When Atlas Takes A Coffee Break

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

As you guys know I might have a few opinions. Couple hundred. And while I’m often in doubt and often in error, there as some things that get under my skin in a way you can’t even begin to imagine.

Lately, everywhere, I’ve been listening about how the problems in America are because we’re trying to maintain our place at the top of the unipolar world.

Honestly, I hadn’t heard unipolar at all in news media or opinion pieces since my brother’s cohort was lamenting that “the good guys lost” the cold war. Now all of a sudden, it’s everywhere, from right to left, from top to bottom, as though released from above with the good old “journolist” hose. All of a sudden supply problems happen because “America’s decay” (I swear this is mandatory once per article) makes the “unipolar world” no longer possible. Russia’s militaristic bullshit, and the Junta pseudo-sending-Ukraine money (but really just embezzling it) is because America is willing to risk nuclear war to “maintain the unipolar world” and China’s troubles are because America can’t stand to have rivals and wants to maintain the “unipolar world.”

So was word sent from above to pound the drums of “unipolar”? I don’t know. It’s possible. Brandon’s Junta is such a hot mess that having a college kiddie decide that this weird desire for a “unipolar world” is the worst thing EVAH and we need more diversity in power int he world, or something.

I know it suits the cursed race of the Brandonites that we should think America is in decline, and that we were only prosperous and free because of our “militaristic attitudes”. It suits them because then we won’t notice what is going on with them and what they’re doing more or less in the open to destroy us.

It’s like they’re holding our heads underwater and telling us it’s the floods.

Unfortunately for them the strategy of “if you hold America down, the rest of the world will rise” is working about as well as all their other strategies. (Seen this weekend from a military desk pilot “The truth is that diversity is strength. It’s a scientific fact.” That’s about as scientific as the the idea that the sun circles the Earth or that the Earth “has a fever”.

In fact what we’re seeing is the unipolar (there are you happy I used the word?) Atlas, holding up the world and modern civilization being forced by bean counters to step away for a coffee break. And the rest of the world losing its mind, structure and wealth as a consequence.

Let’s be perfectly clear, not only is the world unipolar but it has been unipolar for a far longer time than any of these lackabrains can figure out. There was never a bipolar world during the cold war. There was a unipolar world pretending to be a bipolar one. Thanks to our own commie simps and pudding heads, we actively propped up the Soviet Union by feeding it, and not slapping it down as it so richly deserved. They had nothing. They were driving long pipes around on trucks to pretend they had missiles, and our commie simps, pudding heads and the CIA (BIRM) bought everything they were selling, and cowered with fear, and tried to convince us to get rid of our own arsenal and kneel in submission to the brutal commies so the world could live.

They’re still trying to do it. That’s what this unipolar and “decaying America” bullshit (with cream of bullshit on top) is all about.

The commies are gone. Fascists rule China, but that’s coming untangled too. And the socialists in Europe are freezing in the dark, but our fraking commie simps, pudding heads, and the federal bureaucracy are trying to kneel to them and give them power they couldn’t use if they had it.

They’re acting as if Reagan hadn’t taken a sharp pin to the balloon of gaseous bullshit they’d been spinning for years and revealed that there was no great USSR behind the curtain of nonsense. Worse, they’re acting as if Russia — all that remains of the USSR — hadn’t shat itself in public over the last year, and weren’t busily wiping its excrement-covered hands to the global walls in front of everyone. They talk about China being ascendant, as though we hadn’t known what happened the last time the original Mao — not the Winnie the Xi facsimile — was doing this “we Stronk” bullshit. Well, maybe they don’t know that millions starved in China and that the country was destroyed as though by an enemy (Which arguably it was. The voices in Mao’s head were no one’s friend.) They are the type of airy fairy bullshitters that were telling us back in the seventies that China would conquer the world, and which made me study Mao’s execrable “poetry” (ransom notes have more style) in school. (The only good thing about Mao’s poetry is that it was better than Samora Machel’s, which they also made us study. Note this is praising with loud damns.)

Now, is America in the greatest of shapes? No. But we’re not doing badly for a country whose institutions of learning, government, and to a great extent economy have been captured by a cabal of their enemies.

Yes, we’re buckling under the Brandonites decision not to let us drill for gas, or buy from relatively friendly countries. And the amount of cash that the bloated communist carcasses of the Junta are swallowing as they swell to blimp-like proportions is putting what was until relatively recently trivial expenses — like meat for the table — into the realm of near-unreachable for a lot of us. (I went grocery shopping between this morning’s post and this.) Black Friday was black indeed, with a lot of people window shopping but few buying, and I’m trying to boost the business of a lot of friends who are hurting a lot worse than we are.

We are relatively okay, even if losing ground, of course. Who isn’t? But writing, particularly escapist writing, is a counter-recessionary industry. People buy more of it as things get worse. Yes, we end up having to do things like putting all our stuff on Amazon if the readers can only borrow from KU not buy. (I’m working on a work around via my newsletter and book funnel. But I have to know how much I’m producing regularly before then. Because, see, my newsletter is with substack, which means I can have subscription levels, and allow the subscribers to get a book funnel link to download what I produce that year — but I need to know how much that will be (roughly) so I know what to charge. This past year wasn’t great, but I’m picking up. Anyway, I should know by January.) But we won’t starve. (And the only ones who object to escapism are those who want everyone in jail.) However, we have family and friends who will need our help — already need our help — and our ability isn’t infinite.

So America is going to have a rough, rough winter.

And yet, with all that, we’re probably the only semi-functional economy in the world. And we’ve been for a long time. As bad an infestation of commie simps, pudding heads, academics and deep staters (BI DEFINITELY RM) as we have, the other countries have it worse. As much as our elites don’t recognize reality, every other country (except maybe some very tiny ones) is markedly worse.

