It Is Us At The Gate

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

They lied to you. They lied to all of us these “progressives” whose greatest goal was always to take us back to the mass-everything of the late industrial age, in the early twenty first century.

Their power and glory resided in the early twentieth century, with masses of illiterate-in-English workers pouring in, and the precinct bosses controlling them and their votes; with “progressives” of both parties in the white house, setting the course of the future. And then with world wars giving them all the control of an “emergency” they tasted real power, and the ability to tell other people how they should live forever. We were going to be ruled by “experts.” The country was in the very best of hands. And stop those screams for popular control. That was a dream of the 18th century. The common man was unable to rule himself, and needed the educated elites to build the future while standing on the people’s neck.

And through all this, the enemy, which always trades in lies — because their nature is so hideous they can’t look at themselves in the mirror — called themselves “liberal” and “tolerant.” Though in fact they were so intolerant that their minds could see only imaginary categories and never real people. And that when their opinions were proven wrong in truth, they invented new complicated theories and doubled down.

Also, and THIS is the biggest lie possible, they called us “Conservative” and “Establishment.” This a century after they had captured all positions of power, become a positional good for the elites (who all want to at least pretend to be communist. Partly out of fear of being expropriated — they took entirely the wrong lesson from the revolutions in France and Russia — and partly because communism (and the hip new fascism the Marxists now espouse) is actually a sort of feudalism, and they all plume themselves on being feudal lords over an expropriated, impoverished population.)

I’m not actually surprised the left bought this, but I’m surprised many on our side did. It took the cultural battles of the last decade for scales to fall from most people’s eyes: for instance the one with us, the powerless, the ones who had fought and scrambled our way into publication and where the only bestseller was published by a house looked down upon by the other houses, and where we were accused of holding women and minorities down. (As though we had the power, even if we had the intent. And for the record, we were majority women and minorities. We don’t care about the color or sex of those who write the books. It’s the books we care about.)

They used that formulation over and over again, by the way. While punching WAY down they claimed to be speaking truth to power. While quelling rebellion, they claimed to be fighting the “establishment.” And their excuse for everything going to crap under their leadership was always that anyone wanting to fix it was “a white male, scared of losing power.”

After a while, almost everyone, at almost every level was touched by this and saw it happening and went “But wait a minute.” And the luvvies claims that anyone who opposes them is immediately a white male does not wash. (I’m probably darker than spun gold now. I’ve been working outside. And I don’t have a penis. I looked in my pants just now. I also happen to be xx and have birthed two sons. I don’t have to be a biologist to realize I’m not male. And while my Mormon friends joke about my being an unbaptized Mormon, no. I’m not. Just had enough coffee to prove it.)

So it’s come to this. The supreme court in 3 landmark rulings has started to lay an ax to the foundation of rule by experts.

Is the work done? Oh, deary me, no. But it is started.

Will it cause chaos? Oh. Yes. Yes, indeed. And attempts to do it slow to minimize chaos will probably not hold. Because what they are striking down is the FOUNDATIONS of the current establishment.

Every single institution, every single PERSON has been corrupted by this idea that government should be by experts, and top down, center out. It’s all over the world, yes. But it has never had any business here. Yet contagion works, and we’re part of this mess, which the last two years, and the maladministration of the Biden Junta have exposed as not only stupid and erratic, but realistically dangerous and potentially civilization ending.

I think that’s the reason for these rulings. It’s not that the court is any less go along to get along than when they refused to hear the cases centering on the election. It isn’t that most of them (Thomas and Alito excepted) aren’t at their heart bureaucrats who suckled at the tit of the Marxism-enabling maleducation of the last century.

It is that they can see what’s heading for us, what the idiots they enabled into power are doing. And they’re scared. As they should be. And so they are trying, late and terrified-like to undo enough, to allow us to survive.

Is it going to be easy? Pardon me while I laugh.

To quote my very wise grandmother, we’re all going to eat the bread the devil kneaded, and that’s when there’s bread at all. You know the call: “PREPARE, PREPARE, PREPARE” and know it might not be possible to prepare ENOUGH. Be flexible. Adapt, improvise and overcome.

This winter is going to be bad and the next couple of years are going to be interesting.

For one, there’s going to be a while that no one has any idea what the rules are, what the laws are, what it is safe to do/say.

Which means daily life will get sportive, even before gas and food shortages.

But, hey, it’s going to be worse in the rest of the world. They’re not good at making it up as they go along.

As bad as it is going to get I have great faith in the American people and the tattered remains of constitutional law.

Yes, it’s still going to hurt to feel like everything is falling down around us, and that we don’t fully understand the shape of what’s to come.

It’s time to make sure what’s to come is us, Americans. We were always the barbarians at the gate of the establishment left. And now the ax has created some breaches in the door, and we’re pouring in.

The time is short, and we must be about making sure the right things are erected in the aftermath.

Be not afraid.

Build under, build over, build around.

Because the establishment has suffered body blows, and it will collapse.

And then we must be ready to take the weight.

334 thoughts on “It Is Us At The Gate”

    1. More and more up here in North Idaho I see people preparing themselves and their families to carry whatever weight falls on them.

      It’s a grim, powerful, and oddly meaningful time.

      And that image is stunning. Really lovely.

            1. Or a glimpse of the (unwanted) future. Well, not the “sorcery” part; arbitrary changes in the laws of physics are Right Out, except maybe for the Three Ladies of Nantucket…

              And a bearded ax solves a multitude of problems. 😉

      3. One man, an orphan, an outlaw, a Nithing, stumbles across a magic axe, which compels him against his will to right wrongs, and in doing so, he discovers….

              1. Yup, that’s what makes it so ironic he has to be a courageous and generous hero.

      4. Hmm… Barbarian hero with the goal of protecting his town from all foes finds the tome of a powerful wizard which details various dangers to his home. He must strike down the servants of a corrupt politician who seek to steal it from him, gain the strength to fight the monsters to come… and learn to read. (Influenced greatly by the D&D Barbarian class and Folk Hero background.)

      1. A Dry Mormon is someone who’s not Mormon, but nearly is. “Just add water” (i.e. baptize them) to turn them into a non-Dry Mormon, as they’re already pretty much living the Church’s teachings. A Jack Mormon originally meant someone who wasn’t a member of the Church, but was friendly to its members. The meaning has changed quite a bit since, though. When I see it used these days, it generally means a Mormon who isn’t bothering to try and live up to the Church’s high moral standards. Generally that means things like drinking and smoking, and doesn’t refer to someone involved in more malicious activities. They’re still generally friendly to the Church, though.

        1. ” When I see it used these days, it generally means a Mormon who isn’t bothering to try and live up to the Church’s high moral standards. ”

          Actually it was used that way 50 years ago, at least among Mormons I know.

          1. Yes. The original meaning is very old, dating back to before the move to Utah. Being a Mormon could get you lynched in earlier places that the Church was located in, and someone who wasn’t a member but was willing to be friendly was worth noting. I would imagine that the term likely fell out of use after the move, since the situation was different in Utah, where the vast majority of the white population was Latter-Day Saints and trouble with the local white residents was no longer an issue. Then the term eventually reemerged, but with a new meaning.

  3. I know you hate it when anyone says this, but I do admire and appreciate your optimism. You’re a big factor in why I refuse to swallow the black pill. Thanks!

  4. We’re preparing in Texas, where I think it won’t be completely horrible; since the bulk of the state is pretty red. (The three big cities and Austin being pale purple to deep blue). People are seriously pissed at the prices for gas, and with regard to the formula shortage. We have the shale oil fields and were doing booming business until Biden jacked it all up – no doubt in our minds over who’s fault the high fuel prices are.
    My daughter the real estate agent is starting to notice price reductions on houses for sale. Methinks the boom in real estate prices is over. She also says that we’re very fortunate in being “old poor” – we know all the means to reduce the cost of living – buying used, shopping yard sales, scooping up bargains, making from scratch. The ‘new poor’ will have to learn them for the first time.

    1. There’s a lot less traffic on the streets than three weeks ago. I think gas prices and rising grocery prices have a lot to do with it.

      I grew up with parents who inherited the Great Depression mindset. It’s not comfortable, and I resent having to cut back on everything, but I know how to do it and have been doing it for a while now.

    2. We saw a house go up with the current “usual” “For Sale + Pending Sale”, around the corner. Ten days later the “pending sale” portion is history. Additional signs. Not local but SIL said her youngest son put his house on the market (LA somewhere), and it has been sitting unsold, for a month(?). (Never seen it, so ???) Also noticed houses in sister’s neighborhood (nice homes, nice area) did not go up with “for sale + pending”. It isn’t the cost, those have gone beyond ridiculous for awhile now. Interest rates? Everything? Who knows.

      1. A combination of interest rates making mortgages more expensive, economic uncertainty making people reluctant to make a commitment on paying a mortgage, and the sense that housing prices are about to fall so why buy now when you could wait a month or two and pay less.

    3. I was in town and gassed up the truck. More business at the Kroger gas station (medium priced, but fuel points are a notable discount opportunity) than I would have expected. Even the attendant was surprised.

      I have a big discount coming, but I’m saving it for the medical trip next week.

    4. I don’t know much about the land-ownership situation in Texas, WRT how much oil-land the feds control, , but would it be worthwhile to suggest to your state legislators that the state should eminent domain all the Fed-controlled lands back under state control?

      1. If States start siezing Federal land, that definitely gets … Boogie.

        You may recall the opening noisy act of the Fracas That Shall Not Be Debated Here, arguing land use by cannon and bayonet.

        While a humorous idea to Lawfare over such lands I do not concur with taking that action, for there lies Fracascide.

        Focus on their current abominable behavior. Lawfare -that-.

        Note recent SCOTUS wins. Note that further wins are contained in them, as they were meant as rock-splitting wedges. They will enable further winning.

        Drive in a crack or flaw. Soak in water. Wait a bit….

        1. The question is whether states should treat Federal agencies going beyond their legal and Constitutional boundaries precisely as they would any other lawbreakers…. or allow their citizens to.

          “No, you don’t have a legal basis for telling us to shut down our power plants…. and any of your agents that try to do that without one will be arrested. Until then, our citizens can treat you as they would any other lawbreaker threatening their lives, liberty, or property.”

