Being Difficult

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

Our would be overlords believe in magic words. They’ll decree it, and it will be so.

They have a plan, proclaimed by great international thinkers (who have no idea where food comes from, but that’s something else) and by gum, they’re going to herd us all into mega cities, and make us live the way they want, owing nothing, being happy, eating bugs.

Our would be overlords have metaphorical holes in their heads the size of the grand canyon, with the attendant problems that first their brain fell out, and then something — possible a dinosaur — took a dump in there, so it’s now full of crap.

Seriously.

I keep running into people waving their hands madly and going “They won.” And “We’ll have to do what they want.” If they’re close enough, I bitchslap them. Usually metaphorically, unless I’m related to them in which case they get telegraphed gibs slap.

Seriously?

Do I have to teach Americans how to be difficult for would-be rulers?

Remember I wasn’t born among you, and yet, mom said that raising me was more negotiation than punishing and giving me orders. Because if you tried to herd me one way, I very deliberately went the other way. I did so even if going the other way hurt me. Because I’d rather break than bend.

I haven’t changed much, (even after raising the child my parents wished on me. Sigh) and I know you guys aren’t any different, because that’s why I feel so much at home too.

But a whole lot of you went out and got you some book learning, unfortunately from the left, most of whom aren’t really Americans, not inside their heads, and you forgot how we deal with stupid laws and a government determined to exterminate the nation.

Repeat after me:

No.

Hell no.

No with bells on.

You can’t make me.

You can kill me, but you can’t make me do what you want.

Sod off.

You have no right to order me. The bastard with the right to order me ain’t been born.

Look, yeah, they have the power to hurt us.

Realize they hurt themselves too when they do this, and this is before we take the bit between our teeth and take the fight to them, which will happen. It’s already happening at the word and litigation level a bit all over.

Then realize that we have ways to minimize their hurting us. Not stopping it, no. At least for now, though I estimate the time is very near when various states declare themselves “energy sanctuaries.” And when various people say if the Federal Government won’t let us drill on their land, the land is no longer theirs, and also come and get it. (Said in a Southern accent, with an emphasis on “get”)

If they don’t back down, I can see that time coming, because people know we’re not running out of oil, it’s being strangled. And we’re not all the hyper-rich and the illegals that populate California.

But their grand plans are even crazier. Like upping the mix of ethanol in gas to destroy cars. Because then you’ll have to move to the big mega cities, and live as they order, right?

My eyes have rolled on the floor, and the cats are playing with them.

Listen, guys: yeah, they can damage our cars. But what they — and a lot of you — seem to miss, is that we’re not going to sit by the side of the road crying and waiting for transport to the city. Cubans have kept fifties clunkers running for seventy years. Sometimes by using washing machine parts. We’re not less able to improvise than Cubans, for the love of Bob (Heinlein.) And yeah, maybe cash for clunkers was designed to get rid of junker parts. Mostly what it actually did was make used cars very expensive, but trust me, junkyards are still there and there’s still parts to improvise with. And I don’t know about y’all, maybe it’s the company I run with, but I know at least three people who, left to their own devices can improvise an entire engine from found objects.

In the same way, you know, one of you, who is a real life friend was somewhat despondent yesterday, because if Bidentia (rhymes with rodentia) passes the vaunted gun control law, then all is over. Alas, Alas, they’ll have us where they want us.

Blinks.

That would be fun. Are they going to drag every river and pond? Because we all know Americans are great marksmen, but lousy boaters. And we all take our guns for boat rides, now and then.

There are two possibilities there: The left is so insane, that they’ve convinced themselves the law will magically disarm us. In that case, buy great stocks of popcorn. Because well… “it was the time of f*cking around. It was the time of finding out.”

The other possibility is that they know very well they can’t door to door confiscation, but they hope to make examples of people when they defend themselves. Which is different from right now, how? We know what they tried with Kyle Rittenhouse.

Besides, there is a weird effect I doubt they thought about. Because if they’d thought about it, they wouldn’t be trying their J6 political prisoner bullshit, they wouldn’t have tried to demonize Kyle Rittenhouse, and they wouldn’t have been so shocked when he became a folk hero overnight.. Making examples of people works when what you’re making examples of isn’t a “crime” that anyone else in the public could have committed, because we all agree with the targeted and a majority of us are doing/would do what they’re being punished for.

When you’re “making examples” of people who are like the majority of the people you’re playing to, because they too aren’t submitting to your nonsensical tyranny and constitutional violations, then the harder you stomp down, the higher the chances you’ll get a Romanian Christmas present.

They don’t have the manpower to subdue us all. I suspect if they try the desertion level becomes …. well, unimaginable.

And they can’t get what they want. They can’t get it. Their ideas are based on a number of things they know that just ain’t so, like:

People will obey laws even if the laws kill them.

People will believe they’re legitimate even as they stomp down on political enemies for no reason.

People will give up their guns quietly.

People can’t invent or create new ways to make things run that aren’t the ways planned by our lords and masters.

People from poorer countries are natural Marxists.

All races but white live in harmony and joy with each other.

Growing food is easy.

Transporting food and goods is not necessary, because Marx never understood it.

They can take down America’s ability to grow food and transport it and that will never affect the rest of the world.

“Renewable” forms of energy will produce just enough to keep us poor but contented enough not to rebel. (THAT might be the stupidest of things they believe.)

If all else goes wrong, China will save them. (Snort, giggle.) Or Russia will. (SNORT, big giggle. That they might be starting to realize won’t work. But I doubt it. They tend to listen more to the script than to reality.)

We will listen to them, because they’re sooooo smart. (SNORT. GIGGLE.)

Look, yeah, it’s going to get nasty, as we fumble around for a way forward. And the worst time might be the rebuilding, because all the infected institutions will have collapsed. And we don’t even know what shape we want the future to be.

But we’re not alone. The rest of the world will have to pull up their socks, or they are going to outright starve, while we go on a little unplanned diet.

And though no one is telling you, the rest of the world is already in revolt, and in a lot of places on fire. And no, it’s not global warming.

Prepare, improvise. Overcome.

And stick your feet really hard on the ground and say “I won’t go the way you want me to.”

Because they are not a legitimate authority. They’re not “Smart”. Hell, they’re not even adults. They’re a bunch of little kids who swallowed a fairy tale and want really hard to make it come true.

But we’re the grown ups. And we don’t have to play their game.

246 thoughts on “Being Difficult”

  1. The hand is laid out.
    The players have picked their cards.
    We’re just rolling the dice to see who goes first.
    The other side thinks they can sneak our piece out of our pockets without our noticing, then pick up the deck and declare themselves the winner at any time; and run off with the pot.
    They don’t seem to realize that our piece isn’t in our pockets anymore.
    Don’t move to draw, Greedo. It wouldn’t be prudent.

    1. Being difficult, hells yeah, something I’m really good at already!!
      Since we are talking about the death of America, death of the world really, then maybe we should all channel our inner Dylan Thomas:
      Do not go gentle into that good night,
      Rage rage against the dying of the light

      Controlled rage to be sure, channeled towards understanding your enemy, and doing whatever you can, passive resistance as suggested in the article, and actively wherever you can safely. Recognize there is an upside to all the shit being thrown at us now, with little or no subterfuge from the evil but stupid bastards.
      We need all the normies to get through all the stages of grief, to acceptance, acceptance that we being attacked from our own gov’ts, it’s happening, and ergo it’s time to get with the program and deal with it in every way one can. More and more normies are getting truly woke , the good kind of woke, to reality.