Unipolar? Well, no shit Sherlock. When Russia can’t invade its own backyard, and China is attempting (in vain) to occupy itself and Western Europe is freezing and starving itself to appease a frigging autistic Swedish teen.

Here’s the thing the Brandonites and their ilk don’t get: the US isn’t the “sole power” of the “Unipolar” world because it wants to be. It doesn’t get in fights because it wants to — although the left’s tendency to use the armed forces for world building (and by left in this case I include a lot of the soft-left that flies under the GOP) and general attempts at charity doesn’t help — but because as the sole functional (for values of functional) country we have everyone’s hand against us. And if we didn’t prop up these ‘Threats’ and ‘enemies’ — if we actually and for real went in, broke their shit and told them not to make us do it again — we’d sacrifice fewer of our boys and be more clearly the sole power. (Which frankly would only be sane.)

I mean, what do they want instead? A world of fighting slave states, stateless bandits, and demi-savage shitholes, with everyone’s hand against everyone else?

Don’t answer that. These shitweasels (apologies to shitweasels everywhere) think that if everyone is fighting everyone else, they get to rule. Yes, I know Machiaveli said “divide and conquer” but Machievali assumed the conquerors had half a functional brain to use. They weren’t fantasy addicts high on hopium like all our reality-deniers and insanity-peddlers.

A unipolar world? We should be so lucky.

If America can get rid of these rabid ducks nibbling our entrails and drop kick them into the hell they belong to, so we can come back from our coffee break of the soul, we’ll teach them the meaning of unipolar.

You think Atlas shrugging is bad?

Wait till Atlas drop kicks your whining asses to the college campuses that will no longer exist.

You ain’t seen nothing yet. And because I’m sane (ish) still, I hope you never will.

147 thoughts on “When Atlas Takes A Coffee Break”

  1. The left gullible fools always think it will be someone else who is welded into their apartment to die or made homeless and starving because their social score app is tuned to yellow so they aren’t allowed into their own apartment complex or to buy food.

    But there is always someone who is first against the wall when the SHTF and it is usually the toadies of the ones who promote that sort of thing.

    Although, to be fair, sometimes there is the Romanian Christmas scenario and then they get to pretend they were always against tyranny.

    1. We wish.

      No, Thermidor, the Moscow Show Trials, and the Cultural Revolution appear only when the toadies have exhausted their utility to oppress others.

  2. Things are going to get REALLY rough this winter if the perpetually-looming rail strike happens. Which, given that Biden is “demanding” Congress pass legislation to resolve it, I’m now fairly certain is inevitable.

    Any bets on whether/how long it will take .FedGov to use the strike as an excuse to nationalize the entire railroad industry?

    1. They can’t even run Amtrak. Putting them in charge of cargo rail will be an unmitigated disaster.

      1. They did manage to successfully run Conrail and actually managed to turn a profit for a few years before the company was privatized in the 1987. But Conrail a) was regional (the Northeast and northeastern Midwest) not National, so much smaller scale, and b) Conrail had competent leadership which, if the current state of things is anything to go by, won’t be the case here.

        Amtrak’s biggest problem was, and still is, that it was never intended to be successful long-term — it was intended to let the Taxpayers absorb the collapse of intercity passenger rail rather than the financially-failing railroads, only intercity passenger rail never died out as expected — and thus had no real long-term business plan. They still don’t. Hence why they are just now phasing out near 30 year-old locomotives and won’t be phasing out near 50 year-year old rolling stock until next year at the earliest. The fact that most of their C-suite leadership (something like 7 of 9 board members and the President) are political appointees only makes the situation worse.

        The other problem is is that Amtrak management is effectively divided into two camps: Northeast Corridor and Long Distance. The Northeast Corridor cadre is, and has been, in charge, and they utterly despise the Long Distance half of the business. Hence why Long Distance schedules and services are continually being cut back despite consistently (really near-continuously) sold-out trains while the NEC was struggling to fill trains even pre-pandemic.

        1. It doesn’t help that Amtrak is running on a rail system designed for and scheduled for and mostly used for freight traffic. But we in the USA live too far apart to have dedicated passenger rails for most places, due to the sheer distances our rails extend to.

          This is an argument I have about every 3 months with some Euro-weenie who lives in a ‘country’ half the size of Florida (driving distance from one tip to another here in FL is 15 hours with minimal bathroom, gas and food stops, which is somewhat limited as we don’t have Bucky’s here, dammit.)

          Same reason – distance – is why EVs, public transit, bikes, skateboards and all other forms of non-internal combustion engined 4-wheel peoplemobiles are impractical, including Amtrak.

          1. I took Amtrak from Birmingham to DC back in 2002. There were 15 or so stops on the way, and we had to go onto a siding at least once to let a freight train go by. It was enjoyable, but I haven’t done it again.

            1. Used to take Amtrak between Philadelphia and Williamsburg to visit Little Brother on a regular basis. Nothing really to complain about other than the inconvenient schedule, though we did get stuck in a siding for a few hours once. Single-track section southeast of Richmond, and a freight train ahead of us hit an automobile going through a grade crossing. Rail traffic in both directions was screwed up for hours until the crossing was cleared and the logjam of freight trains got sorted out. Other than that, no real complaints.

              1. “No real complaints” in that scenario sounds remarkably like “So aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”

                  1. No, not with the initial cause (stupid driver, probably texting or reading a magazine. Or, as I’ve seen far too often, pulled on to the tracks before ensuring a clear place ahead to get off the tracks.) But Amtrak doesn’t get a free pass, either; some of their infrastructure is a couple of decades beyond needing replacement or upgrading.

                    1. Oh absolutely agreed. Heck, I’d say that MOST of their infrastructure is a couple of decades beyond needing replacement. Case in point: the reason why they’re FINALLY adopting the new Siemens Charger diesels is because their current roster of GE Genesis locomotives has pretty much been run into the metaphoric dirt and are at the literal end of their service lives. Same reason they’ll start replacing their Amfleet coaches (the single-level tube-shaped ones) next year: they’re originally from the late 70s, and you can only rebuild and refresh them so many times before good old metal fatigue rears its ugly head.

