The Cuckoo In Our Nest

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I first read about the cuckoo and what it does to other birds in a miserable little book of would-be Aesop fables, but written by cruel buffoons.

I’m not that fond of Aesop, as is, since most of the tales are “there you have it, evil got away with it” stories, but this story of cuckoo was told in an absolutely horrible way, calling the parents stupid who don’t identify the intruder egg laid in their nest, even as it murders their children and who exhaust themselves trying to feed an enormous hatchling, till they also die.

I was horrified when I found out is is actually the reproductive strategy of cuckoo. But even at seven I knew it wasn’t that the parents were stupid. It’s that their senses, and the information they used to defend themselves and their nest failed them.

I had gone on enough nature walks with dad, and had things explained to me, to know that birds are simple creatures and a lot of them operate by “zones.” If you are in the “safe zone.” Outside the nest, they’d attack the cuckoo hatchling as a menace, but it is in their nest so to their bird brains it is their baby, even if very large and acting strangely.

The deception is particularly cruel, because it takes advantage of admirable bird characteristics — the care for hatchling and nest — to kill them and their offspring.

And yeah, I think this is the most accurate depiction of the color revolution that took place in the US most blatantly in 2020. (Though probably before. They just never needed to fraud that hard. However from the passing of motor voter and the loosening of voting rules to happen early enough the left knew exactly how much to fraud, our elections were probably mostly fraud. And the fraud is always on the left side. Which is why I have to say they are a tiny minority, because each year they have to fraud more.)

What happened in 2020 — in 2022 it was more covert though still obvious — was clear enough that our mechanisms of defense should have snapped into place. The courts should have delayed confirmation, and every possible case of vote fraud should have been crawled over like an army of fire ants looking for a sugar cube.

Only the left had been very careful to bypass our legal defenses, both by suborning of the courts with the installation of Marxist clowns and the scaring and intimidating of other judicial clowns with the displays of faux-black-rage (seriously, the BLM protesters, by and largest were lighter than DIL IT and she’s the lightest person I ever met) all summer, so they knew if they so much as said boo, they and everything they loved would burn. So the results were never examined, and all the way to the SC (with two exceptions) the country was handed over to Chinese-puppets. (Yes, I can say so. So can anyone who looks into the Bidens background.)

They also, having already taken over the regular news, played fast and loose with social media, and the ability of people to communicate, so we couldn’t fully sound the alarm.

And the cuckoo in our nest is killing — or at least destroying — our children, and trying to stop us from feeding ourselves. And exhausting us. We’re all so tired.

In 2022 they provided themselves with the flimsiest of excuses for why anyone would have voted their kakistocracy back into power by making a big hullabaloo of the demise of federal enforcement of no-limit abortion, and the fact that most states went back to rules that are still laxer than those in Europe. Has anyone heard about Ruth Sent Us since the midterms? No? Well, you see, they fulfilled their purpose: to make it seem like all women were up in arms about abortion and would definitely vote for democrats. Of course there was never any such thing, since in fact abortions have been falling year over year, and are increasingly confined to the minorities upon whom the eugenicists of Planned Parenthood prey.

Now of course they’re running the DeSantis Trump thing — and shame on DeSantis for letting himself be manipulated into covert attacks, until it turned into a war. But it’s obvious his head is turned and he thinks he is all that — because they don’t understand that most conservatives would crawl through broken glass to vote for anyone running against the Bidentia. (One exception. I don’t think I’d vote for Pence, who must be the stupidest person in the world, because he thinks these people are secure enough to keep a controlled opposition. Instead, he’ll be used and discarded, because they don’t trust anyone but themselves in power. Which is why they’ll run Joe and the Ho again.)

But I guess the polls showing that DeSantis in fact only has penetration among pundits and bien-pensants (I’ve told them) make it imperative for them to find a more likely fig leaf for their victory in 2024, despite the fact that they’re killing us and most of us (80 million and likely more, since they switched some Trump vote, of voting age and capable) know they’re killing us. So, they planned, perhaps still plan to arrest Trump and charge him with a felony. Because they want to say “You’d never vote for a felon.”

Expect them to hit all blogs, including this one, to scream about the terrible felony of Trump (which isn’t even a misdemeanor but is obscure enough most people don’t understand that.)

What they want is not to actually turn us, but to make it plausible we’d have turned. So the LIVs (there are still some) say “Oh, those stupid split republicans” and not “We were robbed.”

Don’t give it to them. Have the responses ready “Sure. You voted for an enemy agent. A mere felon is a vast improvement.”

However, if they hit you with polls, just tell them you’ll vote for Biden. The best chance we have is catching them with their pants down, though these days electronic vote means they can still “fix” it.

1 – Keep voting against them. I know this seems silly. No, you don’t vote because you expect to win (though there’s always the chance of catching them with their pants down.) You vote for them because when their candidate wins with a larger number of votes than there can be adults in the US, it will be open and everyone’s faces. Even the stupid ones.

2- In the measure of possible, in your own areas, try to fight vote fraud. And your conservative friends? Get to them, and explain: Vote as late as possible, vote paper. It’s amazing how many people haven’t got the message.

3- And this is very important: if you can avoid feeding them, stop feeding them.
Look, we can’t withdraw from everything. By the nature of my business I have to work with Amazon, I still have paypal.

On the other hand, what is going through paypal is now minimal, compared to the business I did before. And the same with Amazon, if I can find an alternative. (And I’ll notice they keep firing employees.)

And I’ll probably use Stripe, until I find someone not beholden to the overlords. (Almost typed overlards, which is what they are: a conspiracy of fat asses sucking the good off the land. A horrible mosquitocracy crying out for DDT.) Because they’re not quite as bad. Sometimes the “not quite as bad” is the best one can do.

More important even than cutting off the enemy when possible is to support our side. As I’m fond of saying, they have the billionaires, and the institutions that they’ve corrupted and taken over. We have each other. This is why I have the book promo on Sundays. It promotes people who are not afraid of being associated with us. And there will be a page, as soon as I have a day to revamp the site, with goods and services sold by our people, so when you’re looking, you give your money to them preferentially.

Yes, I know, it rankles for us on the right to use the any criteria but competence, but the people linked will be competent. For one, our side gives value. It’s who we are. And heaven knows we had to claw hard enough to get there.

There’s dark days ahead, and our side is small and exhausted. Save some comfort and food for us, and let the gigantic cuckoo starve and scream.

Until we can evict him.

270 thoughts on “The Cuckoo In Our Nest”

  1. Several things bothered me about the election. The fraud was obvious. Many States broke their own laws in how elections were run and our legal system doesn’t care. A couple of counties disenfranchised a significant number of Republican voters in 2022 and the legal system has turned a blind eye to it. Personally, I am hoping that more Americans will learn about The Battle of Athens, but I doubt anything will actually happen.

    About what can be done: I was an Election Judge for 4 of the 5 elections last year and I am scheduled to be an Election Clerk for the May local election here in Austin. While I seriously doubt there is much in the way of problems at this level, I also remember reading about the election of LBJ to the Senate. I recommend others do similar things to let the Election Offices know that more people are watching and it often pays. Not huge amount, it’s a loss when I have to take a day off work, but it is something.

    1. List them.

      Give specific places, give how it worked– make a text file or have a page on hand that lays out each and every case, with the evidence. Preferably ALL the cases, substantiated or not, with as close to primary source as you can get.

      Because I’ve already run into several bait-and-switches where they’ll pile a big old nothing burger up, wrap it in claims, so that it can be destroyed– and the more hot-headed blogs help them, by inflating every stupid little thing into the end of the world, and declaring blackest malice no matter what.

      Things like the guy in Iowa who went in to cast his vote and was shocked his candidate wasn’t on the ballot…because he was the candidate.
      It got cleared up right away, computer error identified their voting place as a different region so that race wasn’t on it. Like noon on the day of the election he was already on the radio making cracks about how his own wife didn’t vote for him. (It got fixed, people got to vote, he won.)
      Still had some idiots try to make like it was proof of fraud, rather than that yes, screw ups do happen, and contrast how that polling place responded to how dozens of others in various states have done.

      The facts are on our side, pound the facts.

        1. :Grins: EXACTLY.

          The SOLID posts are out there, it’s a matter of having them on hand and producing them when you have an opportunity.

          These guys are really good at lying, they keep using similar tactics, we need to learn from these tactics– and one of their favorites is “find the least supported guy in the room, report on him unfairly, and then pretend what you reported is totally normal.”

            1. Oh, shoe pinches on your foot?

              Never considered that the Devil might turn around on you, once you chop down the laws?

              Much less that someone else might think of that, and not be obedient little puppets for your epeen venting?

              Imagine that.

              1. Maybe you should just drop dead, rather than trying to prevent the extermination of the Marxist infestation that has been spreading, mostly unchecked, for the last two centuries.