          Because as we’ve seen for the last 10-20 years, their attitude is “We don’t care if it’s illegal. We’re doing it right now. What are you going to do about it?”

          https://pjmedia.com/columns/athena-thorne/2022/01/17/is-this-how-democrats-will-steal-the-midterm-elections-n1550302

          1. For some time, and certainly under former President Obama, the Fed-me-ups were deep into the Nathan Detroit mode: “So, sue me…” Again, the arrogance of “who needs Congress when one has a pen and a ‘phone”. See also: “we won”

      2. Texas has almost no federal land. It was an independent country when it joined the US, and kept, oh, 98% of its land and minerals. The national parks, Indian reservations, US military bases, and nature stuff (wildlife refuges and so on) are federal, but the rest is state or private. Nevada, at the other extreme, is 80% federal land, 20% state and private. Nevada, Utah, Alaska, ND, SD, MT, and a few others would like most of that to go to the states (see the 1980s Sagebrush Rebellion), with all the mineral, water, and surface rights that entails.

          1. “Never interrupt the enemy when they’re making a mistake.”

            For a year and a half now it’s been nothing but non-stop mistakes.

      3. The curious thing is, in Texas, there is very little federal-owned land – mostly Big Bend National Park, and a number of military reservations. Most of our big parks are state parks.
        The largest portion of the oil-producing lands are privately owned. When Texas was granted statehood, Texas kept all the public lands, rather than turn them over to federal control. That’s why there was so much activity with shale oil drilling – because owners of various tracts of lands were happy enough to sign oil leases, and there was nothing much that activists inside the fed gov (or outside of it) could do to prevent drilling. Not when owners of small ranches were happy enough to break more than even after years of near-poverty.

  5. Amen, Sister Sarah, Amen. I didn’t cackle with glee when Dobbs was released, but I grinned a malicious kitty grin. How are the textbooks doing to deal with THAT, having denigrated the 10th Amendment by declaring it dead letter after Brown? T’will be entertaining to watch.

    Build under, build around, write and sing and draw Human Wave stories. “Because, while a hundred of us remain alive, we will not submit in the slightest measure, to the domination of the English. We do not fight for honour, riches, or glory, but solely for freedom which no true man gives up but with his life. ” The Declaration of Arbroath, AD 1320 CE.

  6. We’re studying the Old Testament in church this year and this post reminds me of Number 11:29.
    “And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!”
    Every man a king, not to rule over others but to rule over himself.

  7. We’re definitely in for a bumpy, but highly survivable ride. I agree with our hostess that this winter will likely see the worst. I think that will be bottom. I hope it is. And, it may be a cliche but it is true that it’s always darkest before the dawn. I do worry for friends and family who are still in big cities… especially the single women I know living in San Francisco. But there’s not a lot I can do except offer a place of refuge should it become necessary.

    Those concerns aside (and I will be doing what I can to help), I am gonna corner the market on popcorn and sit back and watch, after making sure me and mine are settled and safe.

    1. Re: Single women in SF, see my comment below about needing a man like Joshua Norton. He would never have permitted his Imperial Capital to fall into the state it has…and I think he had the moral authority that his orders would have stuck.

  8. People will say “Life sucks!” when they’re hitting a rough spot or sucking too hard at the masochist teats of the media. I say, contra, life is good. The conditions sometimes suck, but life? As such, Life is a supreme good, else we wouldn’t have John 14:6, for one thing.

  9. And isn’t it interesting that we, the Barbarians at the Gate, those Deplorable masses of smelly Wal-Mart shoppers and so forth — are at one and the same time the Last Best Hope of Civilization, itself?

    When the “Time” magazine election-fraud confessional piece came out, it included the interesting term ‘fortify’ for what they did to our previously (more) honest electoral system. And pretty clearly once you listen with any degree of care, it wasn’t in the “fortified with 37 vitamins and minerals” sense, it was in the “build stockades on the frontier to defend against the howling masses” sense. I.e., “stop the barbarians!”

    Somehow, even if their dogma never lets them admit it to themselves, at some level ‘they’ (wanna-be lords and masters) betray their knowledge that the Barbarians really are at their gates, and that the odds (Odds?) are stacked against them. (Even looking at the less-dishonest polls tells ’em that… the ‘X’ graph of a total epic political fail is plain as day and still rising/falling.)

    Let their hidden terror lift our hearts. To dare a cliche: Winter is coming, but spring waits beyond.

    1. Conservatives versus the Progressive-Socialists. Kind of reminds me of the Horseclans versus the depraved Hellenic Colonizers of the east coast. Sans horses, telepathy, sabertooth tigers, and hand weapons only.

      1. Ah, yes. My favorite post-apocolyptic series to date. In part because they were unabashedly Conan-esque fun, in part because it was entertaining trying to find the historical bits tucked into the fantasy.

        1. For an author denying any philosophy and just a teller of adventure stories, there are more lessons about life in one Horseclans novel than a dozen recent prize winners.

          1. Agreed. And no smarmy PCisms (the opposite, in fact), which is probably why they’re anathema to modern “critics” who think their opinions are meaningful.

            Plus TELEPATHIC CATS! TELEPATHIC HORSES! How could that possibly be other than good? 🙂

              1. Gurgle Translate is Your (actually, My) Friend(TM), but… púca yielded only púca as a “translation”. 😦 And I never encountered a water horse (Wiki has an interesting article). River horses, yes…but not “up close and personal”, thankfully; vaulting a Cape Buffalo, or even an each uisge, might be safer… 🙂

                2. Outside of Lord of the Rings?

                  :points at the oh gosh gorgeous mental image from Gandalf sending the river swoooshing down with horses in the foam:

        2. And baby linguist me (I was 10-ish) kept backtracing the names to find their twentieth-century equivalents AND grooving on the telepathic horses and battlecats. 🙂

  10. I’ve been trying to make decisions regarding my 401K because of the craziness about to descend (I tried to pull all of my money out–I really don’t have that much–and now the agent is ducking my calls).

    At the risk of inviting far more opinions than I really know what to do with, I’m wondering how the rest of you are viewing the place of the stock market in this–and what you think the fallout is going to be.

      1. #MeToo. In my case, because I won’t turn 62 until next Feb I can cash out now and take a 20% or so haircut, or hope there will be something left once I can get to it without (as much) penalty.

        1. A $20 haircut on $100 is better than no haircut on $50.

          And why the haircut…is 59 1/2 the plenty tax end point?

          1. I need to have a sitdown with my accountant. I may be misremembering how old I was when I did this to pay off some unexpected home repairs a couple of years ago.

            1. IIRC (it may have changed in the past few years, and was screwed up during the plandemic) you could take a loan from a 401k at any age, as long as it was repaid, with no penalty. At 59-1/2 you could begin withdrawing with no penalty (although it was still income subject to tax). In the year you turn 72 (now, it was 70-1/2) you have to begin withdrawals, on a published schedule; the requirements changed last year, with smaller percentages required than previously. See: https://smartasset.com/retirement/rmd-table

              Bottomline: Yes, you need to talk to your accountant, which is what I did, and still do at least once/year.

              1. There is a way to take out money from IRA’s, Roth’s, and 401(k)s, legally without paying it back, up to 5 years before 59 1/2. Talk to a tax accountant before doing so.

                Regarding age 72 requirement … there have been talks about increasing that age. We are pulling money already, but not a regular amount, not required, but allowed.

                1. I wasn’t aware of the early withdrawal-without-penalty option; thanks (well, not for me; I passed the 70-1/2 mark over 5 years ago. 🙂 ) And it was just last year that the RMD age was raised to 72; again, I’m afraid it won’t catch up to me.

                  1. We were looking at it really hard when it looked like hubby was going to have to take the full retirement at 55 to cut his exile off (coming home every weekend). No way in heck his retirement check + my salary was going to pay the bills, even with second house living situation dismantled. Then he got transferred back to the home location, so the problem went away (15 years ago, which is why I don’t remember the specifics now, but remember it is an option).

                    1. I lucked out; I was able to retire at 60 from [major defense contractor], and had full access to my 401k, plus a small retirement pension (I took the majority as a lump sum; 25% reduction on the calculated value, but it was worth it).

                    2. Hubby retired at 59 and 10 1/2 months.

                      I retired at 59 and 2 months, 5 years later.

                      We weren’t looking forward to the required distribution from hubby’s account when he turned 70 1/2. Requirement will be double our average pull and 10x our lowest. It will push us into higher tax bracket. More SS will be taxed by the feds. Not much more, but still. No state tax regardless on SS. Then they changed it 😉

    2. We’re staying in, at least with the retirement accounts. I have a small account that I inherited from my parents. That one we pull from (but only for big things). But, I am confident that the market will go back up and when it does, if you’re completely out of it, you’re going to lose money trying to get back in. So, I’m letting it ride. Full disclosure – I have also inherited my father’s generally optimistic outlook…

      1. Yup. Don’t panic and sell at the bottom.

        Besides, if the U.S. stock market doesn’t survive, neither will the dollar. It won’t matter whether you’ve got worthless stocks or worthless dollars. Gold and silver…will be a tempting target for looters. Useful skills will be your best value.
        ———————————
        Governments can only print money; they can’t make it worth anything. They can make it worth nothing.

        1. In my case, I’m trying to figure out if I should pull enough to pay off the house.

          1. In an inflationary environment carrying debt is a good idea. As long as you have enough equity (or other assets) that you aren’t underwater, or you aren’t planning on moving any time soon, then keeping the mortgage is the right way to go.

            I was actually thinking about taking a cash-out refi and putting the money into stocks, but I waited too long an interest rates are higher than I think I could get.

          2. In my investments I have medium-high risk-tolerance.

            In the roof over my head, I have exceedingly low risk-tolerance.

            I would always go for having a paid-for house, because if there’s no mortgage, they can’t foreclose on you.

            … barring some kind of fraud, of course.

            1. Just keep in mind that, even if your mortgage is paid off, the actual owner is the local/state government, a fact made clear if you fail to pay the property tax (assuming your state has one), which is subject to increase without bound, regardless of any current “rules” which claim to limit increases.