      Are things bad and gonna get worse? Undoubtedly. Yes there is no way out of this, but through it, accept that and make your plans and then implement them for you and yours.

      1. We’re not talking about the death of America.
        You do realize you’re spreading despondency, right/
        Doing it on purpose? I hope they pay you.

        1. Since you often accuse me of spreading despondency, allow me to give a surprisingly upbeat anecdote.

          A local gas station posted a sign in the window, saying MAKE GAS PRICES GREAT AGAIN! It was actually a raffle for a $100 gift card. The implication was clear: that we were better off under Trump. The sign was sophisticated enough in design that it probably came from higher up. (Also, $100 seems a bit high for only one store).

          So apparently a business thinks taking the MAGA side is a good move.

        2. Geezo comprehend much? Re-read my post I cannot imagine how you ended up with your take.
          Yes you, me, other blogs are all very much talking about the death of America, the death of freedom, etc and what we might as individuals do about it.

    2. Or burn the cards with a flamethrower. Or shoot the dealer. Think outside the box.

      1. 52 card pick-up is also a game.

        I am sure the revenuers will enjoy picking up their cards out in the open while the rest of the folks watch from behind cover.

        Police, for instance, like nothing more than to rush into an area where there is a barricaded person of interest.

    4. Greedo never got a chance to draw.

      Greedo backed Han Solo into a corner with no escape, and thought he’d won.

      Greedo was…in error.

      Don’t be like Greedo. Don’t push too far. It ends badly.

      1. Ahh… Greedo was holding him at gun point and was caught talking instead of shooting. Han slowly unbuckles gun while distracting greedo looking left while playing with wall… And fires from just loosely out of retention killing greedo.

        1. Some thoughts on that scene.

          In spite of Lucas’ idea of “Good Guys don’t shoot first”, there are times when “Good Guys Should Shoot First”.

          Second, Han Solo wasn’t one of the Good Guys then. His growth into “One Of The Good Guys” was a sub-plot of that movie.

          Third, that Bar wasn’t a Safe Place to visit (look at what almost happened to Luke). Anybody visiting that Bar should be ready for Trouble. I’d note that Han didn’t get into trouble for shooting Greedo and it is extremely likely that Greedo wouldn’t have been in any trouble if he had killed Han.

          1. Yeah that bar was NOT a safe space. Three dead or injured in the span of what 30 minutes? ANd the bartender just keeps wiping the bar as if “Just another day at the Mos Eisly cantina, I’m off in 2 hours”.

              1. Ahh Phineas and Ferb a far under appreciated gem along with Kim Possible. Every once and a while The Mouse gets something right, kind of like that proverbial blind squirrel finding a nut.

  2. Now the Idiot FBI has arrested a Republican Candidate for Michigan Governor Race.

    I believe that this will blow up in the faces of the FBI and the Democrats. 😡

    2. The day after Biden blabs on TV about having political opponents arrested. We’re living in a totalitarian shithole. Alas, so is everybody else.

          1. No different than Obama “joking” about auditing his enemies…. and Lois and her crew knew exactly what to do.

            “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?”

            1. We already had that with Schumer “Will no one rid us of these troublesome Justices?”. I really don’t think the left understands that they’re playing kick the can with a couple kilos of dry Nitrogen tri iodide. I think they judge the hoi polloi by their own cowardly henchmen.

      2. We’re living in a totalitarian shithole.

        I’m reminded of the Democrats during George W (IIRC) administration complaining that they were “living in a dictatorship”. 😦

        We aren’t living in a totalitarian shithole… YET.

        I didn’t like the whines of those Democrats then and I don’t like these sort of whiles from “our side” now. 😡

        1. How many political prisoners does the Biden* Regime need to be holding for America to qualify as a totalitarian shithole? There are hundreds languishing in prison for the January 6 protests, and two arrests of prominent political opponents in the past week.

          1. The Fact That We Can Talk About That Stuff Here shows that we aren’t in a totalitarian shithole!

            Yes, things are Bad!

            But things could get a H*ll A Lot Worse! 😡 😡 😡 😡 😡 😡 😡 😡 😡

            1. ” “If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” ”

              Waiting for that last stage doesn’t seem optimal. Hopefully we act before then. Speak out while you can.

              1. Not disagreeing with your comment.

                Just saying that we haven’t reached the “totalitarian state” stage.

                John Ringo’s “The Last Centurion” was closer to that stage than we currently are.

                1. Drak I think it depends on where you are. Here in the Northeast I’ve been very quietly hiding my conservatism since some time after 9/11. I do NOT need to be as circumspect as say Winston Smith, but you will note I am semi anonymous here. Even at the Military industrial giant that I worked at in the 2000’s the exposure of certain conservative Ideals would have been an issue. It is far worse 20 years later as my younger daughter and her Christian friends work in those environments. My maskirova need only continue for 3-5m years. Theirs is just starting. Are we a 3rd world sh*thole? Maybe not in total, but in the blue regions especially the cities the lights are fading and winking out. NYC seems to have fallen back to the early ’80s/late 70’s when it was a hellhole. Chicago, SF, Los Angeles are right there with them and other cities like Boston are running hard to catch up. Hopefully we will not need “Canticle for Liebowitz” Bookleggers but maybe it is time to start memorizing things….

          2. That and their J6 show trial is using selectively edited footage in the tradition of Goebbels’s and Riefenstahl as they push forward with their use of J6 as their Reichstag Fire.

            I expect the Democrats to attempt mass arrests of Republican candidates for office prior to the November elections. They clearly have no intention of allowing genuine elections to take place.

        1. Dayuum, he must have had really long arms. Like, orangutan long.

          Next, we’ll find out the entry wound is 4″ wide, proving that he shot himself from 5 yards away.

          And we thought the Epstein ‘suicide’ was implausible…

          1. “Well, the sheriff said it was a self-inflicted wound, so…”

            The sheriff has been living in Arkansas, where Hildebeeste perfected her technique… 😉

            1. Sheriff doesn’t want to suffer from a self-inflicted wound as well…

          2. “It was very evident that the shotgun worked because there was not a lot of blood or anything on the scene,” he continued. “You can tell the shotgun blast was on his chest, you can tell that because there is a hole in the chest and pellets came out the back of his back.”

            If the shotgun blast didn’t make a big mess at the scene, it’s not the only crime scene. And if he was shot at point-blank range, the shot would hit in a group, like a slug.

              1. And how in the world am I getting those carriage returns after the “lesser than” symbol in the tag? That’s twice now that’s happened. WDE.

              2. That was my thought. “The shotgun worked” and “not a lot of blood” are mutually exclusive, unless you’re shooting something that’s already dead. Even then, it could be very messy.

              3. I am not a cop, I am not a doctor. This implies that I have a great deal of ignorance when it comes to forensic pathology.

                Comes to midn, that sheriff is an elected position.

                Comes to mind, that elections have a couple of interesting possible results. One possibility is an honest person, so dull that they have trouble with tying their own shoes as an adult. Another possibility, someone somewhat brighter, but completely dishonest.

                Comes to mind, that there are a lot of counties. If someone were to commit a political murder, it should be possible to find convenient combinations of county, and of FBI office with immediate jurisdiction.

                1. If the sheriff said something that dumb… maybe the sheriff was trying to get the truth out. Especially since the Left all know that southern sheriffs are stupid.

        3. The homic– er, suicide rate among Clinton associates is quite alarming, isn’t it?

    5. Oh, just wait until Pelosi and Schumer try to exercise their prerogative under Article 1 Sec 8 to simply refuse to seat any “insurrectionists” that might be elected. That power has been used successfully after the Civil War.