                    2. Metal fatigue is the same problem, only worse, that’a always caused the airlines (and for that matter, the military) expensive issues. Once an airframe or railcar is past its “design life” about all that can be done is say “sayonara”. It’s worst in aluminum, but steel isn’t immune.
                      How about the Acelas; did/do they use the GE locos? The Acela was the “last word” on Amtrak when I worked near BWI, but I haven’t kept up and I don’t remember what the trainsets were made up of.

                    3. The Acelas are/were electric, not diesel, with a “power car” (really a locomotive, but that’s the technical term for it) on each end a-la European and Japanese bullet trains. Those were made by… [consults the Pedia of Wikis] Alstrom & Bombardier. Those are also nearing the end of their service life and will be replaced by Avelia’s new Liberty trainsets starting late next year.

                    4. Damn, I actually knew that, and had forgotten. One of my co-workers was/is a train nut, and we used to walk to the overpass (Stony Run Road, IIRC) at lunch and watch the trains go by underneath. One of the most impressive pieces of machinery I’ve ever seen was an automatic track relayer, that moved along at a steady speed of a bit less than 1 mph while it picked up the rails, removed the ties, scraped out the ballast, installed new ties and reinstalled the ballast, and laid the rails back down and secured them. I could have watched that thing for hours… 🙂

                    5. Our son when through a train and plane phase. Kept him entertained as we traveled Canada Hwy 1. Canada has long trains. Included a stop at Field and the overlook east of there to see the train go right in front of/below the platform with a straight shot down the tracks to see the train loop over itself through the lower tunnel loop. We had a little tour guide of our own once he’d watch the process once. I think some of the people who came after us got as big a kick out of him as watching the train loop over itself. He was 4.

                      Note. That overlook has majorly changed. The signs and 3-d model is still there along with volunteers. But the platform out to overlook the tracks and easy view down the tracks to watch the lower loop as trains travel through, is history. Can still see through the trees somewhat, kind of. Not worth a long stop anymore.

            2. I rode Amtrak once, over 40 years ago, 1400 miles from LA to AZ. I had a roomette as I traveled with a caged cat and a leashed Afghan hound. I don’t remember how many stops we made but enough and long enough to walk the dog as often as necessary.

              The dining car was next to mine, and just as I was sitting down to dinner one of the staff came to my table to ask if the big black dog romping up and down the corridor in the next car was perhaps mine? Somehow she had nosed the roomette door open and was doing what Afghans do best – running merrily the length of the car and back.

              That was a memorable journey in several ways, not the least of which was the growing sense of freedom from the broken relationship I was leaving behind. Yes, it was definitely a one-way trip. 😉

                1. LOL, thanks! Yeah, pretty much. He came home drunk as a skunk one night and told me he was moving out, so I beat him to it. Have never regretted it. 😉

          2. Yeah, I have the same argument every few months on Fecalbook with acquaintances (usually the same ones) who don’t understand why a transport solution that works in a country the size of the Northeast or Eastern Seaboard won’t work in the US. It got to the point where I was sick and tired of retyping the same thing over and over again (seriously, did it three times in one day at one point) so I copied it into a Word document and copy/paste the whole thing into the Fecalbook comment bar.

      2. I was stuck taking commuter rail for about a week here in Southern Kalifornia. My 35 mile trip to work, which took 40 minutes on a good day to an hour when traffic was backed up, consumed more than 3 hours.

        Each way.

        Catch the bus a block from home just before 6:00, get to work around 9:20. Leave work at 4:20 to catch the last train, get home just before 10:00. I was lucky; there was a train stop half a mile from where I worked.

        The worst part, that royally pissed me off, was changing trains in Oceanside from the Coaster to the ‘Sprinter’ (HAH!). Every day — EVERY F’N DAY — the northbound Coaster got me to the station just in time to see the eastbound train go its merry way. Had to sit there half an hour waiting for the next one.

        WHAT SORT OF F’N IDIOT schedules the connecting train to leave the station two minutes BEFORE the arriving train gets there? Huh?
        ———————————
        There are forms of stupidity that businesses can’t indulge in. There are no such limitations on the stupidity of government.

        1. Oh my. I didn’t think it possible, but it sounds like there’s a transit agency out there that’s managed to out-stupid SEPTA (South East Pennsylvania Transit Authority: Philly-area busses, subways, and commuter rail).

    2. From what I was reading, it sounds like Congress is going to vote to compel the rail workers to take the earlier agreement.

      Question becomes, are they going to lose workers over it?

      1. My guess: almost certainly. And/or the unions are going to strike even if the .FedGov says they can’t. Will the .FedGov do anything if the unions do strike?

          1. ATCs work for the federal government. As a result, President Reagan was their ultimate boss. That’s not the case with railroad employees (outside of Amtrak, of course), even assuming that someone in the White House was willing to fire them all. There would likely be some huge political issues with some of their supporters if they tried that.

        2. Its my understanding that like many jobs today railway jobs are hard to fill. Its understandable for food service positions and low level retail that have always been hard to keep filled but union railroad work was hard to get into for decades. The tail end of the baby boom is retiring or already retired. The following generations have been told to go to college and get white collar jobs. The pressure to not even consider a blue collar job has only been increasing. This is going to be an enormous problem going foreword. I also think that white collar jobs are going to be displaced by AI and automation more than many people realize. An AI financial consultant or paralegal seems more feasible than an AI plumber or roofer. Imagine the tyranny of an AI HR department.

          1. Could it really be worse than what we’re seeing now? An AI should at least be expected to impose a logical form of tyranny…
            ———————————
            Erik: “It’s reassuring to find that the world is crazier than you are.”