                1. TheOtherSean, I KNOW you’re not a glowey because you’re a long termer who normally doesn’t act like this.
                  Foxfier might have hit you hot and heavy, but at times like this, can you stop making that kind of statement that neither you nor any of us can carry out, and which make it sound like we can and ARE a criminal conspiracy?
                  Also, I’d be very leery of “extermination” of any group. Do you know how many people are forced by their position and their profession and a desire to keep eating to mouth opinions that aren’t their own?
                  Do you know which they are, when people start turning their coats? Are you going to kill the good with the bad? I have bad news, a lot of professions we NEED you wouldn’t have anyone alive.
                  No one has ever done that. Most of the peripheral nazis lives, and only those who had obvious destructive roles were killed.
                  You want to kill “Marxists” which hinges on killing people for beliefs.
                  Unless you have a mind reader, it’s going to end badly.
                  So, kindly stop glowing and throwing tantrums.

                  1. While I agree with you, it’s a bit of a problem for some to not advocate the simplest (in some ways) solution to the perceived problem; I managed to put that behind me after my discharge but it required some effort to “retrain” myself as a civilian. I think of it as the “military mindset” as contrasted with the “police mindset”. While the second seeks to solve the problem within the framework of the rules of civilized society (such as it is), the first tends to react as to an imminent military threat – kill it. That’s why combat soldiers make lousy cops and cops make ineffective combat soldiers; their training is diametrically opposite. By choice and training, police arrest people. Also by training (if not always by specific choice; good troops don’t actually like killing people), troops break things and kill people. Different worlds. Just my 20 mills…

                2. Dropping dead would be more effective than your long-running demands for MURDER DEATH KILL THE POLITICAL OPPOSITION, you no-true-scotsman spreader of false fears.

                  You want to see a Marxist infestation? Look at yourself in the mirror, you’re the one spewing their nonsense, and urging us to live by their rules.

      3. It would have been fraud if they hadn’t fixed it asap. It definitely is proof of incompetence on the part of the election committee for that district; as the ballots should have been printed and proofed far enough in advance to prevent just such a situation.

        1. No, it sounds as if there were no errors on the ballot. A check of the ballots wouldn’t have turned anything up. The issue was that the computer thought he lived in a completely different voting district. It printed the ballot for that district instead of the district he actually lived in.

          This is a problem springing from the recent change to “vote at any polling place instead of just the one closest to your residence” setup that many states have now.

          Also, computerized voting systems often don’t print the ballot until after you’ve finished voting

          1. Not quite, it misidentified that voting station as being in a different district, so they got (basically) the wrong box of ballots.

            It wasn’t noticed at the time because the people actually at the polling place didn’t mess with the ballots.

            1. The point being,
              1) stuff happens,
              2) look at how innocents behave when stuff happens
              3) now look at how other places behave when there was a suggestion of a problem.

              1. Eh, you accurately identified the type of error, and pointed to several weaknesses that are WHY Iowa doesn’t have some of the variations you mentioned. 😀

          2. You are absolutely correct that this is a big issue with countywide voting. The ballots can not be printed in advance of the election, there are hundreds of different permutations where I live. Even if people are only allowed to vote at one place, my precinct alone would require two different ballots for some elections. And the screams of “disenfranchisement” would be deafening by the left. I could go into a lot more detail, but I’m agreeing with you.

            1. Screams of “Disenfranchisement!!!” by the left seems to be the catchall for anything which could make voting more secure. I wonder why that could be…?

    2. The Battle of Athens succeeded because it was a local condition, solvable by the residents and veterans themselves, against positively identified bad actors for well understood violations.

      Part of the problem with the 2020 election was the bad actors were all over the place, and varied from precinct to precinct and state to state. Everyone from poll workers, alleged watchers, to governors and state representatives, to members of various state judiciaries. That doesn’t even include the ballot forgers and box stuffers. There never was an investigation of that reported tractor trailer load of allegedly fraudulent ballots; so we have no idea if it was fake, or real, or if real, if they were ever used.

      I’m all for paper balloting, cast in person, and as late as possible. I’m also strongly in favor of making it absolutely mandatory that all ballots be counted as soon as they are received, and not at the end of the voting day, or whenever someone feels like it.

      1. An excellent point. But as I haven’t yet seen anyone whose name rhymes with ‘Ren’ comment on this post, I assume there aren’t yet any potential foes present. Thus, better to let the dragon sleep late.

        Less chance of unfriendly fire.

  5. The cuckoo in the nest is also a great metaphor for the transcrowd. They have done precisely this to the LGB organizations and the people who default to the “nice” thing and don’t want to appear like a bigot

    1. The term for that strategy is “entryism” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entryism).

      Entryism (also called entrism, enterism, or infiltration) is a political strategy in which an organization or state encourages its members or supporters to join another, usually larger, organization in an attempt to expand influence and expand their ideas and program. If the organization being “entered” is hostile to entrism, the entrists may engage in a degree of subterfuge and subversion to hide the fact that they are an organization in their own right.

        1. There’s a subhead in the wiki article for “Socialist Entryism”, and a “see also” that points to “Communist Front”.

    1. Expecting sense, restraint and self-preservation from these types is a losing bet.

      The scorpion’s gonna sting.

  7. Thanks, Sarah. You just gave us a great response to woke-o-crats.

    “You’re cuckoo.”

    “What! Stop insulting –”

    “No, seriously. You’re a cuckoo.” (explains reproductive strategy of cuckoo) “Now get the hell out of our nest!”

  8. This puts the silly little PD Eastman story I’ve been reading my son about how a pair of birds wind up through happenstance raising a crocodile into a completely different light, lol!

    (Eastman does tend to go like that, tho. A different bird tries to insist a kitten and an excavator are his mother… a different bird builds her new nest on a church bell right as she’s about to lay her egg… everything works out ok, but man, does he like playing with things that are legit tense)

    1. One of my favorite early memories is reading “Are You My Mother?” alllll by myself in the back of my aunt’s enormous 70’s Ford.

      One of my favorite later moments is of reading it to three-year-old Kid and shamelessly overacting every single page. 🙂

        1. It’s really not. (Also, I can still do the “Sylvester McMonkey McBean” parts from The Sneetches in full-on used-car-salesman mode. Also at full volume. It makes my daughter cringe, which makes it BETTER.)

  9. “2- In the measure of possible, in your own areas, try to fight vote fraud. And your conservative friends? Get to them, and explain: Vote as late as possible, vote paper. It’s amazing how many people haven’t got the message”

    I’m sorry but I think you do just the opposite … vote as early as possible and by any means possible … the Dems INCREASED their turnout via this method … and while they cheated as well it was this that pushed them over the top in 2020 … if conservatives can increase the turnout by 10% we win, even with the attempted cheating …

    1. NO. DO NOT DO THAT. THey now, via machines, can fraud any amount. If you tell them how much they need to fraud, it won’t be visible.
      They didn’t increase turnout. They increased FRAUD.

      1. Sarah, the Reader thinks this is a bit of a conundrum and the right response may depend on the local conditions. You are correct that if they don’t know how much fraud they need they may not get it right. The Reader thinks this is what happened here in VA in 2021. On the other hand, locally there have been a fair number of cases of folks going to the polls here locally on election day and discovering they have already ‘voted’. Most of those people lived in areas with a history of voting Republican. In the blue areas of the state the fraud is machine driven. In the red areas of the state the elections are still mostly intact. The tactics in the purple areas may vary. How you respond depends on what you local circumstance is.

        1. “locally there have been a fair number of cases of folks going to the polls here locally on election day and discovering they have already ‘voted’. ”

          Absolute proof that fraud has occurred, and that the people who permitted the imposter to vote have committed a criminal act. The election therefore needs to be declared invalid. Most people are too lazy or cowardly to push this. Which is precisely why the bad guys get away with it. These things and people need to be opposed, not appeased. They will NEVER be your friends or benevolent. They absolutely must be removed, and banned from participation. And frankly, if you’re not willing to do that, then you may as well help them put on your chains.

          1. “Most people are too lazy or cowardly to push this. Which is precisely why the bad guys get away with it.”

            And let’s say you do push it. Two years later, you get a ruling like WI that says “Yep, there were illegal changes to the voting rules, yep, they turned the election, and NO, we AREN’T going to do a damn thing about it, so they keep their profit from the crime.”

            1. Okay, then you have the proof per the DoI that legal means are not going to work. Then you need to take your list out and start crossing off the entries.

      2. Note, though, that only same day voters were affected by the shenanigans in Maricopa in the last election. Doesn’t mean don’t vote same day. But be aware.

        1. I guess you haven’t heard about Harris County (Houston) here in Texas. Over 120 polling locations, in predominantly Republican areas ran out of ballot blank on Election Day.

    2. Do both.

      Play their game AND make it harder for them to play that game. (Potential problem: The whole system is still rigged, so anything our side does, even if it’s technically legal, will be held against us, while the cuckoos will never be held to account.)