      1. It was part of the Follow-Up to the American Civil War.

        If we’re lucky, there will be a harsh reaction of “When Was The Insurrection?” and they’ll back down without it going to the Supreme Court.

        If we’re really lucky, cooler-heads will convince them that “You Shouldn’t Attempt This”.

        Of course, if they are really UNLUCKY, then they’ll see a Real Insurrection. 😦

        1. I’m not saying they’ll get away with it; I’m saying they are more than stupid enough to try.

        2. Yep, a lot of states refused to seat black representatives, and I believe that Congress refused to seat some black Senators and Congressmen. There was some pretty crooked stuff done.

          1. Well, the Insurrection thing in the Constitution was because Northern Congresscritters hated that Southerns who had “rebelled” against the Federal Government expected to take up seats in the House and Senate after the South lost.

      2. Section 5, maybe? Section 8 (I read it twice) doesn’t seem applicable. I could, of course, be mistaken…

        1. See Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment.

          Quote

          Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

          End Quote

          1. OK, thanks, I didn’t look as far as I should have (but it still has nothing to do with Article 3 Section 8). So it’s comes down to definitions of “insurrection”, “rebellion” and “enemies”, as expected, none of which apply, by definition.

    6. This, after the DemonRat Michigan gov disqualified the 5 top R primary candidates for governor for “unverified signatures on their candidacy support petitions”.
      Can’t make this sh*t up. Fiction has to be believable.
      John in Indy

      1. Reports said that the disqualified candidates used a signature-gathering company that works very closely with the Democrat establishment. No evidence of dirty tricks, he said with dripping sarcasm.

  3. In cas people don’t know, it is easy to remove alcohol from gas.
    1) add water
    2) mix
    3) Let settle
    4) drain alcohlized water off from the bottom.

    1. I did not know that. Thank you.

      Other cool thing, apparently the Mazda Rotory engines actually run best on E85 gas.

      On the blending, I’m not sure they actually specified the ratio I’m the gas pump, just that a certain volume be shipped and blended, so I suspect what we will see is most of it going into E85 blends and E85 dropping in price, rather than the regular gas going above 10%.

      There are engines out there that are rated for E85, so stations that pump it at reduce rates will likely attract drivers of E85 rated cars from further afield.

      1. Anything post 2001.

        Our people-hauler is actually fully flex, in part because of that “runs on anything” option.

        1. I think the post 2001 is the 15% ethenol mix only, and that can still be a bit sketchy.

          But E85 flex fuel engines have been sold for a long time.

          I went out and checked, and our Toyota is an E15 rated car. It surprised me to find out E15 has been approved for a long time. I think most of the stuff I see here is still E10. Apparently E15 contributes to summer smog, and gets noticeably reduced mileage compared to E10, so I’m guessing most stations just stuck with E10 rather than switching out things every spring and fall.

          1. Krist and Kwik Trip here use E15 for the low price option, 87 and some places Premium is E10, though here in MI and Wi Premium can be found with “No added Ethanol”. All gas now has Ethanol but some is chemically bound to the Lead replacement and octane adjuster, and isn’t coming out by water washing it, but also isn’t as damaging to older engines.

            1. Look near lakes, coastlines, etc for “Rec 90” an ethanol-free gasoline, which, though more expensive, can be used to salvage fuel polluted by an excess of ethanol.

              1. our ethFree Premium is 91, and locally, here on the shores of Green Bay and Lake Michigan, finding 93 rated E10 is the rarity, but most places here in Northern WI and the U.P. have 91 nonEth for all the Recrational users

            2. FWIW, it’s illegal in Oregon to pump non-oxy gas into vehicles younger than a certain age. (Can’t find the date with a quick search. Too much blood in the caffeine stream.) During the vintage-car fest, you’ll see it at the places that sell such, but other than that, it goes into a can.

              Most of the non-oxy sold around here is Premium, but one fuel terminal sells a Regular. Since the small engines don’t need the higher octane, I go to the latter. (Looks for info; apparently E10 is the maximum allowed in Oregon, at least until Despicable Kate Brown warms up her emergency executive order pen.)

              2. it’s illegal in Oregon to pump non-oxy gas into vehicles younger than a certain age.

                –
                That is good for us.

                E10 is the maximum allowed in Oregon

                –
                Yay!

                until Despicable Kate Brown warms up her emergency executive order pen.

                –
                Unfortunately.

          2. Ah, you’re correct!

            Been doing the 15% in my husband’s rollerskate, it lost 5-10% MPG.

            …which, for most people, is going to be inside of the “well, it seems like about the same amount,” unless you actually record miles and total gallons.

            As it is two to five percent lower in price, that SERIOUSLY does not pencil out as a good choice!

          3. Not just old cars. Our Santa Fe’s are E87, recommend E10, and do not recommend additives. Santa Fe’s are < 4 years old. Son’s Veloster N takes premium. (This is his “bill”. He ran the old Elantra for 18 years, and over 100k miles.)

            Yes. I will be: Not. Happy.

            In theory, neither should the local environmentalists be happy. Apparently E15 blends are horrible visible polluters in the warmer summer months. Willamette Valley holds those pollutants in (through inversions). But I suspect said environmentalists will stick their head in the ground and cheer the requirement.

            Guess I need to pay attention to the E rating labels for regular, mid-grade, and premium, fuel locally.

            1. “But I suspect said environmentalists will stick their head in the ground and cheer the requirement.”

              Of course they will. The goal is to ruin as many non-electric cars as possible.

              1. I’m not sure they’re thinking that far ahead. The logic seems to be ethanol is renewable and gasoline isn’t, so ethanol good, gas bad.

                    1. But it’s science!
                      Funny thing is, good science requires a good basis in mathematics. And lefty proggies suck at math, even when they take their shoes off to get to 20. (I on the other hand, can add and subtract in binary on my hands; way more range than a mere 1 through 10.

              2. Not just ruin the vehicles but using food as fuel can ruin the people as well. If by one definition of ruin you mean starve. A rational person would have done the reverse with the coming food scarcity around the world and mandated NO ethanol crops going forward so that FOOD would be available to ship. That tells me that this is part of the planned destruction.

                    1. Right? They really believe in Marx and the fixed pie, so redistributing wealth to the third world will make everyone equal.
                      It won’t get that far. I expect overpass decorations soon and very soon, unless the election is unexpectedly clean, but–
                      IF they achieved their deranged aim, the first world would down tools. And then what?

                  2. Extremely. I’d so love to see the implementation of that. Not like they’re going to put pressure on the PRC government to be more equitable to the Uyghurs (they’re just trying to improve their standard of living and bring them into the modern era. Just like they did with Tibet!) or anyone non-Han. I can just see racial equity initiatives in Africa and South America. It’ll totally go as well as the homosexual-acceptance programs in Pakistan and Indonesia and elsewhere.

                    2. Yep. I’d suggest they send the “equity czar” to the Middle East first (excepting Israel) to force the locals to accept “equitizing” gender, race and religion. Popcorn time!

                      (“You’ll believe a man(?) really can fly!” Oops, nope; just a SPLAT!)

              1. They’re experts in double-think, so they are already very good at having their heads in the sand and up their butts at the same time.

                1. This is better than the correction I was going to add:

                  ““But I suspect said environmentalists will stick their head in the ground further up their butts and cheer the requirement.”

                  ““But I suspect said environmentalists will stick their head in the ground further up their butts to be able to stick their head in the ground, and cheer the requirement.”

                  🙂

            3. There are several stations in the Eugene/Springfield area that offer “white” gas. I believe that Northwest Solvents sells it too.

