2. Our chief weapon is stupidity. Stupidity and laziness. Our two chief weapons are stupidity, laziness, and excessive self-appraisal.

        I’ll come in again.

    1. I (almost) hate to do this to you, mine Hostess, but I think you have been touched with a bit of prophecy – in the Jewish sense of not predicting the future, but being tasked with bringing a message from the Most High to the people. A while ago, when I said that the American People were chosen by God, but I didn’t know for what, you immediately answered “To take humanity to the stars”. I have come to believe that was true prophecy, and you have my sympathy. Prophets tend to have a hard way to go.

            1. In size? probably am. He was a middle-eastern male of the 1st century.
              ANYTHING ELSE? Not even close
              And I wouldn’t want that load on my shoulders.

          2. Jeremiah said the same thing and I think he had to do a year naked. 🙂

                1. Was that Heinlein who wote, “Cassandra didn’t get half the fossicking she had coming.”?

                  1. “A fake fortuneteller can be tolerated. But an authentic soothsayer should be shot on sight. Cassandra did not get half the kicking around she deserved.”

                    1. G Spotted on the ‘net – Cassandra should have hooked up with Odysseus.

                      Cassandra: “Whatever I say, nobody believes me!”

                      Odysseus: “I’m nobody, what ya got?”

                    5. Actually, the name Odysseus gave to Polyphemus was Noman. So when the Cyclops hollered “Noman is killing me!” all his buddies said “Well, if no man is killing you, must be Posiedon, we’re outta here.”

              2. You could always request a timeout in the belly of a whale or perhaps some reflection time in a muddy cistern instead of the year naked.

                As Theresa of Avila once famously said to Himself.

                “If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so many enemies.”

                But in your case, you may SAY no, but you are spreading the message anyway.

              3. It would set a bad precedent. I am for NO on this decision on the grounds that the idea might spread. I will absolutely support locking the doors, shutting off the phone, and pulling the covers over ones’ head until the yelling stops.

                Also prophets make no profit unless they’re false prophets profiteering on the gullibility of the common man (of which I are one). And bills need paying. Thus NO. With bells on.

                1. Right? I am actually reading about the people’s temple, and it’s challenging my “no woo woo” rule, because I’m convinced the man was possessed.

                2. Would David Weber make a profit without Honor?

                  (Dons carp resistant coat before running.)

                  1. Yes, yes he would. Because Dave is just that danged good of a writer is why.

                    carp mortars ready? Fire for effect on fleeing target!

                3. > “Also prophets make no profit unless they’re false prophets profiteering on the gullibility of the common man”

                  Fortunately, Sarah doesn’t seem to have a prophet motive.

            3. That was Ezekial.
              Then there was the “bread of affliction,” now sold as health food.

            1. Um…? Happy ending?

              Based on what I’ve read and can recollect, the use of the word “foreSAW” with Isaiah is likely not a coincidence.

              1. He gets to the salvation parts near the end. There is some world ending destruction too but compared with the first… half of the book it’s the stuff of Handel. (Runs for Bible to make sure she isn’t talking out her…)

                1. Ah. I was referring to what is generally believed to have happened to Isaiah himself…

          1. They made us sing that el piso shito in GRADE school.
            I was traumatized.

            1. The first time I heard it, I was expecting the Christmas composition “Joy to the World,” not an ode to an amphibian. I was more than a wee bit confoozled.

              1. The same Muskie director who made us sing that one also made us sing radical environmental justice songs. He was gone when we came back the next year. Mid-60s when the Pacific NW was still the land of the free.

  10. Yes!

    To Infinity, And Beyond! -Buzz Lightyear

    We should also note that even if/when times get rough and dangerous, there are among us who can and will rise to the occasion… https://sogsite.com/sergeant-jerry-shriver/
    While nothing we do will be perfect, the things we do accomplish will be far better and longer lasting than any of the present insanity. To quote another wonderful hero: Up, up and away! (Superman)
    Eh, maybe Mighty Mouse is better: Here I am to save the day!

    1. My Buzz Lightyear doll has several buttons I press to make him speak commanding and brave things. He’s within reach even now…. If things get serious the laser comes out and the wings deploy.

  11. Three and a half Portuguese, actually [1/2 Italian. My ancestors may have fought each other when Caesar took the Xth into Portugal]. And as to your point, the problem isn’t that the other folks aren’t idiots who would probably refuse to obey the law of gravity, it’s that our folks can’t seem to coalesce and do something about them. They are united, on message, and pushing all the time. Us? Not so much.

    1. The thing is, the Left pushes on such STUPID shit. We, who have better things to do that to fanticize that claiming we are “really” a different gender actually MAKES us one, tend to respond, “Whatevs”.
      But, because we don’t fight to the death on EVERYTHING, the Left takes credit for a Win. They use those Wins to build their organizations/encourage their minions/claim victories for the purpose of fundraising.