      1. I think 2020 was the peak of the dem election fraud … they pulled out all the stops and I believe it is a one time event … most of the “changes” to election laws have been struck down now by the courts so mail in ballots are more secure and less vulnerable to fraud …
        I base this on the 2022 PA Senate race … of course there should have been no way for Fetterman to get elected … I don’t think fraud had much if any impact though … the fact is the dems got their voters to cast ballots early and often and built up a huge election day lead that we simply could not overcome … I suspect the dem turnout was juiced significantly by this …
        if they are going to fraud it then the number of GOP votes cast before or on election day won’t matter … I think they used every trick in the book in 2020 and many of them where one time bullets …
        its a ballots cast game and waiting for election day turnout to win is simply not using all the tools available …

        2. They will continue the cheating, and increase it, until forcibly made to stop. Just basic human nature.

          If we don’t stop them, then eventually, they will be made to stop by the communist slave masters, as they put them against the wall to die as useful idiots.

          1. Nah, they’ll starve in the famine caused by attempting to bring on communism.
            The Little Pickle and I are contemplating growing poultry. There is a possibility I’m only allergic to water-fowl feathers. We’re trying to figure it out. Having chickens would make me feel better. We also need to lay in our irrigation system and start the vegetable beds.
            Because that’s what’s going to hit us first.
            And then it falls apart because NO ONE can feed the US. We can’t even pillage enough to feed us.
            Be not afraid, but be prepared.

            1. If you do, I strongly recc’ three things.

              First, get a good how-to book on chickens. It’s been a while for me, I think the Complete Idiot’s Guide may be good, but ask someone else who’s currently raising chickens.

              Second, I suggest getting a heritage breed, and consider if you want it for mostly meat, mostly eggs, or both. Make sure it comes from the same kind of temperature and humidity zone as you’re in. I have some familiarity with Plymouth Rocks, for example; they’re good for eggs and meat, and don’t have the huge elaborate combs that get frostbitten.

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Rock_chicken

              Third… bantams sound like a good idea. But the darn things can fly. If you want meat, you’re going to need to bring them down with shot.

              Stray note – if you think it’s just waterfowl that are a problem, then you might also consider looking at guinea hens, turkeys, and quail as options. I will warn you turkey chicks can be dumb as rocks. To the point that once they hatch, you have to grab them, dip their beaks in water, and in feed, before they get the idea.

              I really wish I could establish once and for all if I’m allergic to eggs, dagnabbit….

                    1. Coyotes, of course, should be shot on sight. But sadly, that’s not permitted in most places…

                    2. If shooting coyotes is not permitted, then I guess a subscription to ACME’s product catalog will have to suffice.

              2. What I was told once by a turkey farmer is that the birds are so stupid you have to lock them up when it rains. Otherwise, they’ll run out, look up at the sky, open their mouths, and drown.

                😛

                2. Turkeys may be stupid. But they are also MEAN. At least according to a grandmother who raised them for years to sell locally to her nearby small towns and rural community (and mostly extended family).

                3. Should I find a dark humor that I’m reading this as I’m working my way through the Writer’s Dojo on profanity?

                  And Larry Correia grew up on a dairy farm…

                4. My Uncle’s a hunter, he told me a story about one time accidentally shooting 5 turkeys. He thought he kept missing one, but it turned out the turkeys didn’t have the sense to run away when one of them had been shot.

              3. For what it’s worth, here’s a chicken book:

                The Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens by7 Anne Kuo
                ISBN Print: 978-1-64152-405-6
                eBook: 978-1-64152-406-3

                Dead tree was $17.99

                This is oriented to backyard operations, includes various coop designs (waggles hand and quality thereof), and is suited for temperate (SF Bay Area) weather. We’d have to insulate a bit (R13 or so, depending on how many girls are in the coop), and I’d do a drawer for droppings/bedding.

                We got it when we were contemplating birds, but Kat the Border Collie doesn’t like competition in the yard. Or next door, depending on the critter. (Two of the three neighbor dogs she likes/loves, the third, nope.)

                  1. The small ranch next door is raising 6 cattle on a coop basis. (It started with one or two, last year 3 with two neighbors joining, but more people are involved. Max sustainable herd might be 10 for grass fed. It’s fairly poor land without irrigation.) Kat was outraged at them at first, but today she did a so-so bark at them.

                    Another neighbor has a really old horse in a 1 acre corral. Kat rather likes the horse, though she’ll bark at times. “I am Border Collie. Hear me bark!”

                    1. One of hubby’s golf buddies does the co-op with beef and pork. He sells 1/4 beef, and 1/2 pork, before buying. Then buys, raises, and butchers. Pork late fall into winter, beef late summer. We’ve done pork 3x’s, and beef, once. We aren’t doing anything this year. Prefer to buy the cuts we actually prefer using.

                2. You mean ‘Chicken Run’ isn’t a how-to video? 😀
                  ———————————
                  “Them chickens are up to summat. They’re or-gan-ized, I tell ya.”

            2. Rumors of an impending onion shortage per the Weather Channel. Of course, they earnestly try to tie all the bad weather (flood here, drought there) with climate change.

              1. California fruit and vegetables are rumored to be on the shortage list for this summer. The current flooding due to rain, expected flooding with snow melt. Fields are being washed out. Blame will be “climate change”.

                1. And it’s a valid claim. The climate has changed constantly for at least 3By, and every time it changes it causes problems for the local plants and critters; ask the mammoths. But “Climate change!!! Never before seen!!!” is the latest way to extract money from the ignorant and launder it, so it’s on a roll with politicians and other similar vermin.

                  1. it’s a valid claim
                    ….

                    But it is not a sustained “climate change”, at least not because of the actions of humans. These events, excess snow, excess rain, are not unknown. Not frequent. Not unknown. The Donner Party walked right into excess California snow year. The LA River exists because of the possibility of excess rain needing to be diverted. Either have an annual low probability but it is always possible every year. This was that year.

                    As far as Oregon, there is a reason why there is are multiple underground speculations on when the Cascade Ski Slopes, from Hood to Ashland and east to Bachelor, are going to open; whether Hoodoo will open at all. Same for how Long skiing can occur. Same for when Old McKenzie Hwy (OR 242) will open for summer usage, or close for the winter. “It varies” applies to all the above.

                    1. Of course it isn’t; that’s why I noted that it’s nothing new. The “anthropogenic” chimera is a political animal, not a scientific one.

            3. That’s kind of my concern. Just after I started getting my life and health together, and was ready for some fun, the darn Marxist fools broke everything, and they are keeping any widespread fix from being made. And my wife and I are expecting, and I fear bringing a child into this Marxist-infested planer. And there aren’t any good flights available to someplace better.

              1. No; the Moon isn’t open for colonization yet.
                ———————————
                “They were the bad guys, as you say, we were the good guys, and they made a very satisfying THUMP when they hit the floor!”

              2. Congratulations – Bringing a new life is a beacon of hope and a shit-stopping reality. We did it 5 times and each time it was fearfully lovely. When you can:

                Accept wise counsel
                Ignore the woe mongers
                Make a strong nest
                Cherish each moment

                I’ll add you to my list of blessings ToS, wife and little.

                Be not afraid –

            4. I’ve been researching quail as a quieter option, they are pickier eaters (they cannot double as a garbage disposal like chickens), 3 quail eggs = 1 chicken egg, and free ranging is not typical for birds raised for eggs. Also quail eggs benefit from the little quail egg scissors to open them.

              I wish I had more room for vegetables. I do have three asparagus stalks this year. I’m going to try sweet potatoes on a slope by the drainage ditch. I’m not sure there is enough sun.

              I got a book on cultivating mushrooms, particularly Shitakie, because of the amount of shade in the yard. Strawberries are also a possibility.

              I think I’m going to have to trade for food though. I wish I was brave enough (I may get there someday) to raise bees.

              I’m thinking bee products are probably the best thing to trade after alcohol.

            5. Oh, and by make them stop I meant, somehow getting the legal system to do it’s job, and fine them money, ban them from election type stuff, and possibly in the proper circumstance give them a bit of jail time.

            6. Heartily recommend chickens! Our biggest obstacle was securing ours from predators. We have a decent range of predators in my area. Once we got that situation stabilized and, umm…replacements…we have more eggs than our large household can consume.

              The last issue to overcome is a reliable source of quality feed if the SHTF.

        3. The Soros-installed Manhattan prosecutor seems to have been caught with HIS pants down..not only has the jury heard that he withheld hundreds of pages of exculpatory documents (a clear Brady violation), but the letter from Cohen’s lawyer to the FEC completely exonerates Trump…and that lawyer, unlike Cohen, is highly respected…
          Should be all over…

          1. Exculpatory information keeps cropping up, too. I saw a letter from another member of Cohen’s legal team (dated 2018), and this evening, I saw another statement (this time from Miss Daniels) also dated 2018 denying that the affair ever took place.