          4. I just talked to the garage I’ve been using for 15 years, and their advice is that for older cars like my 2001 Nissan Frontier, it probably won’t react well, and I need to look at adding “ethanol conditioner”. I know LucasOil makes one; there are probably others.

            1. Thanks for the heads-up; neither my ’02 CR-V nor my wife’s ’05 Pilot is rated for above E10.
              I knew about storage stabilizers, but not about ethanol treatments. Just bought 2 ea 32-oz bottles of Sta-Bil on Amazon for ~$16 each; 1 oz/5 gal to deal with ethanol and stabilize the fuel for ~12 months, so we should be set for a while (both retired; usually use less than 40 gal/month combined).

          5. I haven’t seen E15 offered in Oregon, at least not in Flyover County. (The only time I have seen it was in Iowa in 2014, but we haven’t been out of state much since then.) I just checked the manuals for the ’19 Honda (15% OK) and the ’16 Forester. That one says E10 is the max. I assume the ’12 is the same.

            Might not be a bad idea to get some more non-oxy. I keep a supply on hand for small engines (mower, basis for stroke mix, and so on.) We don’t use the ’12 that much, but the ’16 is my goto vehicle.

      2. modern hotrods love E85
        Turboed especially. Have the injectors capable, and a fuel sensor, then the aftermarket ECU can give high power. Bet those Ultra powerful Hemis and other high horse factory cars specify E85 for the most power. Runs cooler too.
        E15 now, can kill an old car, and some places not finding that is hard (Iowa, I’m looking at you! ya morons) but some fixes for that are out there.

        1. Gas has more energy per gallon, but E85 has more effective octane. So if you’re pushing the boost to the moon, you’re going to be better able to keep the cylinder heads back on earth with E85 than 87 octane, but you’re going to be trading mileage to do it.

          I think the same thing happened with leaded gas in WWII. The British 150 octane let you kick the boots up by 20-25%, so you could run a 2300hp rated engine closer to 2800hp, but it came at the cost of reduced range and increased spark plug fouling.

          The RAF and the Eighth Air Force stuck it in all their fighters and went nuts, but the Ninth and the USN stuck with 100 octane, because of the logistics and range and maintenance costs. Which is part of the reason USAF fighter performance numbers are so all over the place. The same plane could end up having anywhere between a 2000hp to a 2800hp engine depending on where it was and what fuels or techs it had with it. And a 40% increase in horsepower has some really wild impacts on performnace. (Because of you’re actually turbo limited, you might not see an absolute speed increase at all: you might simply see your critical altitude get 5000ft closer to sea level. On paper it looks like nothing changed, when in actuality, you just gained this massive performance boost in an altitude band you weren’t competitive in before.)

          1. Yep. Used to use 116 octane race fuel, and when 110 or 120 Avgas was around, warned folks that 110 and 120 was at Altitude, not near sea level (raced in NOLA/Baton Rouge/South Mississippi)

          2. Never heard anything about boosted octane in the European Theater; maybe that’s why B-17s lost so many engines. (Funny story. I took a picture of a B-17, “Aluminum Overcast,” when I toured it—full frontal, with people. My younger asked why they put so many engines on such a small plane!)

            1. The B-17 stuck with 100 octane for the most part. They just ran them super hard and got shot at a lot. They took full advantage of the turbo charged high altitude performance and liked to run them at 25,000 ft+ which meant pretty extreme temperatures, and long climbs under max continuous power.

              The engine used for the B-29 had some real design issues and did have a tendency to catch fire, spectacularly. Apparently a magnesium crank case will really burn…

              Addendum: I also recall there was a major scandal with Wright engines produced from 1941 to 1943, but I can’t track down whether the Wright R-1820’s were involved in that or not.

              1. Apparently the B-29 takeoff run from Tinian was interesting. Normal procedure for aircraft was to set the brakes, run the engine, switch out one magneto, then switch to the other. Because the Wright engines were really unhappy at sea level, the magneto checks were done during the takeoff run. I have no idea what one did if the mag check failed during takeoff. This was using various flavors of the Wright 3350 (that’s cubic inches, mate) engine.

            2. talked to an old pilot once who called ahead to warn Maintenance that he had an engine out on a B36:
              tower- “Do you need to declare an emergency?”
              pilot “Nah, we’re empty, the other 9 should get us there just fine.”

              1. Six radials and four jets do provide a little redundancy. I am still slightly in awe whenever I visit the USAF museum up in Dayton and stare at the B-36.

    2. You can also use this to test how much ethanol they’re adding to your gas. It’s not actually universally 15% everywhere. Robot Cantina did a test with the fuel in Kansas, and found that 85-91 octane fuels actually had 6% and less ethanol, while 93 octane had 22% ethanol. Just have to add a measured amount of water to a measured amount of fuel, and see how much total alchoholized water you have at the end. add 20 units of water to 100 units of fuel, and if you end up with 35 units of alcoholized water, then you were at 15% ethanol.

      1. Given engines not rated for >20% can have their warranty voided by that, if a station is mixing it to above that to cheap out on the octane requirements, isn’t that fraud?

        That seems like that could get those stations or blenders into a lot of trouble.

        1. Possibly. I’m glad my car doesn’t need anything above 87 though if stations are doing this to get their rating up.

  4. you missed the “Swampy” after Sod Off . . .
    They keep inciting violence against us, and then claim we are the ones inciting violence. That will end well. Keep it up and someone will start doing what they claim, and it will be self defence.
    Splitting hairs, if one violates an oath to uphold the COTUS and proudly states it, in Congress, they are an open enemy of the USA, and should be treated as such.

    1. That’s the problem, isn’t it? Knowing when to not react violently to provocations designed to produce the reaction THEY desire, and knowing when it’s time to actually, effectively, begin taking out the trash. Media spin is going to instantly brand the reactors as violent terrorists bent on destroying our Democratic nation; assuming the media in the Area of Operations isn’t cut off completely. If the phone’s out, the internet is out, and the TV isn’t working, then the SH*T has hit the fan.

  5. The followers in their bubble are a bunch of NPC sheep so they think everyone is an NPC sheep. They believe that they are the only wolves in town.

    Boy are they in for a surprise.

  6. ….Heh, if only being smart meant folks listened to you.

    Not as in, “I hear and obey,” but “yes, I will follow the line of argument for more than my impulses allow.”

  8. Just a few words to say–Appalachian hillbilly here. “Ain’t none a’ your business” is kind of built into the bones, you know. Rocky Top is just down the road from here: “Once two strangers climbed old Rocky Top, lookin’ for a moonshine still; strangers ain’t come down from Rocky Top…reckon they never will.”

    1. Consider channeling the classic Bessie Smith song “Ain’t No-one’s Business if I Do”

    2. Shine country etiquette that might be valuable to return to the day after tomorrow: Walking the piney woods, a shot misses you by a yard, just the folks with the still telling you the polite thing to do is turn around and walk away. If you do step down in the hollow, a still there bubbling, no folks visible, toss a log on the fire ‘neath it. Don’t make no legal nevermind but it shows you’re heart’s in the right place and they’ll probably let it stay there.

      I’ve done the first, the turnaround, a time or three but never had any call, show my manners the second way.

    4. My Great Grampa was an old Kentucky moonshiner. He fired a warning shot or two. It is indeed, the polite way of saying, turn around and walk away.