            2. They can always find a reason if they need one. Remember the fishing boat that was confiscated over two marijuana seeds?

              1. Especially when MJ seed is included in wild birdseed mix:

                https://www.birdguides.com/news/cannabis-plant-grows-from-mans-wild-bird-seed-mix/

                I guess the boat owners were just feeding the gulls…

                Both “red flag” aws and “asset forfeiture” laws need to go; there’s this document called the “Constitution”, and despite court rulings both sets of laws violate it, both Amendment V and Amendment VI (and possibly others, but that should be sufficient).

                1. But it’s the ‘Progressive’ way, to punish the innocent and reward the guilty!
                  ———————————
                  Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!

                  1. Ummm…not quite. It’s the “Progressive” (aka leftists, aka whining toddlers, aka spoiled brats) way to punish anyone not themselves, and reward themselves. It usually works out as you noted, but not all the time.

                2. The “pot seeds” example was about the Coast Guard’s zero tolerance for a couple of years during the late 80s; the actual statement at that point was “a single seed.”

                  AKA, the time when the tactic of “see Coast Guard, chuck bales of pot overboard” response was standard enough that even a grade schooler in the North West had heard of “square grouper.”

                  “Zero Tolerance” for drug smuggling ended in ’89, after the high point of something like 120 total boats with drugs being confiscated.

                  Came up in the media all the decades later because non-bales of pot being referred to federal prosecution is a thing again in the case of Coast Guard stopping folks in US waters where recreational pot has been legalized, since when they arrest someone for driving under the influence they’re not going to just turn them back loose again.

                  1. And if you happen to have a bag of wild bird seed onboard? The mix supposedly does contain MJ seeds, something about needed minerals or vitamins or something, IIRC. I read back in the ’70s that any MJ seeds so included were supposed to be sterilized so they couldn’t grow, but I doubt if cutters have a test garden on board… 🙂

                    1. There is a reason it was chosen as the crazy extreme example.

                      Hemp seeds are sometimes in bird feed, yes. It’s pretty decent nutrition for a lot of things. Hemp can also show up in yards, and A Bird Did It is a common defense in drug prosecutions. (It’s rather undercut when the plant is in a pot, and obviously lovingly tended, and you’ve got all the stuff to prepare it right there, and it’s been used.)

                      If you think that the Coast Guard in the ’80s was going through bags of bird feed to try to find hemp seeds so they could confiscate boats, you may as well assume they were carrying seeds and threw them at ships before boarding for inspection.

                      Current federal law for simple possession, no priors, is something like no more than $1000 fine and a year in jail.
                      Asset forfeiture, they have to show that the stuff was from illegal activity.
                      (Which is why most of it is gotten when people sign a paper saying “what? NO! Not my pants!” — because they can prove that the money came from illegal activities.)

      2. Not our first rodeo with the stock market. We’ve almost always recovered. I say almost because the 529 college funds took the hit just as we had to start pulling to use it. That hurt. Didn’t “loose” any basis, but sure didn’t capture what we should have tax free either. In fact I remember hubby saying when IBM was down that he was buying more … “What????” you say. Let’s just say over time the basis of our stock averaged $10, when everything was done, after it started splitting, after it recovered, and all the dividends. We made a bunch of money on that stock. I won’t take it for granted, but until, when, and if, hubby panics, I won’t.

    3. Stock prices will go up and down, like always. My bet, and I do this for a living, is that they still have a ways down to go, perhaps a long way. That said, don’t despair. The US looks to be the one eyed man in the land of the blind. What you need is to stay alert and be patient.

      I don’t give investment advice, I can only tell you what I would do were I you, which I’m not. The time to have been worried was when things looked really good. Still, If you think you’ll need the money in the next couple of years then go to short term US treasuries, which is where you should be if you can’t afford a decline anyway. Short term treasuries are paying a decent return right now.

      if you don’t need the money in the short term — 3-5 years — then let it ride. yeah it’ll probably go down more, maybe a lot, but it probably won’t and won’t go down for ever. the thing is, if it gets to the point where the money in the 401k becomes valueless, it’ll be worthless outside it too. The tax advantage of a 401k is worth a lot. Black pills are as deadly as blue pills.

      A nice combination of dividend paying quality stocks and US government bonds, with bonds, proportionate to your age (e.g., if you’re 60 then 60% bonds, with 60% in Long term and 40% in short term bonds) is John Templeton’s heuristic. Not a bad one either.

      What I’m doing is looking to take advantage of the low prices that will be available. All sorts of good, solid companies will be available “on sale” at a nice discount. I also think that long US treasury bonds are a very good deal and I own a lot of them. My circumstances are not your circumstances and my risk tolerance is not your risk tolerance, I just point this out to show what skin I have in the game. I’m betting on a recession followed by a recovery just like before. There’s a lot of ruin in a nation and even the crazy donkeys will need a lot more time to wreck it.

      Good luck.

    4. I’m staying in since I’ve got 20 years until I retire, so for me this is just an opportunity to drive my dollar cost average down. The stock market is going to be there on the other side, though not all the companies (yay creative destruction!)

      I did go ahead a pull out the money for foster-niece’s 18th birthday “welcome to adulthood” gift. (If anyone knows a source for high-quality rebuildable women’s shoes that are suitable for a suit I’d love a recommendation.)

    5. Son isn’t pulling his 401(k) out as much as rolling it over. But still not a good time to be cashing out of funds.

      We pull monthly but hubby isn’t selling anything to do so. (We are over 59 1/2, which is when you can pull without taking the penalty.)

      1. It’s as good a time to be cashing into funds as it is to be cashing out of them.

        The haircut he’s taking selling out of the funds is the same as the discount he’s getting buying into the new funds.

    6. You can roll it over in to gold and silver. There are several companies that can help with that.

          1. You should lose your gold and silver in a tragic boating accident too. Just sayin.

              1. True, but which one is more widespread? Also, which one is endorsed by TPTB?

                Crypto may pass gold funds, but it’s still too new to be quite the fraud.

    7. I am playing it by ear and hoping I am not tone deaf. Things do look bad right now.

      My employer set up IRA is mostly bonds. So far it has lost over 50K this year. My precious metal IRA, OTOH, has held its own. My stock portfolio is doing so crappy I toy with selling it all (there will be enough long term losses to last me at least a couple of years on my taxes) and buying something more substantial. However, I probably won’t sell off anything since I have the proverbial six months income (closer to a year after taxes) in the bank to see us through.

      GLWATRDR

      1. I’m betting heavily on bonds since I’m betting on recession. I’ve been selling rips in stocks and buying dips in bonds. There haven’t been any rips in bonds so it’s been painful, very painful. Still, it’s best to buy when everyone wants to sell and sell when everyone wants to buy. Ask me this time next year to see if I was right.

        For the rest, there’s a reason to diversify, Balance stocks, bonds, and a little physical gold. If your employer doesn’t offer the ability to diversify then learn how to do a self directed 401k. If you do it through somebody like Vanguard, you can use their automated tools, you won’t make a fortune but you won’t go far wrong looking out at the long run. If you can’t afford to have prices go down you shouldn’t be in the markets.

    9. Staying in. I was contemplating pulling some of mine out if they reached a certain dollar value, but they never quite made it that high. Now I’m just back to “ignore it and see what it does over time.”

    10. I never tried to withdraw from IRAs before 59-1/2, but did borrow from my 401K a few times. Not a great idea, but it worked at the time. The following is relevant to shifting 401K money to IRAs:

      I had the ducking issue when I shifted 401K funds (a non-trivial amount) to an IRA at a different institution. In my case, I was going through the then-largest credit union in town, and the branch honcho in charge of such funds had to go beast mode to get the 401K outfit (cough Fidelity cough) to do the transfer. Oh, they tried dragging their feet; since I had gotten married a couple of years before the pull, we had to send a notarized letter saying $SPOUSE agreed, but they did move. Thanks, Melody!

      It’s easier to duck an individual than someone who has the contact number for the relevant Fed agency to complain. (And yes, they were noteworthy as the toughest transfer to date. FWIW, this was in the mid ‘Aughts. Not likely to be easier, but having a professional to act as pit bull helps.)

      N.B (1): If you have to shift IRA funds from point A to point B, if both entities are local, it’s medium easy. Had to do it for reasons when the regulations were changed to make more sense. Just had the sending institution cut a check to the receiving one “For the Benefit of RCPete”. I extracted money from a bank or two just before they got the Too Small to Not Fail blues.

      N.B. (2) After 59-1/2, it’s trivial to pull money from IRAs. The targeted funds for us are held in CDs, and the credit union has no problem with automatic monthly withdrawals. (Same CU as the one who did the big transfer.)

      1. Didn’t have any problems transferring from IP (internal 401(k) management), including the stock*. Ditto from PSC (by then the Percon* stock had been sold through the company buy out, and by then, not legal to require company stock for matching … good because PSC went under), don’t remember who had management of the account.

        Now where the last company had the Simple IRA’s (major brokerage, but don’t remember who), it was a PIA. Went into local office (which for the first two I sent in the paperwork notarized both our signatures, no problems) to sign paperwork and notarized, both of us were there. Money came out, then went back in because the destination didn’t have the “right funds”. Sigh. We had signed that if the funds didn’t match, Cash It Out to transfer to the Existing IRA. Second time they “didn’t have the authorization to take out taxes and penalties” … Sigh. No kidding. We went to Schwab (where the IRA’s are located) and got an account manager (no cost, just hadn’t bothered before), took his card to the other place and pointed out that This was a Legal, No Tax, No Penalty, Full Rollover, and the whole amount had better be there because I (we) wasn’t paying the fees on something that should have been rolled out already. Here is the account manager at Schwab. It got done. We did babysit the process on both ends (we did before, which is why we knew each time things had not gone correctly … which pretty sure surprised some of the account managers on the sending side). We were very, very, polite when talking to the account managers, after all honey VS vinegar, etc. But dang it was a PIA.

        When hubby rolled his out of Fidelity, he’d heard the rumors. He rolled his into to an new IRA at Fidelity. THEN he rolled a little into his Schwab IRA to get the link established correctly. THEN he rolled 3/4 Fidelity into Schwab. He’s kept some at Fidelity because he wants access to their proprietary analytical tools.