      2. This hurts to say, but Bernie Sanders might be the key to preventing the strike.
        He says he’ll block consideration of the bill until there is a vote on modifying the draft agreement to give the workers the actual time off (AIUI they theoretically had it but weren’t ever allowed to take it) they were demanding.
        That would be happily accepted by the unions and workers. Management would be pissed but that’s better than a shutdown.

        1. When the railroad strike last loomed, I saw a number of comments on Insty to the effect of “I’m anti-union/skeptical of unions, but in this case the railroad workers have a point.” Because the management was really screwing them with scheduling and lack of time off.

          1. I am against most unions as they only exist to generate money for union leadership. But the rail worker unions are fighting the fight that unions were created for. Safer work conditions, sane staffing levels, sane hours worked.

            All the money in the world isn’t worth anything if you are worked to death and can’t ever get time off.

            1. The single employer union hubby (and me for a few years) was part of wasn’t setup to benefit union leadership. All union jobs were non-paying (except for lost days plus limited expenses, stamps, etc); elected, but non-paying. That is until the union was forced to merge (single employer pension) with a larger multi-employer union. Oh the local union leadership positions were still unpaid, but the union rep to the larger union, was not. Not one union member was happy about the merger. But, no choice.

        2. That’s what I’ve been trying to explain to Papa Raptor (that yes, the workers theoretically have paid vacation, but their attendance rules are so screwed up that they’re pretty much prohibited from ever actually using it) but he doesn’t believe it. But based on the other shenanigans that the Class 1 RRs’ management have been trying to pull — reducing onboard crew size down to one, making conductors “remote positions” or doing away with them entirely, etc. in the name of “efficiency” and “improving value to customers” — I’m inclined to believe it’s true.

    6. Nancy has said Congress will rush to work on it.
      There will be some heavy irony if a Democratic Administration has to send in strike-breakers.

      1. The bill to end the 1992 rail strike was bipartisan. Only 6 senators voted against it. Brandon was one of the 6.

  3. The BBC was actually complaining and denouncing, after their China correspondent from the UK got arrested.

    Although it was a bit suspicious that they kept insisting that of course the Chinese police knew who their correspondent was. Like the bribes were not getting them value for money, maybe. (Although maybe it’s the more benign “because he cultivated the local police and held a lot of great parties and dinners.”)

    1. Ministry of State Security probably had said correspondent flagged and followed the second he arrived in the People’s Republic. Foreign national AND a journalist sounds like someone the MSS would want to keep EXTRA close tabs on.

      1. That is standard operating procedure for them. Motorcycle racer/Truck Mechanic/BBC presenter Guy Martin got in all sorts of trouble by “slipping” his handlers by being add and following his nose down alleys to find actual regular Chinese making things for everyday use.

  4. It’s warmed up to balmy -19° F. up here on top of the world, none the less let me toss the following log on the fire: Me, I do buy (meaning it exists, not meaning I like it) the uni-polar at least western hemisphere. Frankly I do not like a cabal having the ability to freeze a nation’s bank accounts and isolate then, any more than I I like their ability to so so for individual folks like those in Canada’s Freedom Convoy.

    Yes, many of us are doing OK, if not quite well, considering that we’re living in what was once a Republic but is now a democracy. Democracy as in Socialist Democratic republic.

    I trace it all back to the failure of the Whiskey Rebellion, but hey, feel free, as I expect you will, to disagree.

    1. The “Funny” thing about the Whiskey Rebellion was that “they won”.

      The Troopers were sent but there was nobody to fight and Congress repealed that Law.

      [Very Very Big Crazy Grin]

      1. They won?

        Congress repealed the law?

        I find that curious strange as over 150 distillers, just in Kentucky, were arrested, tried and convicted of violating that law in the following six years.

        Actually the law was in effect until 1802.

    1. THIS in spades. Every fricking time the Brahmandarins get in power they start to throw it away (oh and some of those Brahmandarins have/had (R) after their name the traitors). Screw up the economy, throw away a military that had FINALLY gotten itself back together after the abuse of the Vietnam/post Vietnam (looking at YOU Jimmy) era, ruin a higher education/research system that was the envy of the world and ON and ON. They despise the whole concept of the USA. A USA ascendant is their nightmare scenario. Here’s hoping we can give it to them.

    2. It’s a very human thing, though. Baseline humanity is venal, selfish, antisocial, and perpetually shortsighted. It takes careful training to make a decent human being, one that has the wisdom to know fact from bullsh!t, the work ethic to get the job done, the honesty to keep his word, and the moral fiber to provide charity with what excess he may have.

      Leftism is rooted in some very basic human trends. They’re not good ones. Envy, malice, and selfish behaviors are traits that infants have through no fault of their own. In some cases, their brains have not developed the capacity for certain things.

      Practically speaking, leftists have the capacity but do not use it.

      Leftist programs take advantage of laziness, selfishness, stupidity, and short sightedness. Those on the right with the power need to stop enabling this crap and start supporting responsibility. Too often those that get in power do not follow through on the promises they made and the ideals they upheld on the campaign trail.

  6. It has often amused me, seeing how a catchy phrase or a hitherto little-circulated concept is suddenly appearing everywhere among the media talking heads. I can only assume that JournoList is alive and well.

    1. I’ve been noticing that once a week or so, the same footage with the same news-reader voice is appearing on at least two of the national networks. Usually once on a week day and once on the week end (when the news isn’t preempted by sportsball.) Make of it what you will . . .

    2. Yeah I remember when Joe Biden was the “gravitas” of the Obama administration.

      Good times. Good times.

    3. Ot, read a very disturbing thread on a shortage of children’s antibiotics and pain-relievers. Instantly thought of Jamie the Wonder Grandson and thought I’d pass the worrisome idea along so you could stock up.

      1. Not just children’s meds, but adult med supplies are also looking shaky.

        Something something notavax causing long-term respiratory issues something something…

      2. Ibuprofen was supposed to be on the list, but the mini-club store I get my stash from had a decent supply of their generic. OTOH, this is a normal adult size; I haven’t had any need to delve into the details of the story.