  9. One of the most valuable things I ever learned was taught to me by a particularly stubborn student when I taught test prep at a Kansas City public high school. This was not a good student, mind you; I’m sure she’s now living on government assistance. And part of why she wasn’t a good student was that she refused to obey any authority whatsoever. And I as the teacher had to accept that in the end, I couldn’t make her do anything. I could inflict punishments in the hopes that she’d prefer to submit than be punished, but if she was willing to take what I dished out, I had no power over her.

    Jean-Paul Satre (“Hell is other people”) described this as “radical freedom.” When we say “I can’t,” very rarely are we speaking of actual physical limitations. Rather, we mean “I’m not willing to accept the consequences.” And that’s fine; if the consequences mean starvation, or leaving the vulnerable undefended, or being unable to live with oneself knowing that you did/ didn’t do X, that’s a perfectly legitimate reason to let fear of the consequences dissuade us from a course of action.

    As people about to live through very interesting times indeed, though, it behooves us to consider what we truly can’t do, what we won’t do because of the consequences, and what we’ve previously dismissed as “I can’t do that” but would be willing to do if we found it necessary.

    1. TRUST me, I eventually had to learn to stop shooting myself in foot just to be contrary. I think the last three years was male clone learning same lesson.
      BUT it’s an important thing to learn.

      1. “Lord, give me the strength to stand up for my principles, the humility to go along to get along, and the wisdom to know which I ought to be doing at any given moment” seem like a good prayer?

      2. I seem to recall one of the theological reasons given for ignoring what demons say is because if you listen and try to do what they don’t want, they get wise to it, and sometimes tell you truth too, in the hopes that you’ll disregard it.

        Best just to assume the information source is meant to deceive and file it in the circular file.

        1. This is the way one deals with Goldman Sacks’ analysis. Goldman says I should buy when they want to sell and sell when they want to buy. I know that Goldman does this so I should sell when they say buy and buy when they say sell. Alas, I know that Goldman knows that I know this and so on. The optimal answer, then, is to pay no attention to what Goldman is saying. Vizzini the Sicilian would have done better to learn this lesson before the Iocaine powder.

          For Goldman, substitute just about anything. Politicians, newspapers, television, etc., I’ve cut off several sites that I tend to agree on because their doom and gloom was affecting my ability to function. First benefit of cutting them off is equilibrium, they aren’t giving information just trying to foment anger to drive clicks, it makes it difficult to make rational decisions when one is angry. The second is that it hits them in the pocket book. Newspapers and TV are dying, they’re the playthings of billionaires. Make it expensive for them by staying away. Don’t get into the argument since that’s what they want.

          I’m trying to be as as nice as I can be to my fellow humans, it’s so easy to fall into despair and lash out. That said, in those cases when they try to tell me what to do, what to think, what to wear, I tell them to go f-ck yourself. No mumbling, no hemming or hawing as I used to when confronted by a—holes. Just go f-ck yourself. There have been more than one incidents now, and being told to F off by a large, angry man is a good lesson for them, Their view of themselves as the good guys leaves them very vulnerable.

          One could do it without the profanity and It would probably be more effective, but I’m a New Yorker and I work on Wall Street, it’s my native tongue.

  10. I will never do what they want, I have been a rebel all my life so far, no need to change now. Lock and load!

  11. I think maybe Americans need to remember who we are, and what our ancestors did in order to secure liberty.

    I’m to the point where I say “no” to virtually anything; it’s my default.

  12. I keep running into people waving their hands madly and going “They won.” And “We’ll have to do what they want.”

    Advice I saw in a comic book of all places (one superhero giving advice to another): “If you absolutely must give up, do it ten minutes after you’ve drawn your last breath, and not a moment before.”

    1. Amen.
      And no more self regulation just to get along.
      I am not a cog in your machine.

      1. I’d prefer giving up ten minutes after their last breath, as in Patton’s “make the other guy die for his country”.

  13. I think most of us stopped cooperating two years ago (to the extent we ever did).

    Seriously, screw those guys.
    They think power comes from the mouth of a gun.
    We know it comes from God, and in a governmental context, it derives from the consent of the people.
    They know not God, and I do not consent.

    1. I was quite amused at my latest doctor’s visit. He’s been pushing the COVID clot-shot ad nauseum, and the 6 month periodic appointments usually entailed a debate. (I never got the shot…) This time, COVID never came up. At all. I think he’s figuring that his life expectancy will be greatly improved if he simply STFU on the subject.

      Works for me. [VBEG]

  14. Increase the coefficient of friction. Don’t be “John Wayne” and dare them to make you a martyr. Use your imagination. Read books on resisting exploitation.

    We are going to win.

    1. “White mutiny” (Which for the assholes and camels who skim, has nothing to do with race. It’s what’s called in Portuguese Greve the zelo.)

      1. If they actually want to see an example in action, The Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein (PBUH) gives a good example of the White Mutiny. (AKA malicious compliance)

        Of course, reading RAH eliminates all of one’s woke points, and might even negate the victim points. Too bad, so sad.

  15. Don’t be “John Wayne” and dare them to make you a martyr.

    I believe the best tactic is to make the other damn fool a martyr for his/her/they cause.

    Theoretically speaking, of course.

    1. Didn’t Patton say something to the effect of “No dumb b@stard ever won a war by dying for his country, he won the war by making some other dumb b@stard die for his country!” ?

      1. Sure did, in the movie.
        POTUS Trump plays that clip at rallies when he thinks we are feeling discouraged. It’s terrific.

  16. Everybody gonna be watchin’ the J6 hearings on Prime Time?

    It was the greatest threat to democracy and freedom ever, doncha know. We gotta make examples of them J6ers. Just look around at everything they were trying to prevent!

    Meanwhile more brave activists will speak the language of the oppressed to that evil Kavenaugh.

    Long live democracy!

    1. James Freeman had a beautifully snarky Best of the Web column in the WSJ yesterday on the hearings. Not so subtle mockery of the Democrats’ open efforts to produce a riveting extravaganza in prime time. I didn’t know he had it in him.

      1. I’d include the Republicans on that committee. 😡

        1. A book I read had a line about the proper treatment of such people: “hung by his balls over a shark tank and handed a rusty knife”.
          Might be appropriate.
          John in Indy

    3. Nope. Loaded up XCOM2. ADVENT’s Speaker is a much more trustworthy person. 😉

      [“Fellow citizens…” (I’m not a villain. I don’t know what you’re talking about….)]

  17. I’m seeing a suit in Federal court with an injunction stopping retailers from forcing customers to buy fuel known to be harmful to their vehicles. Not the government of course, can’t sue them, but nothing to stop a class action against all major petroleum product distributors.
    And as I have said before, it’s gonna get ugly long about harvest time. And without a doubt intense in the runup to the the mid term elections. Not beyond possible that they manufacture some crisis to either postpone the elections or step in with Federal agents to “supervise” the integrity of the voting process.
    In any case should an even close to honest election occur shortly thereafter Pelosi will be out and almost certainly retire. I suspect that Joe will be so shocked and stunned by the results that he will step down claiming health issues. And Ghod only knows who will step in to fill the last two years of POTUS, likely not Harris, so expect some fast shuffling of the pecking order there.

    1. Commie La Whorish is being outfitted as “martyr president”. She’ll be in for a week, then shot by “right wing extremists.”
      She’s the only one who doesn’t know it.

      1. That’s…that’s…! They wouldn’t!

        (Goes and looks at the list of suspicious deaths of known associates of certain individuals in American Wire article linked previously—or see https://twitter.com/AnthonieLouise/status/1533422711975948288. That’s a long list, even if you leave out Waco; wow, that’s a long list.)

        Yeah; they might think they could get away with it. Wowzer. I mean, it’s crazy; but, what do I know?