        The process is suppose to be easy. Get the form. What is being moved, where is it moving, is it a payout, or rollover (are taxes owed or not), and notarized signature of account owner, and spouse if applicable. If the two sides don’t have compatible funds or receiving side can’t take stocks, then cash out the funds and/or stocks.

        * Back then requiring stock for the matching stock was required, and still legal to do.

    11. I’m not touching anything. While these times are hard and going to be harder the world will not end. Cows will still give milk. Artist will still paint…… and write. Bad things will happen until we bring things back into focus. And that goes for the markets as well.

      2. I have to agree. Good time do not last but neither do bad times. My strategy for the past few decades has been to build up during the good times to be better able to weather the bad.

  11. I wonder how much damage the imbeciles have managed to inflict on our power grid by forcing the dismantling of non-unicorn-fart power plants, and this problem is not limited to CA.

    1. No it is not limited to California but it is currently mostly limited to blue states. The Reader would not want to be in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, upstate New York or New England this winter. California’s weather largely precludes freezing in the dark. The Reader believes that California will break when residents turn their taps on next summer and don’t get water.

      1. Alas, Texas power companies coughERCOTCcough bought into the foolishness. And are reaping the whirlwind until WV vs EPA gets sorted through and the green subsidies die the death they ought to have died ages ago.

        1. Locally EWEB has too. I don’t know about EPUB, SPUB, and the surrounding small local utilities. Luckily most of EWEB is tied to the hydro dams, where they also source our water. They hydro dams also semi-double as flood control and do not interfere with fish stock migration (because there was no natural fish migration in the areas the dams are located). Or the dams aren’t going away anytime soon. Removing the dams in question will not restore the V-valley ecology the lakes replaced. Not Ever.

          1. Pacific Power (owned by Berkshire spit Hathaway) was thrilled to let the dams on the Klamath River go, because A) ratepayers are getting charged for the removal expense, and B) they now don’t have to construct fish ladders for the four dams. Reasons C-ZZ will be left as an exercise for the student.

            No wind power beyond a private windmill (mostly decorative) or two, though we get a bit breezy. TPTB have decided that acreage well suited for growing hay is better used for solar arrays. The fixed-panel arrays favored by the ranchers wasn’t fancy enough, so they have motorized tracking. Which usually works. Mostly. Failed drives stick out, especially at solar Noon.

            Me, I’ll stay with the off-grid fixed-panel array we use for various purposes around here. When the grid is flaky, it’s nice to have some backup.

            1. We’ve seen the solar farms, east of Cascades. Not the ones down by you, but the multitude between Bend and Ontario. The gorge and freeway across Idaho, down Utah, run to the bird choppers, which often aren’t even in motion (yes, you can tell if they are moving or not). Who knew that the wind could blow To Hard? /sarcasm off

          2. Pacific Power (owned by Berkshire Hathaway –spit) is quite happy with the removal of the four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. A) Fish ladders don’t have to be built, B) ratepayers are paying for the removal, so Warren Buffett can do a bangup job of virtue signalling at the usual cost to liberals.

            They aren’t huge; 100MWe, but according to the Green New Math, 36MWe of solar power replaces all that hydro power. Wow. This is my impressed face.

            1. I know about the removal dams on the Klamath. Supposedly for a specific native fish stock revival, that doesn’t do well in the lakes the dams make. Yes, the math sucks. I doubt it will even help the fish in question. Which is why made sure to point out that the Mackenzie River EWEB dams are so far up the river basin that there are no, never has been, a native trout migration that high up. Stocking, yes. Native migration, no.

              Could they find a pretense to eventually shut them down, and remove them? Yes. Is it likely? No. No benefit. Is that stopping EWEB from pushing Solar or wind alternatives? No.

              2. There’s a couple of fish species involved. Klamath Lake has (had–I’m told that DFW got a bit too frisky with the trash-fish poison in the 70s and eliminated most of the population) a sucker fish that was a primary food for the Klamath tribe. So, that’s the issue for upstream of Upper Klamath Lake and a major reason why the hay crop & cattle ranching along the tributary rivers is hosed.

                Downstream, it’s salmon and complaints by the Hoopa and Yurok tribes that the dams both cause the water to be too warm (ignoring dams on the Trinity river tributary, but that’s all in Cali) and screwing up migration. They were complaining about it a long time, but got G. W. Bush to buy into the removal, and the screw was set. Lots of back and forth, but TPTB are aligned for the removal, especially since it does damage to red county residents. Arggh.

                OTOH, as far as I know, they haven’t started removing the dams yet. This one is a long game.

        2. It’s not so much ERCOT et al. being stupid as the federal government. The feds guarantee windmill operators that they’ll get (IIRC) $22 per MW they put on the grid, so when the wind is blowing they can actually pay grid operators to take their power and still make a profit. As a grid operator you’d have to be an idiot to turn that down. At least until the wind stops blowing.

      2. It’s deliberate, because shortages are their pretext for grabbing power; their goal is to have perpetual shortages that are used as basis to ration energy, water, etc., to those favored by the ruling elite. In essence, whether you get water, electricity, etc., will be determined by identity group membership and loyalty to The Party. Plentiful energy, water, etc., means everyone has access without government having a pretext to ration. It is the last thing they want. It is why they are so adamantly opposed to nuclear power.

        1. There is an ammo shortage, so I’ll ration the bullets I use to correct their attitude.

          Who am I kidding, we all know my weapon of choice isn’t a firearm (although LC did help me expand my repertoire).

      1. Do NOT get me started. Just don’t. I detest the industrial-sized bird choppers. Home-size wind chargers? Those are great if you are in a place where they work. But they just do not scale up. And that’s before the environmental damage done by making them, mounting them, and storing the dead bits once they wear out or otherwise fail.

      2. We are seeing…unstable power generation, let’s call it, in my area. Just about three weeks ago, we had a surge/brownout that FUBARed the heat pump’s control panel, and burned out several fuses in it.

        We paid to get it fixed…then paid extra to have a surge protector installed on the unit itself.

        “Green” energy isn’t any of the things it’s touted to be: not reliable, not sufficient, and definitely not green.

        1. The Reader suggests that if you can, you look into whole house surge suppressors for you electrical box(es). They saved the Reader’s computers and a lot of other electronics when we had a lightning strike in the back yard of our previous house. The Reader’s neighbors on either side weren’t so lucky. Neither was the 150 year old tulip poplar that took the strike.

        2. I’ve been watching this since before the Greens dropped Hydroelectric because it looked like the government might actually build a bunch. They’ve been jabbering about ‘Alternative Energy’ or one of its synonyms since the early 1970’s, at least. And throughout that period one fundamental definition of ‘Alternative Energy’, ‘Sustainable Energy’, etc has emerged; “Any form of electrical generation that is in no danger whatsoever of becoming practical”. The moment that the federal government started making noises about streamlining the process for approving hydroelectric plants, the Greens dropped Hydroelectric from their list with the alacrity of some one who picked up what they thought was a kitty, only to discover it was a skunk.

  12. I believe there’s a fourth ruling we can be thankful for, that has actually gone somewhat unnoticed in the furor over the other three. The Big Three, as far as I can tell from the progressives’ demented howling, are the Coach Fired for Praying by Himself case, the NY Carry Rights case, and Dobbs. The other one is the school choice case out of Maine. I’m honestly not sure why they’re not more up in arms over that, though given the way the Praying Coach case has been misrepresented, perhaps they’re conflating them. Of these three, the NY Carry rights case has almost fallen off the radar already, compared to the Praying Coach case and the Dobbs case. That’s what I’m seeing in my little corner of FarceBook, at any rate.

    I honestly have no idea how “SCOTUS vindicates coach fired for praying” became “Teachers can lead prayer in public schools” in their minds, but since the NPC software update system we call Twitter has been cranking out the latter at Ludicrous Speed, we have lots of edge-lord, posting stupidity to wade through.

        1. I’m reading John Wright’s piece on that one right now. IANAL, so I need help on things like this. But yes, it does seem like another landmark case. Let us hope, as Legal Insurrection suggests, that this guts the Green New Boondoggle.

          1. Yes, and no, from what I understand. My understanding is that Congress can still pass a law. But until then, the EPA has to back off.

            1. Somehow I doubt Joe Manchin will be amenable. OTOH, I can definitely see the same RINO scum who brokered the “gun control compromise” going along.

            2. The advantage, if I’ve read it correctly, is that it’s in effect (even though not specifically so stated) a general rule that Congress cannot delegate actual lawmaking to the EPA or any other bureau; Congress must pass specific laws covering the specific activity (interesting implications for, among numerous others, BATFE 😉 ). Anyone think Congresscritters will be willing to put their name on any law sure to be unpopular with even a large minority of the people who give them their places at the trough? I could, of course, be wrong in my reading of the ruling.

      3. The WV case is … world-shaking. The Regulatory state now has limits.

    4. Something from the NYSPA that I don’t think has been fully appreciated is the historical context standard. Historically you can find restrictions on who can carry firearms and some restrictions on where, but there are very few restrictions on what. Which means that things like assault weapons bans and magazine restrictions fail the test.

      1. Pretty much. I can see the restrictions on fully automatic weapons remaining in place since it’s been around since the ’30s. But anything else is on shaky ground, imo – at least while this court is still intact (and the only conservative member of the court getting old these days is Thomas, who is definitely not going to retire while a Dems have a say in who replaces him…).

        It’s rather nice having a conservative court that’s mostly made up of “young” folks.

        1. The restrictions on automatic weapons are younger than the “good reason” requirement the Court specifically struck down.

    5. Because for the Left, everything that is not forbidden is compulsory. And the other way around. This is how “teachers with permits could volunteer to carry concealed on-campus” turned into “REEEEE YOU WANT ALL TEACHERS TO BE FORCED TO CARRY GUNS AND PUT THEMSELVES IN THE LINE OF FIRE!”

      1. I think the morally sane reply to that is something along the lines of: “If you do not love your students enough to die for them, you are not fit to teach. Please, resign your position immediately.”