    1. I was writing this at midnight, with Dan still working, and his music blasting. It threw me off. The funny part of this is that I keep forgetting it’s not 2022!

  11. Easter is coming, and I always choke up at “Roll Away the Stone.”

    They have been saying, all our plans are empty.
    They have been saying, where is your God now?
    They have been saying, now power rules the world.
    Roll away the stone
    See the Glory of God.

    Every time that evil believes it is ascendant, that they have finally seized power and will now rule the world forever, well… they don’t. They fail. I think we’re watching that happen right now. Maybe a few nudges here and there will help. I will nudge as best I can. And pray.

    1. IMHO the reason they always fail is simply that they’re incapable of coexistence, even (or maybe especially) with those with identical characteristics. It always becomes Kilkenny cats, sooner or later (usually sooner).

  12. I tried to look up a quote from ‘Blaze’ but can’t find it. One of Gov. Long’s political enemies calls him a number of nasty things ending with ‘skirt-chasing degenerate!’

    Earl grins. “Seems most folks think that’s an improvement over what they’ve got now.”

    All the nasty things they call us would be an improvement over what we’ve got now.

    1. Alas, some people can learn from watching others, some can learn from reading books … and then there are those who only learn by pissing on the electric fence themselves…

  14. Two things I have today to agree with the Hostess’s point about cuckoos.

    First, from Idaho, something that moved me to post on my blog for the first time since January: https://phantomsoapbox.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-stupid-it-burns.html

    “The Idaho Supreme Court has vacated a Mountain Home man’s conviction for felony drug possession and delivery after it ruled that a police drug-sniffing dog trespassed and conducted an illegal search by putting its paws on his vehicle, prompting the search that led to his arrest.”

    When you see something that stupid, you have to call bullshit. There is some kind of backfield-in-motion arrangement going on to have three members of a state supreme court beclown themselves in such a fashion. A political agenda gaining power through the courts, is what that is. This is why having courts decide policy is such a bad idea.

    The other thing is a video making the rounds of some black guy having a reverse racism tirade against a man, his wife and their kid. They were white, and their Whiteness was oppressing him. He decided he needed to scream at them, they sat there and let him scream. End of story.

    Unfortunately BOTH sides of the factional divide are making hay with this. The Left, naturally, is saying “Yeah! Testify!” The Right is saying, naturally, “Look how racist this is!”

    And, as you knew I was going to say, both sides are completely full of sh1t. It’s propaganda. Some out-of-context loser on the subway is not a national-level incident. But we’re being told it is by the media, people who are not our friends. Let’s not kid ourselves, the guy who runs around yelling that black people are racists is no better than the ones screaming white people are racists. Both propaganda.

    This is happening so much in media that you have to call bullshit again. The purpose of all this racism talk, both against whites -and- against blacks, the purpose of even raising the subject at all, is to spread fear and hatred through the nation. To CREATE, from nothing, Red States and Blue States. To drive a wedge into a strong nation.

    They’re trying to do the same thing in Canada, but because we don’t really have non-White people here in any appreciable numbers they have been IMPORTING them. Canada got ONE MILLION new residents last year alone. One million my friends, in a year. A plague year as well. That’s what they were doing under cover of Covid. 2021, 30 million population. 2022, 31 million.

    Why? Because the Chinese don’t want to fight a united USA and a united Canada. They can’t win that. They think they might be able to beat just the Red States if the Blue States are already on their side politically.

    And that’s why Communist China has been pumping money into universities for 30 years, and why George Soros has been buying prosecutors all over the USA. Finally makes sense, right? They just want us fighting among ourselves.

    1. Canada’s total population is far too small to be able to peacefully and safely assimilate ONE MILLION people a year. The U.S. population is just about big enough to peacefully and safely assimilate that many people per year. Yet due to the insane Democrat immigration policies being enabled by the treasonous Biden Administration, we have 4 to 5 times that number of people invading the U.S. This is part and parcel of setting the stage for violence that may make the ACW look like a kindergarten spat.

      1. The immediate effect of all this immigration is that you cannot get an apartment (or a house or a condo) in Toronto. Because that’s where they went. Everybody wants to be in Toronto. -Nobody- wants to be in Calgary.

        So, see if you can imagine the already overburdened socialist mechanisms of Toronto suddenly getting another 500,000 (for easy counting) people to deal with. During Covid.

        Yep. It is exactly like you think. Completely nuts.

        1. Sounds like a good reason to move to Calgary….But generally, there are just too many NPCs in Canada, even more than in America….

    2. “When you see something that stupid, you have to call bullshit. ”

      How is it stupid? The police dog is an officer of the law – as testified to by the thing where if you shoot a police dog you get dinged same way as you would for shooting an officer – therefore they should be bound by exactly the same rules as human officers.

      Which includes not trespassing without a warrant. If a human officer would get in trouble for doing what the dog did, then the canine officer should get in trouble for doing it to.

      Don’t want dogs treated as officers for all other purposes, then don’t prosecute their deaths as though they were officers.

      1. That argument may be dumber than the one made by the Idaho Supremos. I thought I’d seen the bottom, but the digging seems to have sped up.

        A) A dog is a DOG not a human. It cannot form intent. Also, dogs jump on things. That’s how they are.
        B) If a cop leans on your car or taps on your window, is that grounds to vacate a drug conviction? How about if he looks inside? How about if he smells booze when you roll down your window?

        Do you want to have traffic stops or not? It is my considered opinion that the Idaho Supremos (or somebody) do -not- want traffic stops, so they just keep chiseling away overturning convictions on slimmer and slimmer grounds. Pretty soon, if a guy is smoking crack on the front steps of the police station and selling it to third graders the cops won’t arrest him. Whose best interests is that in?

        1. An unworthy part of me is saying, “They asked for it.” But I know it’s unworthy.
          Is there any move afoot yet to “distribute asylum seekers fairly,” by shipping crowds to places like Calgary?

          1. Recently they’ve been shipping them from Montreal to Niagara Falls Ont. Which is a tourist town with no particular amenities for benefit seek (ahem) I mean asylum seekers.

            The Frenchies are basically kicking them out, Ontario is basically telling the Feds “no more in Toronto!” so Niagara Falls.

            The immigrants don’t like it there, apparently. Nothing to do.

        2. Looking through the uncovered (but closed) window of your home to gather evidence without a warrant has been explicitly allowed by the USSC. So that one, at least, can’t be disallowed unless it runs afoul of an odd state provision.

        3. It’s no dumber than the law already is. It’s perfectly logical to conclude that if a police dog is legally considered to have the protections and powers of a human police officer, its actions should be subject to the same limitations as a human.

          With a police dog, you effectively have a cop that has a near supernatural ability to sense the presence of illegal drugs, but no ability to understand rights or laws. It’s not capable of intending to violate anyone’s rights, but nonetheless capable of causing them to be violated — so the people who are capable of understanding rights and legal limits are doubly responsible for the canine cop’s behavior.

          Whether this case violated a legal expectation of privacy is very iffy. It’s a fringe case, really. Hanging too much significance on it may not be wise.

          “Do you want traffic stops or not” isn’t the question. Traffic stops for traffic offenses will be a thing as long as there are traffic laws. The question is what the police are allowed to do to you while they’ve got you stopped for something that may or may not merit a fine and generally isn’t even a misdemeanor.

          Crack dealers selling to toddlers on the police station steps? Slippery slope…rejected. Also, your blog post notes that the scumbag in question was rolled up for another crime under unambiguous circumstances; the police generally don’t need expanded powers to catch people that really need catching.

          1. “It’s not capable of intending to violate anyone’s rights, but nonetheless capable of causing them to be violated — so the people who are capable of understanding rights and legal limits are doubly responsible for the canine cop’s behavior.”

            Exactly.

            1. Questions:

              If a cop leans on the outside of the car (or doesn’t, and does it matter? Why or why not?), looks in and sees an open bottle of Jack Daniels beside the driver, and smells booze on the driver’s breath (IOW, uses his senses to detect a possible crime), is it a violation of the driver’s rights for him to conduct a field sobriety test?

              If the answer is “no”, how is that different from a trained dog using his senses (smell, in this case) to detect a possible crime and inform his handler in whatever way he was trained?

              If the dog “alerts” on the car, but doesn’t jump up on it, is that now OK?

              1. See below for the discussion of IR vs seeing through open house windows and the allowability of each in police actions.

                1. I didn’t mention IR scans or anything else related to “peeping”, only how obvious crime in public view (or scent) should be addressed. My questions were specific, and I haven’t seen them addressed yet.

          2. I don’t know if you’ve noticed what’s been going on in Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, and for the first time ever in Toronto, but the question is not a slippery-slope argument. It is a logical progression.