  12. The Democrat-Left seemingly has no problem with corruption, incompetence, and dishonesty but Americans are becoming increasingly wary and angry. We are being governed by ideologues and idiots . . . and the outcome is a ‘theatre of the absurd’ parody. I have thought for some time that we as a people are approaching our ‘bedrock’ moment. When we hit bedrock, all the bullSh!t stops! When we hit bedrock, our founding documents, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, will have primacy. When we hit bedrock, all of the lunatics (leftists) will be outcasts.

  13. I tend to get accused of black pilling but I’m just saying don’t get cocky, be prepeared. I think to win the day, and the day after tomorrow we need;
    Secure communication without government access, control, bottlenecks. That isn’t the internet perhaps it is peer to peer LoRa.
    Parallel to conventional goods and service exchange, black, gray and absolutely invisible markets.
    Local and regional support systems.
    Exchanges counters, money, not controlled by government backed by nothing but the word of government. Safe as money in the bank is now a meaningless term. In inflationary times, greenbacks ‘neath the mattress aren’t safe either.
    Secured stockpiles; food, fuel, projectiles, etc.
    The list goes on, stuff where you can find it in the dark, etc.

    I’ve been noting the above but I don’t see it happening. Hopefully such is occurring and the fact I don’t see such that just means I’m out of the loop.

    1. The first rule of prepping is don’t talk about prepping.

      Oh dear! I’ve said too much!!

    2. (Looks up LoRa) Might be OK where there’s a lot of radios, but in flyover territory, you’d need something with more range. The likely alternative is amateur radio. Still government controlled, fairly easily located, and decidedly non-private (ciphers will get you into trouble with TPTB), but it is communication that doesn’t need the net. You can receive anything without permission (and

      Nathan Brindle did a post for ATH on ham radio in Jan, 2021.
      https://accordingtohoyt.com/2021/01/13/communicating-in-an-insurrection-amateur-radio-and-you-a-guest-post-by-nathan-brindle-kc9ytj/

      I got inspired, studied and took the tests. (I’m a retired electrical engineer, so went for all the tests and made it. OTOH, the basic class will get you going, and the technician level test isn’t that hard. I think.) Unfortunately, an injury and life got in the way, so I’m not quite on the air. Maybe in a week or so.

      There are low power modes (JS8Call is one I plan to check out) that can allow communications over long distances. If the internet goes down, amateur radio is something. If things get really weird, I don’t know.

      1. IIRC, right after that ham radio post went up, the FCC released a new batch of restrictions regarding what you could do while using a ham radio.

        1. As the unlicensed folks have been telling me, once the poop hits the oscillating device, nobody will care what the FCC wants.

          I still think it’s worth getting a license since many of the good equipment sales outlets do check. And the good gear is so much better than the cheap shit. And local governments may be more forgiving of the established hams, especially if there is an current relationship.

          1. There’s also a lot of stuff you can learn with practice. I have the test material, but there’s practical stuff I either need to research as well as a lot of things I’ll only really know by doing. What is the propagation for that frequency, and is there any noise/interference on the other freq? And so on.

            FWIW, most (all?) of the Japanese-branded equipment (Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, Alinco) is made in Japan.

              1. The Reader actually is. During his youth, he lost several tools into the muck at the bottom of the marina while working on Dad’s boat. Now he realizes it was just practice, and suspects that Dad would approve.

        1. I picked up the ARRL license books (Kindle version for me) and used the ham study website (https://hamstudy.org/) for the practice tests. They use the same pool as the official tests use, and doing well on them will get you in good shape for the exam.

          My BSEE classes were 50 years ago, and I had the introductory to RF stuff in there. My career had almost nothing to do with RF, but was pleasantly surprised at how straightforward the theory was. The regulation issues need memorization, but they aren’t horrible.

          The local testers charge a set fee for session, and there’s enough time to take all three levels if you’ve passed them. I was encouraged to try, and passed, making me one of the very few hams with an Extra ticket and no on the air experience. 🙂

          Classes in town weren’t an option due to Covidiocy lockdowns and an aversion to doing the 80 mile round trip at night. So the books and the on-line test worked. Took a month (January/February, so the main interruption was snow removal) of intensive study. YMMV

          1. Welcome to the brotherhood. As we used to say, Anopheles Marconi strikes again!😊

            Once you get on the local repeaters and make some connections, look for a mentor or two. Most of us are pathetically eager to share whatever we can to help you get a leg up. With one young fellow locally they practically threw a complete hf station at him, including us hanging the antennas. His mom was impressed! (Home schooling mom so she worked it right into the curriculum)

            It’s been an enduring hobby that led to a career for half a century and it’s populated by a pretty good set of crazies. I’ve talked to a King (JY1), the antarctic, astronauts on the shuttle and ISS, and a bunch of Yahoo’s rowing a viking longboat down the Erie canal from a Cessna circling above. Much fun and learning to be had. For practice doing post shtf comms look up POTA and SOTA activities.