        Or even better, “Thank you for demonstrating that you’re not qualified to take charge of children. I’ll take my children someplace where the teachers will fight for them, if need be.”

        1. Legally teachers have a duty to rescue and can be charged with murder for failure.

  13. I’m looking for a crisis, October is traditional, followed by a capitulation. Right now it looks like a replay of the 2001 tech bubble crash and not a replay of 2008/9 — though that could change. Time will cure most of what ails us.

    One good thing about this is that much of the left’s power emanates from the tech bro’s money, thus, anything that decreases the tech bros’s money will tend to be a good thing. Already, some of the more egregious firms are 75-90% off their highs. Many will go bust and even the big ones have a long way down to,go.

    It ought to be axiomatic that risk is highest when you think it’s lowest and vice versa. Our enemy thought they could act with impunity, that they had the thing won. They’re not very bright.

    The primary long term risk I see, and it’s not negligible, is that they will blow up the system rather than see their enemies win. won’t change the long run, but it will raise the butcher’s bill and make it all more painful than it has to be.

    Noli Timere and in the short term, make like Paris and Fluctuat nec Mergitur.

    1. Someone mentioned the other day that the Strategic Reserve of oil will run dry just before the election, causing prices to suddenly spike even faster (since Biden’s currently feeding it into the economy).

      Would that qualify as a crisis?

      1. I have no idea what the crisis will be, I’m pretty sure there will be one. I think the precursor will be a sharp decline in oil prices not an increase, that’s been the pattern before — inflation followed by demand destruction, which is a fancy way of not saying recession — but I have no idea, really. Wish I did.

        This is the playing out of a long leverage cycle, like all the declines before. The crash of 29 didn’t cause the depression, the depression caused the crash of 29. Likewise, Lehman didn’t cause the Great Recession, the great recession caused Lehman, In all those downturns there’s a crisis and the crisis becomes the narrative.

        The thing to be is patient. I don’t think the US is about to become Sri Lanka — China might — but I do think things are really bad. I also think they’ll get better. that’s what I’m betting on anyway.

        The wildcard is war. All bets are off if we end up at war, doesn’t matter with whom.

        1. Follow Michael Yon. A great deal of insight into global famine. He thinks the balloon goes up sometime between Mid August and November and full on famine in the US by mid 2023. Of course as our host reminds us, if the US catches a cold the rest of the world is in very deep yogurt.

          As far as the market is concerned, we are sitting tight as at this point would simply lock in the losses. No bueno on that.! Using credit as needed and conserving cash as if complete fail I do not think discover is going to be hunting me down, but many fools will take cash on offer for a period of time. Very optimistic in getting through this Actually buying a very undervalued half acre with house and workshop in middle TN. Remote enough to meet the needs for the fam.

          The timing and how everything has come together has allowed me to see the authors hand in it. So that confirms in my mind how exciting it may get. HE has always protected m and my family, and I believe is doing so now

          1. The US isn’t going to see a famine. The variety we’re used to might go away, and what food is available might get more expensive, but there’s isn’t going to be widespread hunger. We simply produce far too much food.

            The rest of the world? Well, let’s just say that a few million more people are going to die thanks to the efforts to fortify our elections. The Democrats might not displace the Nazis on the body count leader board, but it won’t be for lack of trying.

            3. That would, I fear, depend on just how one defines ‘body’ in the phrase ‘body count’… And how one defines the terms ‘person’ and ‘murder.’

          2. and full on famine in the US by mid 2023.

            …. Famine, like vs the norm, or famine, like the historical?

            Because if the later, he is bugnuts insane.

            If the former, yes, and he may be an optimist.

            Americans are simply too… American… to not already be adapting to predictions, even with weather issues.

            For a year out? … Ooof.

              2. Inflicting famine on Americans by seizing food is on my list of “ways to start the boog.” I don’t think they survive that.

                1. There’s a chance it would be done via cut-outs who would buy it all up before shipping it out of the country.

                  1. Like the CCP was doing in buying up as much of the safety equipment in many countries and shipping it home prior to the actual covidiocy starting One of the ways we knew how bad it was going to get as some of that action leaked out.

              3. @ Sarah > Which they might well decide to do, if the GOP doesn’t take control in the 2022 elections, which they may not (more “fortifying” is ongoing, as we know).

                The peasants in Russia & Ukraine didn’t starve because they didn’t grow enough food, but in part because the Communists sold it away for hard money.
                (links edited to escape moderation delay)

                wikipedia-Soviet_famine_of_1930

                After recognition of the famine situation in Ukraine during the drought and poor harvests, the Soviet government in Moscow continued to export grain rather than retain its crop to feed the people,[71] though at a lower rate than in previous years

                This doesn’t mention the export of food, but the rest of what Stalin did was just as bad or worse.
                history.com/news/ukrainian-famine-stalin

                Here, the Communists (Progressive Labor Party) tell you what really happened – all those claims of deliberate famine-causing actions by Stalin are fake conspiracy theories.
                It is so mind-boggling I copied all of it.

                http://www.plp.org/challenge/2014/3/14/the-real-causes-of-the-ukraine-famine.html

                When the massive famine of 1932-33 took hold, the Soviet leadership had no choice but to take grain from peasants in the countryside and redistribute it in a more egalitarian manner, as well as to feed the cities and the army. Excesses or cruelty occurring during collectivization resulted from errors in carrying out the plan; unevenness in the abilities of the tens of thousands of activists; the response of the peasants themselves; and attacks from kulak landowners. All were faced with a terrible situation under drastic conditions. Many people would inevitably die of starvation.

                Two bogus explanations of this famine — known to Ukrainian nationalists as the “Holodomor” — have gained wide acceptance. The nationalists claim that Joseph Stalin and the Bolshevik leadership withheld grain from Ukrainian peasants in order to export it, or that they deliberately starved Ukrainian peasants to suppress the peasants’ strivings for independence.
                Another distorted interpretation — the official position of the state capitalist Russian government — states that the famine was caused by the collectivization of agriculture, which led to disruptions, mismanagement, and peasant rebellion. This is the official position of the Russian government. There is no evidence to support any of these contentions.

                A Mythical Genocide
                Cynically modeled on the Jewish Holocaust, the “Holodomor” originated in the Ukrainian diaspora, particularly among those who had fought alongside the Nazis and fled with German troops to the West as the Red Army advanced. In true Nazi fashion, early proponents of this “deliberate famine” myth blamed the Jews for it.

                When Ukraine became independent in 1991, these forces flooded into the country and took a dominant role in historical and ideological discussions. They celebrated the Ukrainian “freedom fighters,” who were guilty of mass murders of Jews, Poles, and Soviet citizens.

                The “Holodomor” story was politically motivated from the start. Officially adopted by the Ukrainian state, it is now taught compulsorily in schools and promoted by Ukrainian academics. In fact, the main causes of the 1932-33 famine were environmental: drought in some areas; excessive rainfall in others; and plagues of crop diseases, insects, and mice that destroyed the crops. Weeds were widespread, caused by a shortage of labor due to population flight to towns and cities and the weakness of the remaining peasants, many of whom were starving. Labor shortages left much of the land unplanted or unharvested.
                Many horses, the main animals used for plowing, had been lost or severely weakened by an earlier famine in 1931-32. Although the Soviet state imported and manufactured some tractors, they were insufficient to overcome the loss of horses. And much of the land had been planted with grain for year after year, resulting in soil exhaustion that reduced fertility.

                As a result of all of these factors, the harvest was so small that the food available in the Soviet Union could not meet the needs of its population.

                The Soviet leadership failed to fully understand the environmental causes, nor did local Party leaders. They tended to overemphasize human factors like mismanagement, faulty leadership, and peasant resistance and kulak sabotage. Nevertheless, the Soviet government greatly reduced its grain exports to support the population in Ukraine and elsewhere. It also began to ship aid in food and seed to Ukraine and other hard-hit areas.

                Many peasants who hated the kolkhozy (collectivized farms) nevertheless worked hard on them. Many other peasants worked willingly throughout this period and sided with the socialist system. On the whole, peasants accepted collectivization.

                1. snelson134 links the “fortifying the election” article I was thinking about.

                2. With respect to Ukrainians “aiding the NAZIs”, I suppose my stepfather was one of them. Sort of.

                  I don’t know the circumstances under which he came under German custody, but his “aiding the NAZIs” was doing slave labor in Czechoslovakia (the farmer had instructions not to feed the workers, but that got disobeyed). $STEPFATHER’s understanding was that Stalin considered any Ukrainian (perhaps Russians, too) who surrendered and became a POW was a traitor to the Soviet Union and would be sent to the gulag once repatriated. Which is why my stepfather became an American.

                3. The Ukrainian peasants weren’t armed. before you can sell it, or ship it, you have to take it.

                  Everyone really needs to calm the f-ck down. Food will probably be more expensive, we’re not looking at the Holodomor. Outside something like that, if there’s a shortage of food, famine is a function of money not availability. They shipped beef and pork out of Ireland all through the famine — the peasants didn’t have money to buy it,

                  Be thankful you live here. Pray for the people who live closer to the bone.

                  1. “The rents and taxes were to pay, I could not them redeem …”

                    A pox on them, a blight on them, may the Devil eat their souls and a cat the Devil.

                4. Mao’s famine was caused for similar reasons, except in his case, he was sometimes giving the food away purely for good will. Unlike in the Soviet Union, the rest of the CCP leadership eventually pressured Mao to stop the food giveaways.

                  The Cultural Revolution appears to have been Mao’s revenge.

                    2. Stalin had show trials before and after the Show Trials, but they got their name because they were the big and spectacular ones, the ones that even people outside the USSR knew about, the ones where the useful idiots had to argue that the absurdity of the charges was evidence of their truth: who would make up something like that?

                    3. Yes, Mao had show trials as well. Nearly all of the CCP leadership under Mao found itself sentenced to reeducation camps at one point or another when Mao’s whims turned. He also had “struggle sessions” and “self-criticisms”, which were ways to force his targets to publicly humiliate themselves. The latter, for instance, consisted of the target(s) “voluntarily” (at Mao’s suggestion, of course) standing in public (which could be a CCP leadership meeting) and spend hours reciting lists of supposed transgressions by the target against the CCP.