            Example, Toronto. Addicts are literally shooting up on the subway platforms and in the passageways when policemen are -present-. As in, the cop is standing right there, looking at him shoot up. There’s video.

            Why don’t they bust him? A) they don’t have to, because they were told it was up to them, B) because non-white perp equals don’t get out of the cruiser and C) because there’s no point, the druggie will be back on the street before the cops finish their paperwork.

            Five years ago they’d have busted him so hard he’d have bounced. But not now. So it’s an arrangement.

            -Why- is this happening? Because judges here have been very busy doing things like vacating convictions because the police dog put his feet on the car.

            They are destroying law and civic order, deliberately.

            1. Point 1: Friends of mine in Seattle and Portland, loyal progressives all, have lately been recounting tales of scary threatening crazy people on the bus and light rail, and even calling for more police presence on public transit.

              Point 2: All but two of the Seattle City Clowncil Council are retiring this year, including especially Kshama Sawant, the Communist pretending to be a Socialist. One wonders if they read the tea leaves and didn’t like what they saw.

              It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any actual change in voting patterns this November. I mean, we elected a nominal Republican for City Attorney last time. Things have gotten worse, so maybe there will be real change this time. I’d be much happier if we had Democrats pretending to be centrists instead of socialists pretending to be Democrats, and I think Seattle might have a chance of improving if that were the case.

              1. Point 3: The Seattle Times recently ran an article about how the city was going to be sprucing up the underground bus/light rail terminals in downtown, because all the graffiti, fentanyl smokers, and crazy people were making them unusable for normies. The fact that the Seattle Times is even gesturing toward the “homeless” as a problem is a huge step.

            2. They are indeed destroying law and civic order on purpose. I’m just not convinced that’s what this particular case is about. The bar for how and when police are allowed to conduct a search of someone’s property should be high…probably higher than it currently is…and it’s not easy to tell where the bar even is, because it gets very fuzzy around the edges.

              Getting to the point where police can’t arrest people (or won’t because there’s no point in it) even when they’re flagrantly, openly, dangerously breaking the law is a whole nother ballgame. Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, etc., didn’t get there via Supreme Court judgments in fringe cases. They got there by having leftists get into positions of authority and agree that “special” people were simply exempt from law and consequences.

              2. They got there by having leftists get into positions of authority and agree that “special” people were simply exempt from law and consequences.

                And it is biting them, HARD, as it should.

                …I am still giggling at the neighbors of Portland that went “No, you cannot borrow our police, and then require that they follow the same stupid rules that got you into this problem.”

                Especially the sheriff in the tourist town that was WAY less polite about it.

              3. Case in point. There’s an anti-littering law in New Hampshire (as in many, if not most, states.) But the cost of enforcement vastly exceeds the cost of the fine. In Barrington, we finally got 2-deep coverage 24/7 for cops patrolling the town this year; which means they now have some options when it comes to use of force, instead of just shooting. If they’re spending the time doing paperwork and appearing in court for littering cases, they’re not available for actually patrolling and responding. Now add that 99% of the litterers are never even seen, much less caught, and the risk for it is virtually nonexistent.

        4. ” if a guy is smoking crack on the front steps of the police station and selling it to third graders the cops won’t arrest him.”

          … It’s Idaho. Somebody would shoot him.

          Not on the courthouse steps, of course. Probably back at his house. Or, y’know. He’d just go missing in the woods.

            1. Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, even Oregon, in some areas. Go no more than 10′ off the path, out of a meadow, even if the correct area is searched, if you aren’t conscious to hear the searchers? Odds are you won’t be found. It has happened before. It will happen again. These were individual that everyone desperately wanted found whether the searchers knew the individual or not.

              1. I did a body search of the area between McChord AFB and Fort Lewis way back in the day. Stomping through that pucker brush trying to maintain a 20 foot or less interval between each searcher was hard enough while still trying to spot anything that might be a body part, clothing item, or some attempt to conceal either.

                One of the searchers did find the woman’s body. And I don’t think the killer will survive more that a few days if and when he ever gets released from prison. Assuming someone doesn’t Epsteinize him while he’s behind bars.

                1. 20′ interval between searchers in parts of PNW western forests is impossible. I’ve been places that 5′ interval is too far. I’ve been places were we weren’t walking on the ground through Vine Maple, or Rhododendron, etc.. Could see the ground, wasn’t walking on it. One of the reasons the illegal forest grows are so hard to find, and they cover more area and height than a person.

        5. “A dog is a DOG not a human. It cannot form intent. Also, dogs jump on things. That’s how they are.”

          And that would be how the human cops can justify violating people’s rights based on the dog’s actions.

          A properly trained dog – which police dogs should be – does not jump on things unless it is told to, by its handler. Or permitted to, when jumping on things is the signal for “I found something”.

          If a police dog is randomly jumping on things with neither instruction nor permission, it is a bad police dog. One hopes that its trainers and handlers would have never let such a dog out in the field, unless it were useful to them to have an excuse to search people that they other wise wouldn’t be able to.

          1. unless it were useful to them to have an excuse to search people that they other wise wouldn’t be able to.

            But police would never do such a thing.

            I really shouldn’t have to put the /s here.

      2. There’s no law against a police officer putting a hand on your vehicle. In fact, this is usually SOP for an officer, as it provides proof (hand print/DNA) that the officer did in fact contact that vehicle. Ergo, the same concept applies to a police canine touching a vehicle.

      3. How is touching a car a search? I can’t search a car by touching it. Dogs can’t, either. Are you somehow able to determine what may or may not be in a car just via a casual touch? If you can, then that’s an impressive ability you have there.

        1. The search wasn’t by touch, it was by SMELL. The touch was what the police used as their indication that something illegal had been detected, and the question is whether it was legally permissible to use enhanced techniques (the dog’s sense of smell) to effectively search inside somebody’s car.

          1. I seem to recall a case that turned on whether an officer had grounds to search because an IR scanner said the house was warmer than its’ neighbors. This was back in the 80s(?) right after that tech hit the civilian market. I think the Supremes eventually said basically “It’s not in plain view if your unaided eyes can’t see it.”

            Well, if a human’s nose can’t smell it, is that the same principle?

            1. Seems like it would be to me.

              Of course, I might be slightly bitter against the Idaho State Patrol for pulling me over for having my windows only partially rolled down on a hot summer day.

            2. IR scanners have been disallowed. It was viewed as to invasive, and a risk to privacy. But searches involving dogs have come up before the USSC on multiple occasions, and the court has condistantly allowed the use of dogs to aid searches.

              1. Sure, but “to aid warranted searches” or “to establish probable cause for a warrantless search” when half of the search was already completed by the dog’s nose before probable cause was established?

                I think most everyone would agree that the former is reasonable.

                The latter is where things are likely to become abusive.

                1. The USSC has consistently ruled that it’s permissable. There are limits in place, such as the one I mentioned where a traffic stop lasted longer than it should have so that the dog could get there. But if a police dog happens to walk and get a whiff of something in your vehicle, the Supreme Court has consistently held that the cops are within their rights to perform a search.

                  An Idaho court claiming otherwise ignores repeated Supreme Court cases on this topic.

                    1. It’s worth clarifying.

                      Part of it is probably “new tech doohickey messing with privacy understandings”. Part of it is probably “IR can be used from some distance away, while a dog’s nose must be close to what you want to search”.

                      And, well, there’s always the privacy issue. “Hey, the IR camera is showing that the bedroom’s a bit warmer than usual…”

                    2. More along the lines of “The lights are off, but the shades aren’t drawn. And the occupants are horizontal and superimposed….”

                  2. “An Idaho court claiming otherwise ignores repeated Supreme Court cases on this topic.”

                    Y’know, I’m actually okay with that.

                    Letting the supreme court rule on things that aren’t disputes between states or disputes between states and feds seems like one of those things that don’t serve any purpose except to increase federal usurpation of state functions.

                    1. Doesn’t matter what’s fine with you. That’s not the way that it works. The US Supreme Court is the supreme court of the land where matters involving the Constitution are concerned.

              1. This would be one of many reasons they typically operate as vigilantes, I imagine.

                1. Or the laws are carefully defined to determine what is allowed and not. Wearing the Cape is a prime example of that.

                  Batman, OTOH, takes advantage of a fairly broad loophole. As a “private actor”, he can drop off a packet of evidence just like any other anonymous tipster. If he gets caught while gathering it, he is supposed to be the same as any other criminal. Several story arcs have been built on whether or not the Gotham PD is really hunting him like they should be.

                  1. I remember one story where Astra was testifying about the identity of a crook based on a tattoo seen at extreme distance. She had to demonstrate her ability to actually see at that distance.

              2. Probably depends on the nature of the source:

                Superman: natural for what he is. Allowed.
                Iron Man: not natural, given via device: bzzzt

                  1. Oh, absolutely, as I point out a little later. However, given the law as it exists TODAY, where a dog’s nose is allowed even though it is superior to unaided human because it’s organic, where an IR scanner isn’t because it’s artificial, that is what would be the basis.