        1. Oh yes they would. Especially because they could use it as a convenient excuse to ram through all the legislation they need to utterly shred and gut the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

          1. Just a note: Legislation cannot modify the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights; that requires an “AMENDMENT”. Any legislation which violates the Constitution is, prima facie, void. And it doesn’t, regardless of protestations from authoritarians, require certification from the USSC as such. Naive? Possibly. But also justified and fully legal. The Constitution wasn’t written by or for rocket scientists or lawyers, and is fairly easy to understand by anyone not a lawyer.

            1. You know that, and I know that, and Our So-Called Betters know that, but unfortunately the average Joe and/or Jane doesn’t know that (courtesy of the disgraceful shitshow that passes for education in this country) and Our So-Called Betters don’t care. The Constitution, to them, is a pesky obstacle to be overcome and done away with, not the Supreme Law of the Land.

            1. IMO if LBJ (or anybody in the US government) wanted JFK dead, JFK would have dead “peacefully” in bed (his bed or somebody else’s bed). 😉

                1. Well if “they” killed JFK, they went to a Heck Of Alot Of Trouble (ie getting Oswald in place) for something they could done more easily by making JFK’s death look natural.

              2. Yeah, someone else’s bed would be much more likely, then you have nice folks trying to help cover it up to avoid scandal.

        1. Speaking of Whitmer, the other night on late night tv, Biden said he was going to start having political opponents arrrested, and the day afterwards, one of Whitmer’s opponents was arrested by the FBI for being at the J6 protest; his crime apparently was gesturing people towards the Capitol Building.

          Democrats aren’t even hiding anymore that they are all-in on creating a totalitarian dictatorship/

        1. The cheering might tend to drown out the sympathy…

          Re: The Cameltoe. and MaligNancy: Lather, rinse, repeat. As many times as necessary.

      5. If she’s as, ahem, naive as she seems, she’ll last long enough to appoint a “caretaker,” VP. Also, think it’s possible she might get the 25th Amendment treatment- or “encouraged,” to resign. Whoever replaced her would tell us a lot.

      6. In my bleaker moments, I’m surprised the long knives haven’t already come out (as in, rivals for power arranging hits on their rivals).

      7. Dear Hostess you think they’ll leave her there that long? If they get rid of the turnip before the election Willy Browns sidepiece is toast before 01/03/2023 especially if a miracle occurs and the republicans take the house in the next congress in spite of vote manipulation. Nancy doesn’t want to be sitting around twiddling her thumbs as minority leader, and They DEFINITELY don’t want Ms. Harris in charge… The only fun thing might be Schumer and Pelosi playing spy vs spy so they can fight over who gets the presidency for 2 years…

    2. Yep – definitely ugly around harvest time in the fall. Right now, I think we are coasting on last year’s harvest … but it’s going to get interesting in a lot of different ways in the fall.
      Americans can only be pushed so far. And if the proggies think they can slap down anyone who resists and steps out of line and make an example of them …
      Just this week, I was refreshing my memory of an incident about forty years ago. Small farming town in Missouri, plagued by a local bad citizen and bully; a violent man given to committing every kind of breach save maybe insider trading. Rape, arson, cattle theft, plain old theft, assault – you name it, he’d done it. Had enough income from his various nefarious enterprises to hire a good lawyer every time he was charged, but also had a good line in bullying and intimidating jurors, witnesses, law enforcement. He finally was convicted of assaulting a local grocery store owner, but was out and about, pending final sentencing, and everyone had just had enough. He came to town, everyone was afraid that he was going to start in again … and he was shot and killed sitting in his truck in the middle of town, with multiple townspeople present. None of whom had seen a thing. Everyone said they heard the shots and ducked for cover, but Ken Rex McElroy was dead or bleeding out. And no one ever, in the forty years since, has cracked and confessed to seeing anything.
      There’s going to be a lot of people, in the near future … not seeing anything. And possibly a lot of urban youts going out into the country or the far suburbs, looking to raise hell … and afterwards, when the urban youts turn up missing or messily dead … no one in their last known vicinity is ever going to confess to having seen anything at all.

      1. “There’s going to be a lot of people, in the near future … not seeing anything.”

        The cameras will handle that. Not saying you can’t handle that…. just saying that the people who will have to “not see” will not just be the people directly affected. He’s not bullying THEM, after all.

        “The toad beneath the harrow knows
        Exactly where each tooth-point goes.
        The butterfly upon the road
        Preaches contentment to that toad.”

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

        1. Oh, likely … but it seems to be easy to baffle or decommission cameras, when something is about to go down.
          Just a couple of months ago, some wandering dirtbags in my neighborhood baffled a neighbor’s security cameras so they could steal the rear-view camera and IIRC the nice new rims off his late-model pickup truck out of the driveway.
          We’re all going to be learning useful skills in the next couple of months, I surmise.

          1. Apparently one can send out signals telling wifi devices not to connect to wifi, and a lot of gang members are doing this with their Apple watches or their phones, to turn off wifi-connected security cameras.

            There’s a fix for most of this, if you have such a camera, or you can just connect them to your computer with Ethernet cables or similar.

            1. My motto: If it relies on radio for connection it might as well be a brick.

              “But it’s SAFE!” Uh-huh. And oceanfront property just outside Phoenix is a REAL BARGAIN!

        2. I recall an episode of Top Gear (back in the Good Old Days when The Three Amigos hosted it) where Jay Leno was the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car. During the pre-lap interview with Clarkson, the topic of speed cameras came up, namely how the UK is covered in them. Jay said something to the effect of, “See, that would never work in LA, ’cause sooner or later somebody would say, ‘well, why don’t we just shoot them out?'”

      2. I discovered The Battle of Athens last year and it encourages me even to this day.

      3. Why do you’ve think they’ve worked so hard to undermine community?

        The year after I got out of High School, some Californian Mexicans came up and tried to do the drug gang thing. They were not prepared for the high school kids to fight back and kick their heinies. They didn’t take it well, and burnt down the house of one of the good old boys who resisted them. The police gave them an armed escort to the state line, and pointedly told them that if they ever came back, there would be no protection.
        I moved back into the area about fifteen years later, and the community that had existed, was all but destroyed. The gangs, however, were back. If a little lower profile. (And they did perform a public service. The Powers That Be were all in on importing and shielding a rather militant Muslim community. The more problematic members of which developed a tendency to ahem disappear.)

  18. Well, the usual Twitter trolls are blathering about how inevitable everything is (with an interesting tendency towards using “We” to describe themselves) so I find myself wondering whom they’re trying to convince: Those they want their masters to destroy… or themselves?

    (…and it seems to irritate them greatly when I do that.) 😀

  19. As much as I love the gas/ethanol conversation, I’m not science/chemistry minded.
    Could someone give me a link to explain what I need to be watching for?

    1. Watch out for pumps with more than 10% ethanol content if your vehicle is 2001 or older. Try to use gas with least ethanol possible.

      2. Well, google will tell you that no car engines newer than 2001 will be harmed by e15 gas. Because that’s the official line.
        Toyota’s Yaris manuals 2010 -> 2022 say don’t use any fuel with more than 10% ethanol.
        Check your particular vehicle’s manual.