                      Unlike the Soviet Union, though, such acts generally were enough to rehabilitate the target. Mao wanted to humiliate his targets, but left killings to legitimate threats. Party members sentenced to reeducation could find themselves plucked from their newfound obscurity to once again hold a party position For instance, iirc Deng Xiaoping was twice sentenced to serve time in a reeducation camp. I don’t think that a former Gulag prisoner could have risen to the top of the USSR.

                    4. He also had “struggle sessions” and “self-criticisms”, which were ways to force his targets to publicly humiliate themselves.

                      I seriously challenge folks to read about that stuff and not get creeped out.

                5. I wonder if the PLP expects anyone to actually buy this junk? Other than deep-blue DemoRats, that is. It reminds me of some of the “THERE WAS NO HOLOCAUST! IT’S ALL A ZIONIST PLOT!!!” crap. Although I have no personal knowledge of the Soviet Union I knew enough people, now deceased, who helped liberate some of the NAZI deathcamps; you should have heard what they had to say about that sort of garbage (but not in a sort-of-family-oriented blog).

                    1. Well, she didn’t say people would actually eat them. And WRT my previous comment, do pigs get prion deseases? And if they do, does that have bad effects on the bacon or ribs? Enquiring minds, and all that… 🙂

                    4. High-power klystron w/control circuits, power pack, parabolic antenna: Voila! a long-range microwave cooker! 🙂

          3. If you’d be okay with sharing I’d love to talk with you about the TN move you’re looking at. I’m in the very early stages of the same and I’d really appreciate having someone I could bounce ideas/brainstorm with. My kids are (mostly) willing to go along with me, but all the ideas have to come from me – they’re not that interested and don’t see the rumbles from the storm on the horizon.

            1. I am good with that. Happy to assist. How do we go about that? I am okay with our host sharing my details of email etc.

      2. According to Natural News (see articles from June 22, 23), the U.S. currently has only 7 weeks of diesel fuel additives left, and no hope of resupply until after the new year. This is why I’ve been eyeing my 401K with alarm, because no transportation of goods = nothing for anyone to buy or sell, plus rolling blackouts (trains burn diesel, so no coal and no tankers carrying natural gas), plus long lines at the pump if you can even get gas (all the tanker trucks run on diesel too).

        If this is in fact true (and up until now Natural News has actually done a decent job of reporting the facts), I’m having trouble believing that there’s going to be much of anything left to invest in after that.

          1. And shortages lead to increased prices, which reverberate across the economy. They also lead to “Can’t put in the additives the regs require, so I can’t risk operating the truck because my business can be seized pour encouragement. I guess those components won’t get to the factory, which means it shuts down, and so on and so forth.”

            Death by a thousand cuts is STILL death. It’s just less obvious than a beheading.

            1. Speaking of that 1000 cuts……

              https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/07/02/epa-is-playing-politics-biden-admin-pushes-new-regs-on-farmers-as-food-inflation-skyrockets-1256955/

              <

              blockquote>The agency’s new proposal would overturn a 2020 Trump administration decision to set the CE-LOC for atrazine at 15 parts per billion (ppb) in aquatic ecosystems. CE-LOC stands for “aquatic ecosystem concentration equivalent level of concern,” which is the level at which EPA says “organisms are adversely affected” based on scientific studies.

              Atrazine is the second-most prevalent herbicide used in the U.S., helping to protect roughly 75 million acres of cropland per year. Herbicides like atrazine save U.S. consumers between $4.3-6.2 billion per year by making it easier for farmers to produce more crops, AG Daily reported.

              In June 2012, the EPA’s Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) warned the EPA its proposal to lower atrazine’s CE-LOC relied on low-quality studies that should be disregarded.

              “[M]ost of the existing cosm studies with purported effects identified at atrazine concentrations less than 30 [parts per billion] have weaknesses in their design,” the panel found. “As of this date, there are no published data indicating that environmentally relevant concentrations of atrazine at or below 4 to 7 [parts per billion] cause mortality to invertebrates, fish or amphibians.”

              However, environmental activists filed a lawsuit in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in December 2021, granting the EPA a voluntary partial remand, which gave the agency the opportunity to reevaluate the decision to use 15 ppb as the level of regulation for aquatic plant communities.”

      1. I think the Dems are too worried about the possibility of “President Harris”

        1. Norman Spinrad once wrote a story called, I think, ‘World War Last’. In it, the leader of the Soviet Union had died, and was embalmed and fitted with animatronics so he could go on making public appearances and giving speeches. Everybody in the Politburo was too old, too unpopular, or too obviously crazy to be a viable successor, so they managed the best they could with the dead guy.

          If your President interrupts his own State of the Union speech to start singing ‘It’s A Small World’, don’t say you weren’t warned.

          1. They went with Biden because literally every other candidate from a field of nearly two dozen was actively repellent to the electorate.

            1. Except for maybe Gabbard and maybe one other (I think there was another that didn’t come across as so extreme as most of them, though I can’t remember the name; and he didn’t have the staying power that Gabbard did). And those two were anathema to the Dem base for showing possible signs of sanity. The DNC was literally rewriting the debate rules on the fly to block Gabbard from appearing in the later debates.

              Castro’s line in the first debate still takes the cake, though, imo, when he stated that the country needs reproductive justice for transwomen.

              1. When the lunatics making up the Dem base keep losing elections the party will start ignoring them. They’ll see the rules rewritten to exclude them.

                1. The problem with that theory is that they should have lost the 2020 election. But…

                  Congressional elections are a bit trickier to manipulate. The 2020 Presidential election literally came down to six counties. And six counties doesn’t do much good in Congressional elections, particularly when the counties in question are already blue.

                  1. You can expect most of the fraud to happen at the Senate level, for two reasons:

                    It is simply easier to disguise the fraud in a few blue run cities / counties over a statewide election; under the same principle we saw in 2020 for electors.
                    Holding the Senate allows “Joe” to continue to replace judges and senior bureaucrats. Also, they’ve had success in rolling House RINOs with blame for “shutting down the government”.

                    1. They ‘shut down the government’ several times not so long ago. Most folks barely noticed.

                      Which should have told anybody with a clue how important the government really is.

                      When they ‘shut down the government’ they should be made to stop collecting taxes, AND prevented from collecting them retroactively. That would stick a cork in it.
                      ———————————
                      The one thing we need more of from the government is LESS!!

                  2. It only came down to six counties because the other counties were relatively close. Not as close as they expected, hence the midnight ballot dumps, but closer than they will be in ’24.

                    A lot of people wanted politics to go back to normal, and Joe Biden is an artifact of the time where politics was normal. Combine that with the media burning the last of their credibility and the elimination of election security measures in the name of Wu Flu and you almost get a Democrat victory. Almost.

              2. Marianne Williamson came across as a flake, but a flake that sometimes made sense and appeared to not be actively malicious.

                1. I seem to recall that word came out during the primary that she’d had some serious anger management issues directed at her staff? It might have been another female candidate. But I think it was Williamson.

        2. The Reader thinks that a President Kneepads will be as tightly controlled as President Brandon is. Only the methods will be different. He also thinks that the Democrats are a combination of evil enough and stupid enough to accept President Kneepads for 2 years as a price for staging a spectacle in October.

          1. I’ve encountered a nightmare scenario that has Resident Kneepads appointing the Hildabeast as VP, then becoming yet another suicide/accident-victim/arkencide statistic. OTOH, I’m not sure TPTB would be willing to deal with the fecal cyclone if Hillary were proposed for VFICUS. Fun fact, with Kneepads as FICUS, there’s no tiebreaker in the Senate, and perhaps even the RINO contingent might notice the torches, pitchforks, tar, feathers and rope in the background.

            They might get away with MaligNancy for Vice.

                  1. But just think of all the wonderful outfits she could display! (Dramamine, anyone?)

    3. > “The primary long term risk I see, and it’s not negligible, is that they will blow up the system rather than see their enemies win.”

      What form do you think blowing up the system would take?

  15. I’m not actually surprised the left bought this, but I’m surprised many on our side did.

    My parents bought into the propaganda, but I didn’t. Being abused by those in authority, (family, school, church, law, etc..) at a young age makes one question authority. Also having an aunt that grew up in the Depression and lent me real history books made me a skeptic of the narrative. Combined with reading the “fringe” media and seeing the abuses of the Clinton administration in the ’90s cemented my distrust of most institutions and the elite.

    The major mistake I made was going into the military out of high school, but my uncle, a Korean vet, tried to warn me. Got kicked around by the Practical Joke Department, (bad bureaucratic screw-ups), until the Fairy Godmother felt pity on me at the end of my enlistment. It was a learning experience helpful for dealing with corporate and government f-ups in the future.

    I spent quite a few years reading history and other material before I figure out that most people are apathetic and were just lucky enough to be born, (especially Boomers), in the easiest time and place in world history. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

    I’ve researched this apathy and it is quantified by almost total lack of participation in the political process outside a minority of live people voting every four years. Like a bubble, good times are crashing and we are in the “Crazy Years”.

    Two things red-pilled a large number of people. Conservative talk radio, especially Rush, had people questioning the narrative. And the internet allowed communication and fellowship. You don’t have to subscribe to obscure quarterly periodicals like we did in the ’90s or listen to early morning AM radio to find out what is really going on anymore.

    The time is short, and we must be about making sure the right things are erected in the aftermath.

    “Aftermath: Crazy Years, the Sequel!”

    I have a wish list of what I think are the right things, but I don’t know if the resulting power vacuums wouldn’t cause even more damage. I do think some justice is due to the f-tards in the WEF and all the other elites and their lackeys pushing the world towards the “Great Reset” and the George Guildstones goals. Sentence to the salt mines is the very mildest punishment my imagination can come up with, the rest make the Battle of Verdun look like a Sunday School picnic.