          2. The snippet that ThePhantom quoted above explicitly links the search (along with the trespass) to the dog putting its paws on the car.

            As for the dog’s sense of smell, dogs have been used to sniff out contraband for decades now. Unsurprisingly, the USSC has ruled on this and okayed it. Most recently was a case in 2015 in which the court (led by Ginsberg in this instance) stated that you can’t intentionally drag out a traffic stop so that a police dog can arrive and sniff the suspect’s vehicle. The court had no issues with the basic use of a dog’s nose. It was intentionally dragging out the stop that was a problem.

            Using a dog’s nose to search is not unconstitutional.

            1. Just as I would have assumed based on logic (yeah, I know). If it’s OK for a cop to use his/her senses to tell when a crime has occurred and intervene, based on something seen from outside the vehicle (or for that matter, the house), something smelled from outside the vehicle is also OK to prompt intervention. Is it OK for a cop to search based on the smell of marijuana from outside the car? Damfino, but I see no difference in that case between “saw” and “smelled”.

          3. How is a dog smelling marijuana as it walks past a care any different than a human being smelling marijuana as he or she walks past a car?

            The dog is a biological detection device. They are the flesh and blood equivalent of a mechanical sniffer for chemical warfare agents used by the military. Historically, human law was based on human capacities. If you exceed what’s humanly possible, then you are doing a search. Their use constitutes a search.

            Now what does need to be done more often, is a harassment suit against any cop who does a car search, initiated by a drug dog alert, and they come up empty. We could make it simple, and merely charge the cop for our time wasted while they fruitlessly search the car; say, a lawyer’s or plumber’s hourly rates. That should work to discourage frivolous stops.

            1. “We could make it simple, and merely charge the cop for our time wasted while they fruitlessly search the car; say, a lawyer’s or plumber’s hourly rates. ”

              I know how much per hour my company bills clients for my time…. 😎

    3. Phantom,
      I think this is more “Is a dog jumping on a car legitimate cause for a search?” than anything else.

      And I’m going with the court. Nope. Dog might be jumping on the car because the dude who dried it at the carwash had drugs on the towel. If dog’s that sensitive, if the mechanic had been using at work.

      Bust the guy for illegal driving. If the driving indicates intoxication, get the warrent properly and conduct the search while the guy’s sobering up and chilling in jail trying to talk someone into posting bond.

      I am absolutely convinced that the cops could have gotten a warrent for a search and executed it in this case. Don’t be sloppy and lazy.

      2. True, dogs do not have intent to violate suspects’ rights, they usually ‘intend’ (if such faculties can be attributed to canines) to please their persons. Their handlers, though, may, and often can induce a false hit by clues to their partner. See the multiple videos online of K9-related traffic stops where the handler is pointing to ‘likely’ areas of the vehicle and saying, “Find the drugs! Find the drugs!” Pre-supposes that there are actually drugs present in the first place. Also puts the dog in a spot where its incentive to ‘alert’ may induce it to produce a false positive. After all, Fido generally doesn’t get a Milk Bone® for NOT alerting on a vehicle.

        I know that dogs can be important tools in Police work, but like any tool that can degrade over time they should undergo periodic recalibration like, say, a torque wrench. It would be nice if a dog could be 100% reliable in detection, but we live in the real world. 90% would be a goal to shoot for, but I could live with 70%. If we get to 50% (or lower), the cop would be more justified in legitimizing a search by flipping a coin – that is, not justified at all. Especially since it’s difficult to cross-examine a dog on a stand, it is important to have a standard that can be used to challenge the critter’s expertise. Elsewise, the LEOs are just using the dog’s ‘alert’ as a Band-Aid® of respectability to put a patch on an otherwise shaky case.

        1. The elephant in the room, of course, is how much you really trust law enforcement, at any level. After the countless examples we’ve seen since 2020 of law enforcement being willing to enforce unconstitutional mandates over Covid, or J6, or Donald Trump, or parents at school board meetings, so they could keep their paychecks and pensions? Think about it.

          And yes, they can and should be held to a higher standard on that. We entrusted them with authority and they abused it. “To whom much has been given, much is required.”

    4. I’ve been to Mountain Home. It’s in the middle of the desert and there are maybe a dozen buildings outside the Air Force base.

  15. From what I can tell from the ones that I shave talked with, it is not that the “low information voters” don’t believe their was fraud in the 2020 election, it is that they don’t insert why they should care enough to rock the boat over it. If the boat is fine, why waste a lot of energy on it?

    I think that is the real case we need to be making: not did it happen, but rather, why should they care?

    We need to show them how this not only is not their baby, but it is also smothering their own children.

    1. The boat is fine, not canting or taking on water. The giant ice sculpture shoved through the stern is meaningless. Why should anyone care as long as they don’t get thrown out of their deck chair or spill their drink?

  17. Something to remember about the Trump charges (assuming Bragg goes through with it) –

    Edwards was looked at for the same thing with a bit extra. In his case, one or more campaign donors made the payments to the baby momma. And for obvious reasons, the payments weren’t declared as campaign contributions. The Feds investigated for a possible campaign finance violation, but determined there wasn’t one.

    The difference here in what Bragg claims happened (and there’s evidence Bragg’s version isn’t correct) is whether the candidate or a donor paid the woman in question. That’s it. And if a donor quietly paying off the woman isn’t illegal, it also shouldn’t be illegal if the candidate does it with his own money.

    1. There is no law against a person entering into an NDA with someone else for payment. Happens all the time.
      There’s no law against a person paying someone back for a favor, even if it was unsolicited, out of their own money. So as long as Mr. Trump signed the check from his personal account, and not from his campaign account, he’s not guilty of any crimes. And as long as the recipient claimed the payments as income, and the payers didn’t claim the payments as charitable donations or campaign expenses, there’s no laws broken either.

      1. Congress has a special fund for such. over $18 million paid to 291 folks who hence promised to non disclose sexual harassment by congress critters.

      2. Bragg isn’t claiming that the payment itself was illegal. Bragg is claiming that the payment was a “campaign contributio” since it ensured that Stormy Daniels wouldn’t damage his reputation during the campaign. Since the payment wasn’t reported as a campaign contribution, Bragg is claiming Trump broke the law.

        Edwards was investigated for similar reasons, but IIRC the courts said the law hadn’t been broken.

        1. Can’t be a campaign contribution if it didn’t come from the official campaign funds. Which is why Bragg’s charges are fraudulent, and why Bragg is guilty of falsification of government documents. Quite literally, Bragg is a criminal.

          1. The entire case is a mess. Bragg is trying to indict Trump for something that isn’t illegal. And Bragg’s own star witness to the facts of the case is contradicting statements that the witness made in the past Not only isn’t it illegal, but the witness himself has stated in the past that Trump didn’t do what is claimed.

      3. New York has at least a century of legal cases where thin “conspiracy” soup put onrganized crime figures in prison. Vast swaths of it.

        Those sentences were largely upheld.

        If they charge Trump, they can likely convict him. Given circumstances, they can eanwhile essentially no-bail him, restrict him to NY locations, and generally burn his funds.

        He won’t win an election, in simple terms. He will be too busy staying out of prison. And if they jail him for any length of time, pre or post, he is unlikely to survive. And no, he wouldn’t kill himself, but Arkancide is likely.

        Arkancide. Who did folks think was puppet mastering this fiasco? This is payback for “lock her up”.

          2. Kim Strassel in the WSJ is asking the Dems if they really want to go there, given if Trump does manage to win another term he won’t be in the mood for friendly compromise. And they will have set a precedent. Not to mention he probably won’t appoint people who feel much need for abiding by “norms,” that have already been blown up.

        1. Snort Given some of the stuff out of NYC’s DA’s office, I’d believe it.

          Dang it, Bee, you’ve become as much of a prophet as The Duffel Blog was under Obama!

  18. On a related note –

    Apparently the Arizona Supreme Court has sent Kari Lake’s signature verification lawsuit back to the lower courts. This is good news for Lake.

    1. Loved the legal justification, too.

      “No, you can’t deny a lawsuit because they didn’t submit it before the fraud they’re objecting to.”

  19. I used to think Pence was a smart guy for his policy of never being alone with another woman anywhere. However, looking back on his voting record, and his behavior as VP/President of the Senate, it is more likely that he is merely a coward, and unwilling to stand for any principles. Which is why he went along with the fraud, instead of raising the validity questions Trump was trying to pressure him into doing.

        1. You ain’t kidding. I grew up there (would like to get back to southern Utah to live someday) and the rest of the family still lives there. His assessment rang a very familiar bell.

    3. I’m not really sure if the why even matters in his case. The way I see it, the whole point of an Executive is to figure out how to handle things when the rules aren’t clear or clearly aren’t working.