            The online resources, especially the test sites, are pure gold as you’ve discovered. If it were any easier they’d just put the license in a cracker jacks box. Urrrr, back in my day we we had to draw a Hartley oscillator and send and receive 20 wpm. 😆

            Happy to be a resource if anyone needs.

  15. Phillipa of Lancaster

    So, this made me look her up…which leads back to John of Gaunt. While I knew all English monarchs from Henry IV on could trace some linage back to John (and thus all the way back to William the Conqueror) I didn’t realize how much of the rest of Europe could via not just later British monarchs but two of his daughters (Phillipa and Catherine).

    Yeah, inbreed is right.

    1. On a more important note, I thought the cucumbers had not survived transplanting as they had laid over. I noted the potting mix was already dry despite watering at the transplant. I hit them with the water can last night and today they are perked up and soaking in the sun.

        1. My yellow cucumbers always look down on the greens. They consider the greens too pedestrian to talk to.

        2. Apparently. Looks like daily watering for a bit with them…maybe I don’t have the pot saturated to the bottom to keep it moist?

  16. I’d say fasten your seatbelts, batten down the hatches, secure the cargo and furl the sails, we’re in for a bumpy ride. But it will be glorious, when we win through, and savor proggie tears and the lamentations of their something-or-others.

    1. I’m still planning the victory party parade down Pennsylvania Avenue.

  17. “Eventually (in about sixty years) the Spanish vice-roi was defenestrated”

    A window of opportunity appeared.

      1. Better yet… I’m reading Italian Renaissance history again. The Italians tended to defenestrate people after first putting a rope around their neck and tying it to the bars.

        Made for some impressive tower decorations.

  18. And for another whoa, moment….
    A passenger with no flying experience landed a private plane at West Palm Beach Int. Airport when his pilot was incapacitated. (Specifically, the pilot “became incoherent”). It just happened a guy came into work at Air Traffic Control on his off day and it just happened he had 1,200 hours of time as a flight instructor…
    After the landing he hugged the passenger, who told him he couldn’t wait to go home and hug his pregnant wife.
    Good news. And one of those, “God things,” too.

        1. . “121.5 MHz is the civilian emergency frequency”

          I’m surprised they didn’t make it 91.1 MHz. Would have been easier to remember.

          1. I’m pretty sure that is a worldwide standard, not a US one.
            Also, 91.1 might not be covered by their VHF equipment, although I’m happy to be educated by someone who actually knows.

  19. Delaware as well. The former resident San no one could figure out how he won elections ’cause no one admitted voting for him

  20. Our best days are ahead of us. I bet you we’re going to the stars.

    –
    Sucker bet. Of coarse we are going to the stars. Or America is. We’ll pull every demographic of the world with us, because we are every demographic of the world. They flock to us to flea the world.

    You and I might not make it (not at 60+) … although offer me a berth to be with my son and his (theoretical) bride and family, I’ll hop aboard (they’ll need a housekeeper and babysitter while they colonize). Hey! I can dream!

    (Haven’t read the comments, yet. So if already stated, I agree.)

      1. ❤ 🙂 🙂 🙂

        Okay typo. I accept that. 100% that is what it was. 😉

        Flea. Flee. What is in a word?

        I did apply the de-flea meds on the 4-legged critters this last weekend.

        1. Our we could BE the fleas going to the stars as in William Tenn’s “The Men in the Walls” AKA “Of Men and Monsters”

        3. Opening a compartment to space for a couple of hours will eliminate all vermin. Just don’t let anybody bypass the decontamination protocols. No matter how rich, entitled and whiny they are.

              1. LOL 😆

                She was always given very very good lines and delivered them perfectly. 😀

              2. Actually I was riffing on what I thought was a “Friday” reference about making sure no could bypass decontamination, even diplomats.

                Never mind.

  21. Yes, I’m still reading Witness. One quote I highlighted was the man who told Henry Luce (of Time and Life magazines) “You don’t understand the class structure of American society. In the United States the working class are Democrats. The middle class are Republicans. The upper class are Communists.” Apologies to the working class, but the quote was from 1948.

    1. A good-sized chunk of the working class still is Democrats. But increasingly, it’s those who either refuse to leave the party because they’ve been Democrats all their lives (and frequently keep telling themselves that Republicans are just as bad), or because they’re actively ignoring the increasing signs of insanity.

    1. Ever hear about the production of Tosca where the stage crew got even with the diva using a trampoline . . .?

  23. “So, what does this ‘beta capsule’ do, anyway, Mr Hayata?”

    (ClicK)

    PSHOWWW!

    SHUAH!