    4. It’s funny how OBVIOUS it is by using the word/wording. You’d expect smart (I know, I know…) folks to suggest the IDEA to support and let everyone come up with their wording. That that isn’t being done lends much credence to the ‘NPC’ meme – which hurt them so bad because, evidently, it was Too Much Truth.

  7. I just discovered my soap making supplier (oils, mica, various and sundry) is wokey-woke pronouns she/her he/him BULLS*** factory. Sigh. These losers destroy everything. So, going to find another primary supplier, hopefully one of our people.

    I think all we have to do is build our lives, stand tall, and refuse to accept even one tissue paper width of crap these idiots spew. Prepare and protect yourselves as much as you can, but I think it’s our innate spirit of “F you, buddy!” that will bring the ship back to rights.

    Meantime, these fools are destroying everything down to the bare metal. No bondo for you!

    p.s. I can’t compete with Alaska, but I do want to offer that it was 12 degrees F when I got up, and it’s now only 22, with lots of snow and ice everywhere but the highway. Both my kittens have hibernated–one just got up and wants to hibernate inside my jacket and on my lap.

        1. it was the -19 in Alaska in November that caught my eye. Although 12 is not fun, we’ll likely see that here on North Shore Massachusetts some time in early January however it won’t stay. Coldest I’ve ever seen here is ~ -5 (f of course). That’s rare (2-3x in 30 years here and a nearby location). Single digits is very common in early January, especially in this La Nina type pattern where we tend to get LOTS of arctic air flow early in the year. Only reason it doesn’t get colder is there’s a HUGE sink of “warm” (40 degree or so) water less than 15 miles away and that tends to moderate the arctic air. Coldest I’ve ever seen was ~ -15 in Nashua NH. Nashua being considerably farther from the Atlantic ocean does not benefit from that moderation 🙂 .

        2. We spent quality time outside Couer d’Alene around 20 1 8 or 2019, but that was in summer.

          1. I’m so pleased. Funny how my new home makes me proud when other people treat it as a vacation/visit spot.
            Right now there’s nearly a foot of snow on the ground, it’s snowing harder than it has all day, the snow plow mounds are about 6 feet high, and I just got the snow chains on the car so I feel like the Master of Winter. (I went out and blazed around with the snow plow trucks just to show off.)

            1. Kathy said “the snow plow mounds are about 6 feet high, and I just got the snow chains on ”

              Nope nope nope nope

              Definitely staying where I am. Snow piles can get large here e.g. in the 2015 winter where we had 2x normal snow (100″+ vs normal 45″ or so) but usually not excedding 3-4′ as we tend to get thaws. And I haven’t though about putting chains on since I was a kid, most New England states restrict them VERY heavily as they damage the (already potholed) roads pretty severely. Our constant freeze/thaw cycles cause some real issues, probably better to go cold and stay cold for lots of materials, especially roads, sidewalks, and stucco. Most amazing thing I ever saw was driving in Yosemite in Late March headed south to some of the large redwoods. Passed along some roads with 10-12′ poles alongside with bright orange tips. Couldn’t figure out what the were until we passed over a ridge and I saw snow piled maybe 3-5′ up them and realized they were snow markers. That’s kind of scary, hadn’t thought about it even though I knew passes to the east were closed until early May.

              1. I think you have to be raised in this sort of weather to really enjoy it.
                I like hurricanes, too, though anything above a 2 is a little scary. 🙂

                1. Those (hurricanes) I’ve seen though Cat 2 (Gloria) is the highest I’ve seen (in Ma). The fiercest New England one I know of was the 1938 hurricane cat 3-4 (maybe 5? wind speed instruments all broke on Long Island). New England doesn’t tend to get the higher category hurricanes as to get here they need to cross cooler water and usually tend to abate some before landfall.

                  1. New England got four direct hits in the last half century. It tends to get them after they meander over the country and lose shape

                  2. We rode out Hurricane Julia in a pull-behind at a Connecticut RV park in 2011. The eye went over the park. At that point, the eye was 200 miles across and took hours to pass. Although we lost power for most of the day it was basically a very large, rather cool rainstorm.
                    Riding out Ian this year half a mile from the ocean was more, ahem, “exciting.”

              2. Those poles are all over the west. Passes use them. They are put out sometime late fall, taken down as the snow gets down to where guard rails can be seen. Ski areas and snow park areas use them too.

                1. Oh they’re common here in the Northeast too, but they’re usually 3-5′ tall max (may be taller in Buffalo 🙂 ) , it was the 10′ plush that made me not realize what they were…

                    1. Mountain people don’t realize how different the environments are till we talk about it with people who don’t live here.
                      Our rods are only… I’m going to say 6′. Not like Rainier or the mountain passes.

                    2. Yes.

                      The Highway to the Sun, or Beartooth Pass, even though the roads close at the hint of snow 12 months of the year, and permanently closes in October till sometime in June, snow poles are still put up. The poles are generally buried with the full snowfall. It is so they have an idea of where the edge of the road is suppose to be, for spring plowing. Not a lot of landscape detail up there above tree line.

                    4. “Wolf Creek Pass”

                      I don’t know. Never been over Wolf Creek Pass.

                      Been over Trailridge Road in Rocky Mt National Park, CO which has higher elevation (12,000′) than either Going to the Sun, MT (just under 7,000′, but much further north), or Beartooth pass, MT southern border (just over 11,000′). None are open all year. All go above tree line. All are scary drives if you do not like looking over the road side (with little to zero space beyond the white solid line into very long drop down and no guardrails … well Going to the Sun has lava block walls, about a 1′ high). Note that doesn’t count the narrow roads themselves or the repeated hairpin turns. Beartooth pass is the only one that doesn’t have time entry to go over it. Note, Hwy 242 coming west out of the lava fields has just as steep drop offs, white line on the edge, repeated hairpin curves, but is less scary because there are huge trees that prevent you from seeing “how far down it goes”. All of them need to be driven at least once.