      The vote tally was a perfect example of just such a problem, and when it mattered, he whiffed it. He demonstrated he lacks the key ability a good President needs. There are 300 million other Americans. We don’t have any reason to consider someone who has already dropped the 4am phone call.

      1. I am really disappointed in Pence, too – he turned out to be just another member of the-go-along-to-get-along Republican Party Reptile, dedicated to loosing gracefully so that they can continue dipping their beaks in the public trough, without doing much of anything to advance the interests and concerns of actual real conservatives and Republicans. Like Bush II. Like McCain. Like Romney.
        I’m embarrassed for myself that I ever supported these people at the time.

        I’m now convinced that McCain was in the contest to lose it gracefully. He picked Sarah Palin to give him cover, and only discovered that she was in it for real – the only reason that he had a chance at all, as it turned out. And then he and his staff turned viciously on her, since she had upset the calculated game.

        Were I here, I’d be nuclear with fury over being used in that way.

        1. I didn’t vote for them. I voted AGAINST Obama, and Hillary. None were my vote for the primary (not that, by the time my state votes, the front runner isn’t usually already decided on, still didn’t vote for any you listed in the primary).

          1. And boy am I glad she lost. I really didn’t want to go down in the history books as the man who assassinated the first woman president, no matter how vile she is, or how necessary it would have been.

              2. Biden’s bad, yes; but believe it or not, his dementia is limiting the damage. In his case, evil oft will evil mar. Hillary on the other hand, was actively malicious. And deliberately plans such. Things, or people, who get in the Clinton’s way, have a distressingly frequent rate of death or destruction.

                  1. Biden is everybody’s puppet.

                    A traditional vaudeville show has one ventriloquist with two or three dummies. The Washington vaudeville show has half a dozen ventriloquists with one dummy. It just looks like schizophrenia to the audience.
                    ———————————
                    Why do so many idiots believe that our problems will be solved by the same shitheads that caused them?

        2. “Like Bush II. Like McCain. Like Romney.”

          Like Bush I as well. “I believe Reagan made a mistake when he chose Bush as his vice-presidential candidate – indeed, I regard it as the worst decision not only of his campaign but of his presidency.” – Milton Friedman.

          Back in 2008, I voted third-party specifically to be able to say that I voted against both McCain and Obama.

          More generally, I see a four-way division in the two parties:

          The GOP base thinks that the Democrats suck because they’re a bunch of insane America-hating commies, and that the GOP establishment sucks because they’re spineless fake-conservative wimps who would rather cozy up to the Dems than do anything to successfully advance conservative policies.

          The GOP establishment thinks that the Democrats suck because they’re Democrats, and that the GOP base are revolting peasants who suck revoltingly, such that the GOP establishment would marginally prefer to ally with the Democratic party establishment instead.

          The Democratic party establishment thinks that the GOP base sucks because they’re ultra-MAGA monsters in subhuman mutant form, that the GOP establishment sucks because they’re too beholden to the monstrous GOP base, and that their own Democratic party base sucks because they’re a bunch of semi-useful idiots and wet-behind-the-ears kids.

          And the Democratic party base thinks that the Democratic party establishment and the whole GOP suck because they’re all “right wing,” and the only sin they recognize is to be “right wing.”

          1. Hmmmm, I think I want to live up to the Democrats expectations. Bwahahahahaha. But I’m not moving to Tromaville, NJ.

      2. I’m not sure if it was incompetence or malice on Pence’s part. He never struck me as a MAGA type.

  21. The latest news from the Trump indictment is that the walls are closing in . . . next week? Maybe? This time for sure?

    1. It will be extended forever in the DEMrats have their way. The one thing they must NOT have is resolution. Then their fundraiser boogeyman ceases to be.

        1. The clear and obvious election fraud. Unless they are playing some deeper game, but let us not give undue credit to the crookedly demented. They ought not be underestimated, but also not OVER estimated. If they were truly smart & sneaky, there’d at least some slight hints of competence, even accidental, in the mal-administration. There is no such thing. I am NOT religious to speak of, but demonic influence would explain more than is comforting.

        2. Well, the obvious is that FICUS and his entire family are on the ChiCom payroll.

        3. Banking whatever the heck they think they’re doing?
          China/Russia making like they think they have mutual interests?
          France having themselves riots and protests over retirement age?
          Whatever the Netherlands farmers party is up to besides terrifying all environmental nuts?
          I’m sure there’s more, did I see something about California possibly opening mental institutions?

          1. A Chinese-Russian alliance will probably turn out about as well as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and likely for the same reasons.

            1. Once Russia squanders the rest of its reserves in the meat grinder of Ukraine, China eats Siberia with little opposition.

        4. Probably was to be distraction from the bank fiasco that didn’t go chernobyl.

        5. Take your pick? Every other day it seems like something new has the wheels come off. This week was bank collapse. Maybe next week we see a dam break? (Please no, but who knows at this point.)

          I suspect this is just the prosecutor has been trying to get something to even plausibly stick so his donars don’t cut off funds, but it looks like it just blew up in his face. We shall see.

  22. I will, I presume, likely be visiting $Ma Real Soon Now… and I will have two paper books for her to read during my visit (she is Old Fashioned and doesn’t do digital). One is Lawdog’s new release, the other is Shifter’s No.5 that was unexpected but is part of… the “main sequence” due to.. THINGS…

    I do hope she can read both during my visit and then I can go to LibertyCon with them to be signed (& otherwise scribbled upon…)

  23. In my eight score and four years…
    I mistakenly so prefaced an earlier post that way, however if I do it again and again, noting I’m doing so just to see if you… I can convince myself I did it on purpose. Man is the only rationalizing animal.

    My point being here, now, you’re, we’re (Yep, we’re, I’ve been pushing points one two and three above often and loudly as have any rational folks.) saying the answer is kind’a we gotta keep on doing what we have been doing (Points one, two and three above.) but expect different results this time. There’s a name for that.

    No not saying that we should stop doing so but I am saying we shouldn’t be surprised when the results stay the same. We need consider the other arrows in our quiver as well.

    Who is John Galt might be helpful, where is John Galt or Joe Plumber perhaps more so.

    If Joe Plumber or Ready Kilowatt is a bit slower providing service to and in the District of Columbia or CNN’s offices than say, Blue Ball, Pa, or Mom’s Pastry Shoppe, -or Tucker Trucker delivers to Key West before taking the stuff in the back of his rig to NYC. hey, such just may have a greater effect on the future of the Republic than Poll watching in this present day. They control the means to hide the poll watch results but it’ll be harder for them to do so if their toilets don’t flush, their lights don’t light or their tofu is a bit overripe upon arrival.

    Yes we’ve pushed points one, two & three. Yes we’ve doubled down doing so. Yes we should triple down but consider and utilize other options as well. Lob a few into the cuckoo’s nest!

    1. Eight score and four years… If time is wisdom, you’ve got a LOT of it. 😀 Even if the real figure is a mere 84, still true. It’s long past time we started starving the cuckoo.

  24. People voted for Eugene V. Debs for president when he was IN PRISON. And he was as leftie as it gets, so they should know about him.

    I know they don’t teach history anymore, but how stupid do they think we are?

    1. “Eugene V. Debs”

      Every time I see that name the first thought in my mind is “wasn’t that the name of a supreme court case?”

          1. Nah, since 1964 when I was stationed at MCRD San Diego for electronics schools I avoid the Left Coast.

    3. If he won, could he pardon himself? 😀

      Disqualifying a candidate, before or after the election, disenfranchises all those voters. Haven’t the Democrats been raising hell about disenfranchising voters recently? Especially the dead ones?
      ———————————
      Grandpa voted Republican until the day he died — but he’s been voting Democrat ever since.

  26. While I have not read it yet, Michael Malice wrote an entire book, The White Pill, making the case that the left cannot win. The bulk of the book is about the Soviet Empire, and how unimaginably (to Americans) evil it truly was. And yet, we won and they lost, and not a single shot was fired. (Granted, part of this is due to Gorbachev actively choosing not to do evil at several steps of the way, but still.)

    And a point he keeps making in interviews: look at Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and any other centralizing statist you care to name. These are not smart people. They are not people to be feared. They’re fools and mediocrities. Treat them appropriately.

    2. And also worth listening to (it’s the third part of a three-part interview covering the history of the USSR, but should be fine to listen to all on its own):

    3. Granted, part of this is due to Gorbachev actively choosing not to do evil at several steps of the way, but still.

      I find that kind of encouraging, too….

        1. He gets credit, just not in the right ways. He’s typically used to take credit from Reagan, Thatcher, and JP2, as if he would have dismantled the USSR without outside pressure.

            1. Moot point, but I wonder if he would have done the same in their place if he’d been the premier 20 to 50 years earlier, when it wasn’t yet clear that the communist empire was collapsing in on itself.