        1. Theoretically it should work in any car or truck post 2001. In reality pretty much ALL manufactures say voids your warranty with the exception of a few specialized flex fuel vehicles here are the flex fuel vehicles as of 2020
          Chevrolet Impala 3.6L*
          Chevrolet Silverado 5.3L RWD, 4WD
          Chevrolet Tahoe/Suburban 5.3L RWD, 4WD*
          Ford Explorer 3.3L AWD*
          Ford F-150 3.3L V-6, 5.0L V-8, RWD, 4WD
          Ford Transit Connect 2.0L Van, Wagon
          Ford Transit T-150 3.5L RWD, AWD
          GMC Sierra 5.3L RWD, 4WD
          GMC Yukon/Yukon XL 5.3L RWD, 4WD*

          Production ended or ending soon, not to be replaced
          Note that 4 of the 9 listed vehicles are gone never to be replaced

          Otherwise almost every manual for non flex fuel vehicles says 10% is the absolute max. It will not work in small engines (lawn mowers, trimmers etc, they don’t even really like 10%). This is truly a Charlie Foxtrot of epic proportions. Ethanol costs more to generate than gasoline. The growing of the corn is NOT particularly CO2 neutral so thats not a win. Add to that that crop yields are bad and the price of corn is heading up. On top of that the corn for the 10% requirement already drives South America nuts as corn is a HUGE part of their diet and it pretty much has every evil side effect you could ever wish for. You wouldn’t think anyone could be that stupid, but as far as I can tell no one has ever underestimated the intellect of the Tranzis…

        2. 2002 CR-V – 10% max
          2005 Pilot – 10% max
          Gurgle – Full of ummm…feces…, as usual.

      3. We have a 2021 Subaru and a 2019 Honda. The Subaru manual says no more than 10% ethanol, the Honda manual allows 15% ethanol. So the age of the car is no guide – check the manual for the car you have.

        1. The 2017 CRV, the 2012 Civic and my elder Daughters 2016 Fit all say no. I think younger daughters 2020 HRV is OK, but I’d have to take a look at her manual.

    2. There was an old department of ag publication, I want to say ‘fuel for the farms’, which had an extensive discussion. Mainly, chemistry, costs/economics, and other details of converting internal combustion engines to run ethanol.

  20. Part of things, the cost, speed, and accessibility of information are strange.

    In the past, collection was hard enough that only analysts would be fed certain sources in combination, and only certain people could have results of such analysis. It had a narrowing response in terms of who could take action in response to what developments.

    Sure, now is a massive mess of filtering and sorting problems. It also allows for behavior unconstrained by the ‘rules’ that appear to exist when you look at the previous ‘experiments’.

    But, living it, the time scale is funky, and can have a weird effect on state of mind.

    Democrats take action A. We analyze, and figure it does or does not change the picture. Democrats take action B. ?

    1. One of the beautiful things of the internet is its distributed nature. Where one person, or even a group, might be swamped in information, unable to separate the chaff from the wheat, the multitudes with access to the internet can sift through it quickly. What some person sees and thinks nothing of, another with different experience can look at it and see where it makes a difference. With different people recognizing different parts, others can assimilate those parts that have been pointed out, and make another connection. Eventually it all comes out in the open.

  21. Ever been to the Post Office? Pretty simple to gum up the works without getting into trouble – bare minimu compliance while appearing to care/work/try hard. Had a conversation with a manager at a pretty large company recently. They have not been giving raises the past few years to keep costs down. Easy to do during the Covid panic. But now lots of people are quitting – and the replacements (when they manage to find one) are coming in at much higher salaries. But that is not the worst part. My manager friend is seeing a huge drop off in productivity. People who don’t want to find another job are adjusting their work load to the pay! It is all “go team” but the meetings take longer to schedule, ideas are hard to find and everyone just looks at the boss in innocence!

  23. At the end of the day, we are Americans: Oppositional defiance is not a disorder; it is a goddam virtue.

  25. Not a Lutheran, per se; but I do appreciate the 5 solas.

    However, this note is just to pass on the news that I am (by the grace of Our Lord) “officially” 5 years cancer-free. CTS, MRI, and bloodwork all clean. If you’re keeping score, that is.

    1. “sola Scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus, soli Deo gloria”

      Peace be with you.

      1. And of course the secret sixth one, solong and thanks for all the fish. Wait, was that fish a carp?

  26. Pingback: DGAF re-hash | Dio's Workshop

  27. << Do I have to teach Americans how to be difficult for would-be rulers?>>
    No, not this American. I will NOT leave California. Hell No! I know how to work a precinct. I won’t give up. As my Oklahoma Gramma would say, “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going!”

    1. “When the going gets tough, the tough break out the tar, feathers, ropes and pikes.”

  28. Motives are everything! Clearly, they want us cold, hungry, and poor. Clearly, they want to provoke us! Clearly, they are diabolical but not bright! Clearly, their situational awareness is null. Clearly, they have only contempt for everyday Americans and Americanism. Clearly, they are sad, jealous, resentful souls. Clearly, they have no capacity for gratitude for the many blessings each of us enjoy! Satan lives within them!

    1. The comments to the video talk about an old story from Mellen Chamberlain, about his interview of Levi Preston, a minuteman from Danvers, Massachusetts, when he asked him why he’d fought.

      “Young man, what we meant in going for those redcoats was this: we always had governed ourselves, and we always meant to. They didn’t mean we should.”

      1. Didn’t Know about Levi Preston. Looks like he was a local boy, the town I live in was part of Danvers, MA when he went to Concord, though not by the time of his interview in 1843. Stubborn and lived into his 90’s, a man to emulate.

  32. A book I read had a line about the proper treatment of people who behave as the DemonRats are now doing: “should be hung by his balls over a shark tank and handed a rusty knife”.
    Might be appropriate.
    John in Indy

  34. Pingback: DYSPEPSIA GENERATION » Blog Archive » Being Difficult

  36. For that novel everyone is writing:

    One man’s practical joke is another man’s unconventional warfare.

    Be creative. Don’t repeat.

    Whole books of examples. “Get even” and others.

    I would not know anything about, for example, leaving a large dead fish deposited in a safe box of a bank. Or, just to speculate, using roadkill to bait vultures to roost somewhere. (Buzzard droppings are …. vile)

  37. Many persons unconsciously perform a calculation from time to time; is it worth it to sacrifice my current lifestyle to perform a certain action? When the point arrives that it is believed that the current lifestyle is forfeit whether one acts or not, things begin to happen. The more comfortable the lifestyle, the more abrupt the change will be.

  38. The great majority of Americans still don’t believe the Progressive Left are as stupid and evil as they are. They don’t believe anybody could possibly be that stupid and evil.

    The Leftroids seem determined to prove it to them. It won’t end well.
    ———————————
    He’s a lumberjack, and he’s OK.

    1. To be fair, I’ve known the idiots all my life, and I’m STILL having trouble grasping the sheer levels of evil. Last night, in conversation with Bill Reader, I think I came up with an hypothesis that explains most of what we’re seeing, but it would take a whole post to expound.