                    5. Didn’t see the video until I posted the above. But … minus the telephone poles and trees? 100%. Just higher elevations, mostly. And, other than Beartooth pass, no one gets going very fast. There is a reason why both Going to the Sun and Trail Ridge Road have Timed Entry requirements. Going over the speed limit of 25 MPH is not happening. That doesn’t count the animal jams.

                  2. Ah yes, beautiful Buffalo. Was TDY’ed there once for 16 months. Saw 6 feet of snow on the ground in MAY…

                    1. Lake effect Snow, a wonderful thing. Cold winds scoop moisture from a (relatively) warm set of lake water, but can’t hold the moisture. So the moisture comes out of the air in the form of snow, lots of it. Buffalo just had a nearly 5′ event recently, unusual but not unheard of. Happens rarely here on the Atlantic coast as most wind coming from the east is already warmed, although it can go further inland to meet cold air coming down from Canada and then voila, snow

                    2. The explanation for the ’69 Willamette 5’+ snow fall was a cold front settled in as a “dome”.

                      Effect not unusual for the Willamette and valleys south along the I-5 corridor. Means valleys rarely get snow, when cold, but the passes between the valleys do. Also normal effect is the cold dome pushes the storms south, or north, thus no moisture for snow.

                      What happened in ’69 was the warm front storm, i.e. lots and lots of moisture, was pushed over the cold dome, which came down as rain but hit the cold dome and hit the ground as big flake snow. Lots of snow. Like 5′ in a little over 24 hours. Nothing compared to where snow is normally seen. I-5 corridor? Unheard of, even since the pioneers and trappers started coming. Indigenous stories? That I don’t know.

    2. We have a winter storm warning for us. Just looking at the map, it seems like most of the red areas of the Left Coast, most of Idaho, and half of Montana have warning or advisories. Had snow on the ground for Thanksgiving; not sure we’ll see much bare ground all December. We need the water, and we’re wondering if we’re going to get the legendary 3′ dump we were told about when we moved up here in ’03.

      We’ve had a couple of 2′ dumps, and rumor says we’re likely to get the 3 footer this winter. Maybe. [Makes note to get the tractor’s tire chains and installation tools handy.]

      1. Looks like several more inches this morning. Tire chains going on as soon as breakfast tasks are done.
        My fam in Edmonds WA said they lost power last night for a bit and have some snow today.
        When it is like this all I want to do is play.

      2. Yep. Cousin been posting Baker snow falls. They are in Baker proper, neighborhood on a small rise just south west of town. So far no more than a foot accumulation at 3″ – 5″ a times.

        Heck they are threatening the valley with snow. When does that happen? Has people talking about the 4’+ in ’69 🙂 That was a freak. No way will they ever predict that. Even 1′ of snow prediction for the valley is a stretch, so that would be a surprise too. Now Hood, Hoodoo, and Willamette Pass, ski areas are rubbing their hands in anticipation.

        1. Remember about nine, ten years back when they got a huge snow dump on the first day of spring? We were visiting Grandma, the kids were SO chuffed…

  8. Lately, everywhere, I’ve been listening about how the problems in America are because we’re trying to maintain our place at the top of the unipolar world.

    “you just want that because it makes you strong.”
    No I want this because AVOIDS BIG BAD STUFF I AM POINTING AT , YOU RETARD!!!!

    1. They say that as if there’s something inherently wrong with being strong. Hell yeah, I want to be strong. I want US to be strong. What kind of insane people would want to be weak?

      2. They want America to be weak, but these elites (said with dripping sarcasm) are TWANLOC. They want the America (and the other Western civilized nations) of the flyover peoples to be weak, somehow expecting that their rent-a-thugs will be loyal to them.

        I might not live to see the comeuppance, however it looks, but it promises to be somewhere between “interesting” and apocalyptic.

    4. Yep. The left likes to cry about how much they “care” all the time. In practice, the only thing I see them caring about is themselves most of the time, and making sure they’re part of the in group the rest of it.

      It’s short sighted, sad, and pitiable. Or it would be if they weren’t trying to drag you, me, and everybody else down with them.

      1. Michael Shellenberger’s comment that when he got into environmentalism it was people trying to help the poor by improving their conditions and now it’s run by “upper class British youth who care only about themselves,” seems appropriate. (Shellenbeeger is pushing for nuclear, hard).

  9. This stuff about unipolar vs multipolar seems to have its origins with the World Economic Forum and its disciples. Insert “shocked face” joke here.

    On the subject, have you noticed how silent the media is about the WEF and Klaus Schwab? A man who dictates policy to the leaders of the formerly Free World and the media has nothing to say about the man. They don’t even “fact-check” conspiracy theories about the WEF. Just . . . silence. And of all the creepy things that have been happening in recent years, this is just about at the top of the list.

    1. Didn’t YouTube recently flag the WEF’s own video of their own conference as “Disinformation” for being a conspiracy theory?

      1. Ah, yes, but that’s the only one I recall. Normally it’s silent running where that group is concerned.

    2. Unipolar vs multipolar has been around since shortly after the collapse of the USSR. It only stands to reason, since the leaders of much of the rest of the world resent the fact that the US could squash them like a bug in an instant if it even deigned to acknowledge that they exist. And even the nation that wouldn’t fold over in an instant would still be so badly crippled as to be effectively impotent for the next decade (or longer).

      Of course, the US does acknowledge that those other nations exist, and generally tries to do so in a positive manner. But for a certain type of overly proud individual, that merely makes it worse.

  10. On the subject of people trying to get sales in a particularly dark black friday:

    https://www.etsy.com/shop/MurphicIndustries

    Still have the HOYTSHOCKED promo code for 25% off orders over $10.