    (Visualize Ultraman with an orange comb-over)

    UltraMAGA!

    1. Did you ever see The Muppet Show and Doctor Bunson Honeydew? One time he had Beeker drink some stuff and it made his orange hair explode off his head.

      Hilarious. boom.

  24. We might be beaten, have a bloody lip, and a black eye, but we’re going to win this.

    The other guy is going to look like he was in hatchet fight without a hatchet.

  26. Just shared this on the Viva Barns Law Locals community. They often speak of “White Pills” and this is a pretty good one.

  27. Sometimes I think the entire world has gone insane and I’m the only only who sees it, and it kind of gets to me. Then my people show up in articles and posts like this one, and I know it’s not just me. Thank, Sarah, and everyone else. I kinda needed this today.

  28. And apparently another person with potential dirt on the Clintons has died “unexpectedly”-Mark Middleton who was a special advisor to Bill Clinton’s ‘who let Epstein into the White House seven times.

    My question is when does Sussman get the Hillary sudden death treatment.

    1. MY question is: have none of the dozens of people with dirt on Hillary ever heard of a dead man’s switch?

      “Hello, Mrs. Clinton. I just wanted to let you know that I’m about to publicly announce that I have evidence against you. Oh, and that I’ve also hired a hitman. If anything happens to me, you have my condolences on YOUR upcoming tragic suicide. Also, copies of the evidence have been given to about a hundred or so independent journalists who all think you’re pure evil and would love to see you brought down. No, you can’t have their names, and frankly there were so many I’ve forgotten half of them already.

      Have a nice day!”

    1. oops forgot to get rid of the stuff after jpg; 2nd try:

      Via Insty-sums up how utterly corrupt the FBI and DOJ are:

  32. Victor Davis Hanson isn’t jumping off the ledge yet, but he’s unlocked the window and is looking outside for the fire escape.
    https://jewishworldreview.com/0522/hanson051222.php
    (long summary of the Biden Inc. failures in just 18 months in office)

    The common denominator in all of this is ideology overruling empiricism, common sense, and pragmatism. Ruling elites would rather be politically correct failures and unpopular than politically incorrect, successful, and popular.
    [AF: for certain values of “unpopular” IOW recent polls]

    Is that not the tired story of left-wing revolutionaries from 18th-century France to early 20th-century Russia to the contemporary disasters in Cuba and Venezuela?

    The American people reject the calamitous policies of 2021-2022. Yet the radical cadres surrounding a cognitively inert Biden still push them through by executive orders, bureaucratic directives, and deliberate cabinet nonperformance.

    Why? The Left has no confidence either in constitutional government or common sense.

    So as the public pushes back, expect at the ground level more doxxing, cancel culture, deplatforming, ministries of disinformation, swarming the private homes of officials they target for bullying, and likely violent demonstrations in our streets this summer.

    Meanwhile, left-wing elites will do their best to ignore Supreme Court decisions, illegally cancel student debts, and likely by the fall issue more COVID lockdowns. They will still dream of packing the Court, ending the filibuster, scrapping the Electoral College, adding more states, and flooding the November balloting with hundreds of millions more dollars of dark money from Silicon Valley.

    When revolutionaries undermine the system, earn the antipathy of the people, and face looming disaster at the polls, it is then they prove most dangerous — as we shall see over the next few months.

    1. VDH is SERIOUSLY depressive. I mean, more than me or Bill Whittle. OR Wretchard, for heaven’s sake.
      Sometimes I wish he’d see someone and get meds.

      1. I tried to read one of his books, might have been MexiFornia, and I had to put it down after only a handful of pages because his outlook is so desperately dark.

        1. The Reader has found that while Victor Hansen’s books on history are always worth reading (no matter what the subject), his books on current events are all gloomy. His podcasts are as well unless the topic is Greek history or something else in the classics.

          1. I found his military history works very useful, as well as “The Other Greeks.” “Who Killed Homer?” was a valuable warning about what I’d encounter in grad school, and having been through the process, I agree with his idea about the proper sequence for teaching and dissertation (teach, be exposed to ideas and other topics, THEN go back and do a dissertation so you don’t get too hyper focus.) Otherwise? I skip him.

  34. So my question for Portuguese speakers is this: do people in Brazil get all swoon-y when they hear someone speak in a crisp Lisbon accent the way we Americans fawn over someone from London speaking in a crisp British accent?

    2. Crisp? We get all swoony over some souf lunnon wide boy speaking Estuary English, glottal stop and all. It’s actually quite funny for anyone who knows the class distinctions. You could cut glass with my mother’s accent, she made the Queen sound common.

  35. Thanx for the positive long view, Sarah!
    I know we’ll eventually get the country back (although it may require that we hold less to civility and the rules, since they’ve abandoned both.) I’m actually more concerned with what the outside world will look like once they’re done, and how long it will take to fix it.

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