      3. Is it anything like the religion, and cultural standards of sanity stuff that I’ve been chewing over?

  41. I think that when worse is about to get to worst, the army, police, and secret services, in collaboration with other bureaucracies mostly in a subordinate role will intervene. Nobody sane has any interest in letting things actually go to hell.
    It will be a dictatorship, though: first a state of emergency, then maybe people will be shot for hoarding (and hopefully also looting, but not sure), then some places will be made examples of. Pacifying some places may take longer (the bolsheviks didn’t have full control over USSR until 1924, I think, and there was a breakaway province they never fully regained control over, Finland; who knows, maybe same with Alaska). It’ll be join or die, in theory motivated by patriotism, in practice by caution (you just can’t allow rebels or neutrals). There may be a brief civil war or internal struggle among the winners, after which the most ruthless person will win and take helm, in the name of keeping order.
    For fairness, I’ll write that there is some small chance that the winner will have had centrist positions before the troubles (despising both the rabble and the rich), though I don’t believe it matters.
    The use and monopoly of force will feel and be justified (by propaganda), so in any case it won’t be libertarian. If you’re an organization member you’ll be exempt from the worst aspects, at least at first, because the priority will be confiscating stuff from the kulaks, the ones who aren’t sharing.
    Propaganda will affix the blame for the situation to those who have something, no matter how much or how little, but aren’t in the organization (of course). Even if the kulaks are sharing, they are not sharing enough. Definitely the organization will feel entitled to take (probably legally) and taking will be the biggest priority. Nothing is more precious than one’s and one’s children’s comfort.
    To me, these monopoly of force and confiscation ideas are naturally left-wing, so the regime will drift left-wing, even if it doesn’t start that way. However, it is likely to start somewhat that way. It will be an interesting mixture of left-wing and right-wing ideas, but I think 80-95% will be left-wing, because it’s common sense nowadays and it’s uniting, not dividing (sarcasm, in case it’s not clear).
    Later on there may be a more coherent ideology or maybe not. I don’t think it’ll be communism in either its old or new versions, maybe it’ll be something like chavism or putinism (insiders live well, outsiders are serfs, but there are possibilities for promotion if you are ruthless and/or servile enough). There will be cliques for a while. In the end, maybe it’ll just be the cult of the emperor and of the organization (it’ll still be called a democratic republic, of course, but it might also become popular). The emperor won’t be called so, probably, it’ll be the chief of the emergency committee (or maybe secretary, since chief is now un-PC), who saved the country from the brink of disaster. Probably the emperor will insist on being president too.
    Maybe trade and producing stuff will be allowed again after the emergency is over, but almost certainly only insofar as the organization wants (again, like in Russia and Venezuela).
    But, you’re saying, this will crater the economy, surely it can’t survive? It’ll be tough for a while (more for the kulaks, but not only), but the US have a resource many other countries don’t: their army. They could use it to extract tribute from other countries (like North Korea did, but on a much grander scale) and conduct pacification campaigns in rebellious provinces. Such a regime could survive for a long time.
    I would gladly take bets, if anyone is willing to bet against such a scenario.
    I think the safest bet is joining the organization in whatever capacity they’ll let you in, when this happens. However, it’s possible the organization will be somewhat elitist and won’t let people join unless they have something concrete to contribute (e.g. turning in their hoarding neighbors and/or helping in the front lines).
    Anyway, I’m not a joiner, so this scenario may be difficult for me. I hope it takes at least 30 years to get there.

    1. NONE of this. None of it makes any sense in our widespread land with as many people as we have, not packed together.
      I have to ask, if you’re one of the foreigners paid to post this nonsense, have you ever seen the US in reality?

      1. I am indeed a foreigner, as maybe you can see from my email address, in fact I am Romanian, but have lived in the US for a long time. I have even donated to you, because I like how you write, (through PayPal I think) and other right-wing causes in the past and hope to do it again in the future. I have read a couple of your novels, I discovered you through Baen, but mostly follow Instapundit. Etc., etc.. I was always anticommunist, but became more right-wing in 2015. Maybe it counts for something, maybe not.
        I am definitely not paid to post this.
        Russia was also pretty spread out when the two 1917 revolutions happened.
        Anyway, the main inspiration for the scenario I described is a combination of the fall of the Roman Republic and the evolution of the Roman Empire from the second half of the third to the fifth century. They managed to overcome it, but the empire became much more militarized and governed by military necessity: corvées on most civilians. It remained like this for long after the crisis went away. One can see this in Justinian’s Code.

      2. I hope that none of what I mentioned will pass and that someone, somewhere has already taken this into account and won’t let things become as bad as they can be and as some on the left want to make them.
        I think they know exactly what they are doing. If they make the US poor, they have a chance. I think the scenario I described is realistic in that case. I personally think it’d be a Pyrrhic victory for the left and leftists would regret it bitterly (civil war and poverty are not as romantic as they think; tough people would come on top and it wouldn’t be them), but left-wing ideas would probably prevail. I’m sure they believe it too.
        One could say that the chance of the US actually becoming poor is really low, because we live in an advanced society with luxuries XVIII-th century people had no idea about (but could imagine), but I don’t underestimate the capacity and determination of leftists to help things along (f things up). People would react differently to similar circumstances from 300 years ago. Besides, some stuff is fragile and easy to break, like a services-based economy.
        I hope they don’t manage to make the US poor and/or someone, somewhere can prevent them.

        1. The Roman Empire was more like the Soviet Union than the US.
          And the US is completely different than both. We are not a nation of serfs and peasants, dependent on a master.
          It. Won’t. Work. Here.

    2. I can see the story-sense, but– I think what has you worried, at the root, is an illusion.

      Specifically, the illusion that people are going along peacefully with every stupid thing– when the examples they give are stuff like Portland and Seattle, or DC, and even then they’re stuck with in the city limits.

      I know that in Iowa, while the mayor of Des Moines reaaaaaaally wanted to copy Kate Brown (Oregon’s governor), and Waukee really wanted to be Portland, not only did it not work (due to people ignoring the BS and the attempts to give the orders teeth being pulled) but they were only in the city limits. So I went to a masks-optional store opening in West Des Moines, while their idiot was trying to require masks to walk around in the open.

      Their “state of emergency” was by and large ignored, even by folks who thought they had a point.

      The progs have been trying to forbid neutrality. Heck, even some on our side have been trying to copy that tactic.

      It doesn’t win them friends, or followers.

      On either side, because they eat their own.

      Don’t take council of your fears.

      The attempts to do that are wrongs to be fought, yes, but not because they’ll work– just because they’re wrong.

    3. America basically has a lot of little secret polices, that are entirely outside of central control.

      The term is 3S, Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up.

      This competes with the formal legal system, which is ordinarily good enough that it is rare for someone to decide to 3S a human. It is /not/ suppressed by the formal legal system, outside of a few areas it is too easy to hide bodies.

      Mostly, 3S is for ‘rare’ animals that the envirowackos are exploiting the formal legal system to protect. There are predator populations that nobody tells the biologists about, because the biologists would try to preserve the predators, and livestock would suffer.

      Anyway, Americans are not frightened enough,and the government force structures are not powerful enough, to rule by fear or by force instead of persuasion. The fear thing is cultural. Romanians may preserve some oral history about what Catholic or Muslim empires expanding into the region did? That sort of thing got dropped from inclusion in American oral history, up until the last few generations, the only thing Americans had learned to fear was ‘other Americans, if enough of them are willing to fight it out’.

      Those Americans wary enough to worry about foreign armies are mostly informed enough to know that logistics is hard, and that there does not look like there is any foreign nation that is not so staggeringly incompetent that it cannot manage the logistics.

      So, the question is, ‘are there /enough/ Americans willing to fight it out’? There are a bunch of little reasons for an American to intuitively suspect that the security problem here is a very small number of insane savages, with a larger number of go-along-to-get-alongs who absolutely are not willing to spend their own lives. Which basically means that there are not enough Americans willing to fight for the other side, for our side to have any great level of fear.

      There are Americans who do not reach this intuition. Many of those specific Americans are a little ill with depression, or haven’t done a good job of curating their information sources. Or live in a neighborhood that is a uncontained fire of crime, because of democrats deliberately making things worse over a period of decades. It is a shallow, temporary feeling, not a deep lasting feeling.

      If there were a lot of a deep lasting feeling, there would be a lot more American vigilantes.

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