    Also if you want an arbitrary* object printed I have a Treatstock account: https://www.treatstock.com/c/murphic-industries

    note: arbitrary as long as they are legal. While printing DIASs or lowers might be incredibly based, it is also more risk than I want to take. Also no dildos.

          1. Especially when the woof was a medium-sized Fuzzy who pretty much loved everyone.

            Although she did have a nose for thieves, so 10% might not be safe.

  11. I think the country is turning to garbage and I don’t really see a turn-around unless people take to the streets like they’re doing in the Netherlands or in Brazil. (Interesting isn’t it how tens of millions of Brazilians (little rhyme there; guess that’s the muse telling me to start a new book. Anyway, the media is completely ignoring what’s happening in Brazil and China. Only confirms what I already knew. I think the media should be put up against a wall. ) So, yeah, unless people take to the streets or unless the military steps in. Only thing is, the military used to be for the Constitution; who knows what they’re for now. Maybe just three hots a day and a little pension after 20 years, oh, and tranny operations and who knows what else…

    I can relate to this: “Yes, we end up having to do things like putting all our stuff on Amazon if the readers can only borrow from KU not buy.” Yeah, things are bad. When people can not buy ebooks that cost $2.99, that’s bad. I’ve put half my books in Select to see if I could jump start them. Getting some coat tails… But I’ve decided to give it (Select) another month or so and then go back to D2D and just regular Kindle. I think we’re close to a point where, not only will you have to make your books FREE, but you’ll have to show up at the ‘purchaser’s’ house and wash their car of give them a back rub for them to read your book.

    So, I’m just going to see what falls out in the next couple of months and then just leave it all up to God and readers… however many are still out there… (no more promos). Maybe I’ll take up whittling or chair-making…

    Have a nice day, or what passes for one in these sickening times.

  12. The hilarious thing is that the United States is probably the best possible choice for a unipolar world.

    For the most part, we don’t want to be running or ruling the world, beyond making sure contracts are enforced, people aren’t beaten to death in public (and especially on camera), and we can trust the value of what we buy and the value of what we sell is respected. For the most part, Americans find any deeper of a hegemony boring.

    (Which is also why the US is bad at most kinds of espionage. For the most part, we’re not very good at the infinite fractal thinking needed to make sense of places like Russia, who I swear marinades in paranoia and palace coups with their vodka.)

    The catch is that when we notice, we tend to notice and respond…poorly. Mostly because we don’t want to be hegemons. We just want things to start working properly again, because being a hegemon is boring. Building rockets in our backyards with a box of scraps, on the other hand…

    The Left-in the US and other countries-wants to be hegemons because if they can control other people, they’ll be able to control themselves.

    1. This. The world is safe with the USA as the strongest power…because the American national psyche is too absent-minded to abuse it. We CAN’T conquer the world, because we won’t stay focused long enough to finish the job.

      1. Of coarse. We won’t stand for being conquered. We figure everyone else is the same. It’d be too much energy. We don’t want to spend that energy on anyone else.

    2. Hegemony sounds a lot like work. We’re too busy trying to make a bunch of money to worry about ruling other folks. Buy some American tech! Or franchise some American businesses! Y’all like cheeseburgers, right?

      America is (potentially) good at being successful because we’re not, usually, hegemons (the left, as you mentioned, desperately wants to be). Freedom and stability are good things for economic growth. It stands to reason, and any cursory glance at the rest of the world will back this up, that the opposite is BAD for economic growth. Viz 2020, etc.

      Contract enforcement and stable economies are good for keeping the world from devolving into warring tribes and a million little brushfires merrily torching centuries of infrastructure as asocial little warlords make grabs for anything not nailed down. And what can be pried up doesn’t count as nailed down.

      1. …now that would make for an interesting story idea. What would happen if your classic isekei character went into a fantasy world and started doing things like contract law that worked. And stable economies. And limited liability corporations…

        1. Heh. I gots plans… But by all means, steal it like it was riot season if you want. Property rights, investment strategy, rule of law… Imagine Tusk the Dragon, LLC, purveyor of magical items and mysteries offering you a contract of employment with stock options available after two years of exemplary service and the option to move up in the company by merit…

        3. The Isekai series Konosuba does something along these lines, though at a different level. It parodies a lot of tropes, and the main character is lazy and isn’t particularly interested in saving the world (which is why he’s been brought to the setting world). Instead, he makes a lot of money by “inventing” and selling things like kotatsus that are pretty ordinary for him, but that don’t exist within the European-inspired setting.

          The series is more silly than serious.

          There was a series that combined pocket monster battles with economic theory. ‘C – the Money of Soul and Possibility Control’ , or just ‘C’, is an odd series that gets quite dark as it progresses. I enjoyed it, though I suspect many wouldn’t like it. And the economic stuff probably shouldn’t be taken too literally (though it did have some warnings about reckless economic policies).

  14. “They’re acting as if Reagan hadn’t taken a sharp pin to the balloon of gaseous bullshit they’d been spinning for years”-well yes, that is exactly what they are doing. Obama even said that is what he planned in 2008, when he vowed to undo “the last 30 years” of American policy, which meant all the way back to 1978, prior to Carter’s deregulation of the airlines and his first baby steps in actually rebuilding the military (and why Carter as bad as he was is still better than Obama/Biden/Harris, etc).

    What Democrats are doing know is just to effectuate of the original Obama plan and it is being carried out by the many Obama operatives in the HarrisBiden regime. Its his people and he is calling the shots, while he publicly postures as critical of some of the things being done as “going to far, simply so he can position Michelle to run so that he and Michelle can get another 8 years in office to finish the murder by asphyxiation and many small cuts of the USA.

  15. It’s not really the stupid, obnoxious, possibly autistic and definitely abused and abusive Swedish teen (or is she older now) the idiots are appeasing, it’s all the WEF-tards (Schwab, Soros, Gates, ad nauseam) and followers.