  16. Thoughts:
    o I don’t believe the current Left wants to take us back to the early 20th century. They want to take us back to something much more primitive and impoverished. If they can get Pol Pot’s Cambodia on a nation-wide or world-wide scale, they’ll consider it at least a partial success. The gruff about a glossy renewable-unicorn future (“We’ll all drive electric cars!”) are strategic deceptions intended to advance this goal.

    o If/when we win over the Left, there will be a nasty civil war between the various anti-left factions. At the moment people are willing to shut up and soldier on when their allies say disturbing things, because the Left is a much bigger threat. Afterwards, people will be prickly about “I didn’t fight that fight just to submit to a new Leftism under a different name, imposed by my former allies!” And that attitude will be multi-ways mutual.

    1. o If/when we win over the Left, there will be a nasty civil war between the various anti-left factions.

      Possible scenarios include regional powers/warlords that make the current RINO grifters look like toddlers. There’s already third party vultures planning on taking advantage of the chaos, but currently they may just be LARPing con men. Example: Ivan Throne and his ilk.

      A lot depends on what the military will do. I think the real concern will be positive control over the nukes, especially those on boomers which can supposedly be independently launched.

      1. That seems to give the loud talkers/typers a lot of credit. I hope that you’re wrong, and that when push comes to shove, the “my way or war!” people on our side turn out to be mostly a bunch of keyboard commandos, with a very small scattering of serious actors.

        I may be overly optimistic, since I tend to avoid delving deeply into that side of the internet and of politics.

        1. The people who have the ideological positions to be a Problem are also far less likely to be able to form the kind of powerbases necessary to be much of a threat.

      2. I don’t think there will be a civil war. I do think we’ll see another massive political realignment, by my count #8. The Democrat Party will either go the way of the Whigs and be replaced by the Libertarian Party or, more likely, be taken over by the Gabbard/Manchin types.

          1. It still won’t be a civil war, the Left doesn’t have the capability to project power beyond the suburbs at all, and their ability to project power beyond the urban cores is very limited.

            1. The military invades other countries. They might not win, but I think they can range a bit further than the suburbs.

              1. :smacks with wiffle bat:

                Oh, get serious.

                That isn’t QUITE as bad as “can’t fight the government, they have nukes,” but it doesn’t fall nearly as short as it should.

                Even after all the nonsense, no, they haven’t purged the military.

                1. Um, was that comment meant for me or Jeff? All I said is that the military can still project force past the suburbs, which Jeff is denying.

                    1. The context here is armed rebellion, if not full-blown civil war, so “the left” projecting force in this case means “the government.” Which WILL order the military to act if threatened. And the military can reach well beyond the suburbs. That’s what I was responding to.

                      Yes, I realize that many will disobey – and thank goodness for that – but that’s not what I was addressing.

                    2. The context here is armed rebellion, if not full-blown civil war, so “the left” projecting force in this case means “the government.”

                      Assumption denied.

                      There is no form where that functions effectively.

                    3. The left currently controls the federal executive branch, which controls the military. Or at least the portion of the military treasonous enough to obey orders to go to war against us. And this administration will give such orders if Americans take up arms against it.

                      Which part of that are you denying, and on what basis?

                    5. Okay, I’ve already acknowledged twice that part of the military will turn and side with us. So apparently your position here is that ALL of it will do so, or at least such an overwhelming majority that it would make civilian resistance largely unnecessary.

                      I’m going to need a little convincing on that. I do believe we have plenty of honorable soldiers who will side with us, but there’s never a shortage of would-be thugs looking for an excuse.

                    6. No, that “the military” WRT attacking American locations is not something which can be identified with “the Left.”

                      That’s my brother you are identifying as a threat, there.

                      Both by blood, and by love.

                      NO.

                    8. Then what DO you identify the military attacking American with?

                      We may be going by different definitions of “left” here.

                    9. Then what DO you identify the military attacking American with?

                      Why would I identify something that has not happened with jack all?

                    11. Okay, either you’re playing some weird semantic game where you refuse to give name to the type of people who would support, give or execute such orders, or you’re in denial that anyone would actually do so. Either way, this is getting silly.

                      If you’re seriously suggesting that NO ONE in the military would obey such orders, I think we’re just going to have to agree to disagree. I’ll admit I’d love for you to be right, but I don’t believe it works that way.

                    12. No, I am refusing to agree with the “weird semantic game” in which someone speaking of the Left is speaking of the military in any way, shape or form.

                    13. The military as a whole isn’t leftist, no. But plenty of individuals in it are and some of them WILL follow such orders if they’re given. If you think the military will monolithically be on our side, then you’re in denial and I don’t know what else to tell you.

                    14. Inverse.

                      You are assuming the military will monolithically NOT be on our side.

                      Thus, by your own measures…

                      You’re in denial and I don’t know what else to tell you.

                    15. > “You are assuming the military will monolithically NOT be on our side.”

                      I’ve explicitly acknowledged multiple times in this discussion that SOME of the military will be with us. I don’t believe it will be monolithic in either direction.

                      For someone who likes to brag that she pays attention to what’s actually said in these conversations…

                    18. Gosh, why would I be expecting the military to not engage in war crimes that go completely counter to the national character, and the likes of which we are beaten black and blue with all through bootcamp, just because there are idiot progs who have daydreams of military being obedient robots?

                      You tried to assign the military to the Left.

                      No.

                    19. And YOU keep trying to pretend I’m talking about the military as a whole, even though I’ve explicitly and repeatedly made it clear I’m not.

                      No.

                      For what it’s worth I still hope you end up being right, but if you insist on twisting my words and ignoring what I’m actually saying then there’s no reasoning with you.

                      We’re done here.

                    22. I didn’t bother being more specific at first because I didn’t realize someone was going to bite down on one point like a pit bull and willfully ignore all my attempts to clarify my position. I was making a brief comment, not an encyclopedia entry.

                      And this isn’t the first time you’ve done this sort of thing to me, so I know better than to keep arguing in circles until you get bored and shut the conversation down in a huff. If you ever decide to address the argument I’m actually making, we can talk later. Otherwise…

                    23. Paying attention to what you wrote, rather than what you wish to have conveyed?

                      Especially when it will get innocent people killed?

                      Yes.

                      I do that.

                      Especially when your statement, which I just linked, is stating that the military would be projecting force for the Left where AntiFa cannot go.

                    25. “the military would be projecting force for the Left where AntiFa cannot go.”

                      And some of them will be. Bank on it.

                    26. And some of them will be. Bank on it.

                      I can’t, I was already killed by my law enforcement friends, as you predicted how many years ago?

                    27. DGM, we’re having an argument with someone trying to assert the article of faith that all soldiers /Federal LEOs / etc. are saints against the realities of history that there are always Benedict Arnolds.

                      And, yes, it may very well get her friends and family killed, unless they are no longer sharing the uniform with Benedict. Uniforms are worn to identify who is friend vs foe at a glance, and they don’t go below the skin. That’s what they do.

                      It’s a waste of time, DGM, and I don’t recommend it to anyone. Just note that Fox is irrational on this subject, and take it into account.

                    28. Honestly, Sarah, at this point I just want to know why she thinks some random nobody on the internet stating a prediction is going to get innocent people killed. Because I’m not thinking “friendly fire” so much as “hysteria.”

                    29. Dear heavens.

                      You really are that ignorant about what you suggested actually involving.

                      Very short version:
                      You just suggested the American military would go Nazi, as an organization.

                      Now, Sarah said to cut it out.

                    30. “You just suggested the American military would go Nazi, as an organization.”

                      President Biden, through SecDef Austin, issues instructions to have the “military” confiscate firearms. At that point, the “military”, through the normal chain of command, has gone fascist. Individuals, even units, may mutiny and refuse to obey, but the organization has gone fascist.

                    31. Snelson, how do you suggest they’ll confiscate weapons? Even if they want to? They couldn’t stop IEDs in Baghdad, but they’re going to take all of our guns? HOW?
                      Please? This isn’t a movie.
                      Yes, there are bad eggs in the military. ALL OF THEM? Don’t be silly.
                      Even their own internal projections say more than 60% will leave and “join insurgents.”

                    32. Did I say anywhere that would actually WORK for them? Please point it out. What I said was that the “chain of command” would be issuing orders, and those orders would present the choice of going along with an objectively fascist (but “legal”) order or mutinying. And if you’re also asserting that some percentage (my estimate is about a third) wouldn’t go along with it because it was in “legal form”, then you’re ignoring history and human nature.

                    33. My talks with military say a lot of people will get sudden promotions that day. Yeah, they estimate about a third. I think that’s actually wrong. I think they’re grossly underestimating how few people still like them/trust them. Kind of like you know CNN thinks it can change its image and appeal to the right.
                      I’d estimate more like 20% and they won’t be the BEST 20%

                    34. I DO understand the outrage that even a few of them will go bad. But imagining our military as robotic people who follow the rules is a thing of the left, not us.

                    35. Congratulations on making your point meaningless.

                      “Having the military” means nothing if all they have is a few brass and a few scattered commies here and there. In that case We have the military, they have the paperwork.

                      And even small fractions of the military remembering their oaths will make the entire edifice combat ineffective before they even think about deploying.

                    37. Shush, dude. It’s not you, specifically. I get her point. There’s a whole camp screaming the military is the enemy. I think most of them are Russian agitators.

                    38. I think you’re missing MY point, Sarah. I’m actually getting worried for Fox. This is the second time I’ve refused to engage on her terms when she’s tried the “smarter-than-thou” routine on me, and both times she’s seemed to come unhinged over it.

                      I don’t care to be her intellectual punching bag, but I still like her and it’s disturbing to see her have what seems to be a melt down.

                    40. I fear for fragmentation among the mostly decent faced with the army ant evil-doers of the other side.

                    41. > “She hasn’t done it only to you.”

                      I know.

                      And it’s needlessly counterproductive. I already know she’s smart, even if I don’t always agree with her. But when she pulls crap like this I end up having less respect for her intellect, not more.

                  2. And for the love of God, please don’t try to inform me that the MANY friends I have who are active don’t exist, we don’t need nuke wars.

              2. They don’t have the military. The only forces they can rely on are the Antefa types, and they’re not good for much beyond the end of the bus lines.

                1. This is the same argument I’m having with Fox right now. They don’t have the ENTIRE military, no. Hopefully not even half of it. But there’s always some who would turn on us, and with a smile on their face no less.