  17. The Left forgets what happened AFTER the French Revolution and the Terror.

    Now, all together….Vive le Mike! Vive l’Emperor!

        1. I know someone who when joining the SCA was told he had to have a name, replied, “Then it’s Pog Mo Thoin!”
          He was known as Pog for many years. (It took some work and some spelling changes to get it past the College of Herslds…)

  18. I am not a tough guy. In fact, for much of my life I have been a moral coward; but.

    But.

    BUT!!!

    There are times each of us has to stand up. And I believe we will find the strength and resources necessary to our task when we reach that point.

    We may not like the taste (I had a round-ish 5.7cm sarcoma with a 3 cm tail ( looked like a tadpole) in my cheek. It was less fun than one might think to be rid of it; but I hit 5.5 years cancer-free next week.

    I’m old, crippled (a bit), over-fed/under-exercised, and I’ve survived a total of over 34 months of unemployment (primarily mass layoffs from various IT shops) in large chunks since I turned 50 (14 years ago). By the grace of God, I kept “failing upwards”, finding a variety of contract and permanent jobs that allowed me to spend all my money, lose most of my “friends”, regain some I thought were long gone, and not miss a mortgage payment. For much of the last 7 years I fought a variety of medical issues including two Stage 3 cancers.

    I could have given up. Whined about things not being fair. I could have tried to blame others and become bitter or despondent. But I believed there was a purpose, a lesson, or a way for me to help someone. I’m still here for a reason that I want to learn.

    Nothing in my religion allows me to harm someone created in the image of God. That’s even “those people”…

    You may have a different world-view, religion, philosophy, or whatever. Call it my “coping mechanism” instead of religion, if you like. We’re all unique, so please try to celebrate that diversity instead of getting upset that others feel differently about sun rises, butterflies, and lemon meringue pie than you.

    I celebrate this community and want you all more successful than me. We win. They lose. Simple as that.

    1. I’ve survived a total of over 34 months of unemployment (primarily mass layoffs from various IT shops) in large chunks since I turned 50 (14 years ago)

      ……….
      “Go into computers”, they said. “It will be more permanent“, they said. “Better than timber, anyway”, they said. Um, not so much …. The answer is “Yes and No”. For me it was 31 months between age 39 to 48. No more than 3 to 6 years per job until the last one, which lasted 12 years until retirement at 59 … and is the only one still in business locally.

    2. Congrats on staying cancer free. Screw cancer with a pine cone, spiky bits out I say. And I support the sentiment that everyone else should be more successful than me. Go forth, and be successful!

  19. IIRC, when Britannia ruled the waves (say, 1780s-1915), the world was rather unipolar. So we’re not the first, and for all its flaws, Britain managed to do a lot of good around the world, sometimes by accident, sometimes by design. (I know, and made some horrible messes. So did France, Portugal, Spain, China, the Dutch . . . )

  21. Ah, Communist China, who haven’t won a war against… China since they became a country.

    Yeah, Tibet, but really, how hard was that? Especially when what little military they had was stabbed in the back by their own.
    ,
    Communist China has kind of sort of won some skirmishes against the Eastern Soviet armies, which were where all the complete losers, dweebs, dreks and total incompetents of the Soviet War Machine ended up. But not really won a real war.

    Vietnam beat the pants off of Red China.

    India has pimp-slapped for years any incursions of Red China. Literally slapped, beat, kicked, whonked with sticks, pantsed et al.

    Red China is, on the other hand, is fantastic at beating and killing actual Red Chinese. Of which I am sure we’re about to see more of in the next coming weeks as lack of food, lack of housing, lack of freedom and complete state control of banking and housing rears the multiple headed dragon of doom.

    As to moving north into the Northeast Orient Resources Zone, I don’t trust Red China not to f that up too.

    1. I keep hearing that there’s some kind of proverb in China along the lines of “What has been long joined must separate, and what has been long separated must join”.

      I’m wondering how far along the “has been long joined” they are.

      1. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (one of the four classic novels of ancient Chinese literature) opens with the following –

        “The empire long divided, must unite; long united, must divide.”

        That’s probably what you’re thinking of. The novel is a very fictionalized recounting of the fall of the golden age Han Dynasty, and its eventual replacement by the Jin Dynasty… which collapsed into a bloody civil war almost immediately after it finished uniting China (though that’s outside the scope of the novel), and resulted in a China that was even more fragmented and unstable than what had preceded the Jin Dynasty. One of the three great evil women in Chinese history is held largely responsible for triggering that, by the way.

        Chinese history follows a depressing pattern. China is divided amongst many warring kingdoms. A skilled general finally rises up, overcomes the other kingdoms, and unites China under his rule. And for a period, the country knows peace. But sooner or later, the central government becomes mired in bureaucratic corruption, the outer provinces stop paying attention to instructions from the capitol (“The mountains are close, but the Emperor is far away”), and the whole rotten edifice collapses once again into a mass of battling warlords. Only on one occasion has the collapse into battling warlords phase been avoided, and that involved the foreign Qing Dynasty coming to power (completely by accident, as strange as it sounds; the Manchu arrived to help the Ming Emperor deal with civil unrest, but he hanged himself in despair literally just before they arrived and the Manchu had to take charge in the capitol because there was no one else able to do so).

  22. Just wait until the “unipolar” United States Navy stops protecting world shipping on the seas. Goodbye globalization and One World Government as pirates (and the countries helping them) strike everywhere.

    1. Merchant ships will be travelling in armed convoys within weeks. And the pirates will have navies of their own, complete with military hardware, the day after.

      World economy? Poof. Up in smoke. No more JIT. Lot of people would have to adapt to more primitive circumstances.

      But that won’t likely last. Too many, with too much to lose, to go too far down that path. The problem comes when they try to “fix” what they broke. That will hurt. Everyone.

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