                    1. They have the brass. That’s far from everything, but it can enable a lot of other bad apples.

                      As I said to Fox, I’d love for you to be right. But I think counting on the entire military refusing instead of a split is unwise.

                  2. They have well less than half, and most of what they do have is non-combat troops. They probably wouldn’t make it off base.

                    1. Bummer about all the transport equipment failures. No, we can’t fix them today. Diversity training requirements and lectures all this week, sir/ma’am/creature.

                    2. “Bummer”?! “failures”?! Consider yourself under house arrest for “diss’ing” the unhoused underemployed and applying a negative stereotype to transportation hiati!

                  3. No, because they know they’d be shot.

                    See also, why gang members in the military aren’t out being obvious.

                    We’re not having an argument.

                    You’re insisting on nonsense, and we’re informing you that you’re wrong.

                    And it’s nonsense that will get my family and friends killed, based on believing in the competence of the noisy progs.

                    1. > “And it’s nonsense that will get my family and friends killed, based on believing in the competence of the noisy progs.”

                      And you’re again ascribing to me a position I don’t hold.

                      No, I don’t think they’re competent. I think the ones who turn on us will lose and die for it. But they can be dangerous in the same sense that a wounded or rabid animal can, and cause damage before being put down.

                      What is it our hostess keeps saying? “We win, they lose, but they can still hurt us in their death throes?”

                      And speaking of nonsense, how does my saying this put you and yours in any additional danger? I’m not ENCOURAGING the troops to turn on us, or telling our side that we’re doomed. I’m just saying to be prepared for trouble and not assume that things will go as smoothly as we’d like.

          2. And those 28% are just the people willing to speak like that openly. I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual percentage was a few points higher.

            Although the real question isn’t how many think it will be necessary to take up arms, but how many are actually willing to do so (or support those who do).

              1. Whaddaya mean, ‘if’? They are already cheating again. They’re cheating in the primaries for Ghu’s sake! The question is whether anybody will admit to seeing the fraud.

                  1. Always plenty of piano wire and pointy stakes if there is not enough rope…

  17. i watch the left squeal and yell “to hell with scotus” etc. and i think, well why should we listen to them if you don’t? thus begins the third war for independence. they should be careful though for when we are no longer holding to the rule of law which they so eagerly toss aside, things won’t be going to their liking.

    1. As was said during the Obama administration, “the document you’re ignoring is the only thing that says I have to listen yo you.”

      1. Cue the well-known scene from “Man for All Ages” about cutting down the laws in England to get to the Devil.

          1. That was an excellent movie, and a great saint… But I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again, save when showing my kids. I don’t particularly enjoy sobbing for five minutes straight when I can avoid it.

            1. I’d skip Das Boot as well. Dang, that’s a great film. But I can’t bring myself to watch it again – the ending hurts too much.

              Ditto the battle scene in Kenneth Branaugh’s Henry V. He got medieval warfare a little too right.

            2. AesopSpouse and I were in a college production together, which is when we first started dating. He played Sir Thomas (I was a techie), and, yeah, it’s a tear-jerker.
              One of our troupe’s best efforts during our time there.

  18. Every single institution, every single PERSON has been corrupted by this idea that government should be by experts, and top down, center out. It’s all over the world, yes. But it has never had any business here.

    :makes usual thinking try-to-clarify-in-head sounds:

    Again, possibly because went-through-this-crud-with-Clinton*, before I was old enough to really NOTICE what I was learning– experts, no. People who know what they’re doing, yes.

    Probably because during Clinton there was HUGE influx of both “experts” and “no, really, which end of the cow does the poop come out?” type non-experts.

    Even the “oh my GOSH what?!?” bad experts weren’t as bad as the … the “farming’s easy, you put a seed in the ground and it grows” guys.

    Individually.

    They were just insanely more common.

    And the know-a-little, “oh my gosh deer are wonderful I am going to buy a nice house in a small town and Enjoy Nature” folks can learn.

    My folks’ favorite neighbor set a record in going from “deer are wonderful and sweet” to “putting peanut butter on her electric fence to keep the field-rats off her roses” in 18 months. 😀

    …dad still became her favorite person ever by burying a lot of farm-animals-who-were-pets.

    *I give thanks I do not need to clarify which.

    1. Deer are indeed wonderful, but I would not describe them as sweet. Savoury, rather. One would not dream of serving them with any kind of sugary sauce.

        1. Preizel-berry or Sanddorn preserves on venison or wild boar. Hmmmmm. licks chops Apricot’s not bad either, if it’s not over-sweetened.

      1. Now that there’s a community of dog-owners in the immediate area, the deer are a bit harder to find, though suspicious hoofprints do show up. The tomatoes are in the greenhouse and I haven’t had trouble with deer going after the summer squashes. I think they’re hanging out on the antelope sanctuary west of us.

        OTOH, it’s going to be an awful season for squash; the plants are at least 3 weeks behind schedule, and the female flowers are showing up before the males*. Not good, especially with leaves the size of teacup saucers at best. Others would suit a demitasse. Sigh.

        (*) Usually the males will bloom a week or two before the females. Squash that hasn’t been pollinated tends to be funky-to-awful.

        1. This is why I love reading ATH! I am growing a few crookneck yellow squash plants, and have been admiring the big showy blooms. Until I read this comment, I never knew that squash has male and female flowers! So I did a search and now I know what I should be watching for. Thank you!

  19. “no one has any idea what the rules are, what the laws are”. Go with the Copybook Headings and you won’t be too far wrong.

    1. The advantages of the Copybook Headings are that they’re easy to understand, they’re enforced automatically and there is no appeal to Daddy-the-Prez. And their specialty, justice without mercy, is better than neither justice nor mercy, which the DemonRats favor. Better by at least a bit. anyway.

  20. For one, there’s going to be a while that no one has any idea what the rules are, what the laws are, what it is safe to do/say.

    :laughs and cracks knuckles, in Odd and Millennial:

  21. Although I am not a fan of placing your trust in princes, Mister we could use a man like Joshua Norton again.

  24. Not quite at the level of buying up massive amounts of canned food and shotgun shells, but I am trying to buy a little extra every chance I get.

    Oh, and at least one container of 30-day emergency food for the family. Enough to buy time as needed.

    1. Buy more of the food you eat, in cans.

      Make sure you eat the oldest cans first. Don’t let them age too much. Make sure you can eat any long term storage food, by buying extra and eating it.

      Some stuff digestively will be a problem find out now when it is a discomfort, not a disaster. Example: how to cook properly dried beans.

      In a true famine, trash-picking is common. Make sure you have a plan to dispose of (or stash, or destroy) packaging discreetly. Dumping a pile of freeze-dry packaging or a stack of cans out at the curb may get you burgled, or charged with “hoarding”.

        1. Cans can also be melted down–if you can craft your own forge and make it hot enough. And they can be recycled in various ways, most notably by turning them into wire. A tin snips will make a very basic wire that’s sharp on the edges, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to fix that.

  25. and as a stealth decision they remanded the decision about the MD AWB back to the 4th…

    1. “We read his mind and we know that he knew that she wasn’t really in pain-pain.” Talk about lousy grounds for a prosecution.

      1. Re: “lousy grounds for a prosecution”…

        Watched the J6 circus, or any clips from it? They seem to be in “Hold my beer!” mode.

        1. No. I have no patience for watching people who make 6th graders and toddlers look like models of good behavior and maturity. I have three weeks of vacation left, and I want to enjoy them. I have to go back to being immersed in politics the last week of July.

          1. Wise choice. I’ve watched a couple of minutes in clips, and I’d say you’re being generous. Enjoy your vacation, and as usual keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark, even in a motel room (if your vacation includes such).

  27. Dear Friends: When discussing plans and preps, does one wonder if the line is secure from eavesdroppers?

      1. The NSA techies would never honor an administration demand to “unmask”. That crazy talk!

      2. What plans and preps? All mine fell in the toilet with my losses in that terrible paddleboat accident. Oh, woe is me!

    3. We’re talking about the Internet. You should assume the line is NOT secure.

    4. Public on blogs is definitely an insecure channel.

      Email is an insecure channel.

      Assume any electronic channel is insecure, unless you have skilled knowledge otherwise.

      With the current situation, for legally risky activities, they are absolutely unsafe if one does not know the other party, and have a clear idea where they have been mentally for a recent period of time.

      I understand that people sometimes have a nation wide network of contact for whom their trust level is sometimes to an appropriate level for these sorts of problems. I’m pretty much a loner, and know how few of my contacts that I should trust to such a significant degree.

      I talk about potential scenarios in the open on the internet precisely because I have calculated that I should probably not act more directly, and because I may do some good by speaking forthrightly. It seems to me that if I get taken out of action, it probably does not hurt our faction in the wider picture.

  28. “Massive Resistance” is back, baby.

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/07/new-york-democrats-undermine-supreme-court-2nd-amendment-ruling-in-new-legislation/

    “The legislation clearly is intended to thwart the SCOTUS decision, guaranteeing more litigation. State governors like Kathy Hochul in New York are banking on the limited SCOTUS docket to evade the ruling, even if they ultimately lose, in the interim they have violated citizens’ constitutional rights. Expect similar tactics in all blue states.”

    As I said, their go to is “We’re doing it anyway. Sue us.”

    1. California’s also planning to do so. New York appears to have directly lifted from the new law that was presented in California. The primary difference right now is that the California law hasn’t passed and won’t until August (I think) because the state legislatures have just gone home for a recess.

      On the other hand, the California DOJ “accidentally” released a database of all CCW applicants for the last ten years (up until February of this year, iirc) into the wild.

    2. I’ve reached the point where I consider CA, NY, NJ, MA, MD, IL and a few others to be lost to the Republic, at least until the rational citizens who have the misfortune to still be living there do something about it. And it seems, based on crap like the above, that those states agree that they’re not actually part of the US any more; they’re in some imaginary “Peoples’ Demobracy”. (Damn, that was a typo, but it’s so appropriate that I left it intact… 😉 )

  29. Sarah, your last few posts have absolutely been “straight fire” as the kids say. (That’s good.)

    Thank you for your continued voice out here keeping the black pills at bay, one day at a time.

    #teamheadsonpikes

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