              1. I suspect he’d have had a very similar arc to Kruschev.

                And Kruschev sent the tanks into Hungary in 1956.

              2. One, he was the first premier to have been born after the revolution.

                And two, he grew up without parents, and as an outcast, because his parents had been victims of a condemnation to the party, and that colored his actions. 20 to 50 years previously, I doubt someone with that in his background would have been permitted to be premier. So, yeah, the circumstances just could not have been there.

                1. The USSR fell, but the Great Lie of the 20th Century was permitted to stand: The lie that socialism and communism were absolutely totally 100% the complete and utter opposite of fascism and nazism.

          1. And not even the good silly. We’re talking Captain America-hailing-HYDRA, New Warriors-with-Snowflake-and-Safespace levels of stupidity.

          1. Uh. i wonder. If he manages to come back (He already managed one comment in unapproved, which shouldn’t be possible, as he’s supposed to go to spam) we should all call him Lizardo.

    5. Not a shot was fired?

      All those US service folks in places like Korea and Vietnam died of harsh language?

      Plenty of shots were fired, to terrible effect, in that “cold” war.

      1. And yet, the actual fall of the USSR and the Eastern Bloc was not precipitated by any shots, any violent conflict, so you had to reach back two decades and further from what was being discussed to appear to score a point.

        So you have that going for you.

        1. Afghanistan.

          Various suppressive actions within the Pact.

          The attempted pro -Soviet Coup at the end. Lots of shots fired in that one.

          The so-called “cold” war was bloody from 1945 to 1991. Almost uninterrupted, if you count the various un-newsworthy skirmishes in odd corners.

          In some ways, the current would-be tzar, a big fan of the former Union, is continuing the body count. You may have noticed he is trying to rebuild the former state, although on different philosophical lines. Well, same bloody mindedness, for certain values of polonium tea.

          Folks can point out additional examples of how wrong you were. You took it personally that someone corrected a wildly wrong and easily refuted assertion? How odd.

          1. You’re just gonna keep lugging those goalposts around until you “win”, aren’t you?

            I was talking about the actions of the west that were contributory causes to the downfall of the Eastern bloc, and then the USSR. Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul II hastened the collapse through rhetoric, not violence.

            Now, I am talking about the downfall and its contributing causes. You changed the topic to “the entire Cold War”, and good for you, but that’s not what I’m discussing. And while Malice discusses the entire existence of the USSR, when he talks about the downfall of it, he is correct, and you are not, that the actual fall was caused by nonviolent actions, rather than violent ones. That is not the same as saying “there was never any violence, ever”, which would be stupid, but hey, using that strawman is the only way you’re going to win your point, isn’t it?

            So, yes, there was violence and death. But the Actual Cause of the collapse had nothing to do with any violence that took place, unless you really stretch a point and want to claim that the Afghanistan war helped weaken the USSR economy, which contributed to the economic collapse that was inevitable in the system in any event. But that really only relates to the USSR, and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc apart from Russia has far more to do with rhetoric, and the ensuing preference cascade, than with any violence at all.

            But that just won’t let you “win”, will it? Which is a pity.

            1. The Afghanistan debacle was the proximate cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. Their military lost much of its combat power and almost all of its credibility. Their economy all but collapsed.

              When the Soviets were no longer capable of propping up their puppet regimes, they fell too. East Germany, Cuba, Hungary, Romania and so on.
              ———————————
              Some of the politicians nominally on our side need to be taught the difference between ‘compromise’ and ‘appeasement’.

              1. Kissinger suggested that the reason why the Soviets went all-in on Afghanistan was because they’d been forced to sit idly by while the Chinese invaded Vietnam. The USSR was treaty-bound to come to the assistance of Vietnam (formerly North Vietnam) if a foreign power invaded it. The Chinese did… and the Soviets sat on their hands.

                That left the the Soviets looking like a bunch of guys that weren’t willing to honor their commitments. So when the allied government in Afghanistan was facing collapse due to the Mujahedeen, the Soviets committed themselves fully to supporting the government in Kabul. If they hadn’t, their promises would have been viewed as worthless.

          2. And because you are clearly dishonest enough to try this argument, the Ceausescus were executed after the Romanian communist government fell from power. So, yes, more shots fired and two more deaths, but not the, you know, cause of the thing happening. More of a consequence, really.

  27. “Let’s not go to America. ‘Tis a silly place!”

    “But your majesty, they have bacon wrapped fried Twinkies!”

    “I stand corrected. My loyal knights! We are going to America!”

  29. The US has a long tradition of meddling with and/or fixing national elections overseas. Starting perhaps with the free and fair election in Poland after the war. The western PTB knew the Russian commies made the election anything but free and fair but hailed the results ptoudly anyway as “for the first time in their history the Poles have elected their own government” (there were lots of commie sympathizers and pinkos in both the US and UK gov’ts then. Still are ). From then to the meddling/fixing in Africa, South America, the Middle East and present day Israel it’s not something to be proud of. (And from today’s perspective, counter-productive.)

    And now it’s happened here. Foisted on our own petard. All we can realistically do is keep voting straight-ticket R and try to insert our values into state and local elections, from Governor to School Board and,dogcatcher. And pull enough popular and electoral votes to prevent the regime from declaring a mandate. And pray for the Supreme Court to stay conservative.

    1. Don’t forget installing Poroshenko in Ukraine in 2014. It’s just a coincidence that Hunter Biden was hired by Burisma in 2015 and paid a million a year for…reasons.

      There is no way to prevent the regime from declaring a mandate. The Democrats declared that a 50-50 Senate gave them a ‘mandate’. They declare that a narrow Republican majority in the House gives them a ‘mandate’. The Pretendent declares ‘mandates’ every other day.
      ———————————
      The government can mandate stupidity, but they can’t make it not be stupid.

      1. Oh, it is the same quality of accusation of “meddling.”

        Since I’m only 40, most of the claims are about times before I was born, and folks are very skittish about details or support for them; it can be hard to tell.

        #########

        Go look at the claimed evidence for having installed Poroshenko and/or removed Yanukovych. It’s that leaked diplomatic phone call, the transcripts are online.

        It consists of two diplomatic types talking about the ongoing revolution triggered by the Russian puppet guy having opened fire on protesters, identifying one person by name (the boxer who was running for mayor), and generally acting like international representatives dealing with a country that is kicking out the dude who pretty obviously openly frauded into power.

        On the upside, the first few variations I saw claimed that we’d installed the actor. Which would’ve come as a very big surprise to all involved!

        In fairness, the boxer did get elected. To mayor.

        Probably less of a surprise is that Yanukovych — the guy who set snipers on the protesters– fled to Russia, and rumor has it that Putin wants to put him back in power “when” he finishes his glorious defensive invasion of super-totally-nazi neighbors who were wearing a short skirt.

  30. It’s been frustrating to watch people that you thought were on your side and immune to the Martian Brain Fungus not just succumb but do everything to prove their loyalty to the Inner Party.

    I’m too busy trying to make my particular space in the world better. Stealing from the billionaires to be a billionaire and provide more money to build around these idiots would make me happy.

  31. So apparently there’s supposed to be a super-sized super-bright comet that will be passing closest to the Earth right around the end of October 2024, i.e. voting season. An omen?

    “When beggars die there are no comets seen;
    The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.”
    — Julius Caesar, Act II Scene 2

    1. The number of “super-bright,” comets that fizzle is substantial. I remember Comet Kahoutek, which had, “end of the world,” tracts written and was a barely visible blob (I happened to be in a descriptive astronomy class during its approach and got to watch my instructor deflate in real time as the darn thing failed to brighten up).
      I think I managed a glimpse of the “green comet,” that came by in January. Neowise was nice, but the last really good bright comet I’ve seen was Hale-Bopp. So I’ll wait and see about this one.
      We do, however, have a total solar eclipse coming up April 2024 and it will be visible in the US.

  32. #1: “it will be open and everyone’s faces”. I don’t think so. There’s been plenty of evidence of this already and it doesn’t pierce the veil tossed up by the MSM around the non-engaged or even centrist voter. Stories like this are quickly squelched or simply labeled Fox propaganda. I’d like to see a serious campaign to actually do a hostile takeover of more than one MSM outlet. We rail against them year after year and accomplish little except talking to ourselves. Instead, let’s start a 20 year project to slowly take them over. Perhaps even start “real” journalism schools, and cuckoo them right back. Of course, you’d need to use subterfuge to even get hired by them.

    1. And yet people are starting to see it more and more.
      No? Then explain Let’s go Brandon. Fraud with good governance will be tolerated. Fraud with bad tolerance? No. It will slowly bring a tide of anger you can’t imagine. It is swelling now.
      The MSM at this point mostly talks to the very old and convinced leftists.
      IF the left still had the power of the MSM they wouldn’t need the fraud, and it wouldn’t need to increase every year.

    2. We rail against them year after year and accomplish little except talking to ourselves

      Oooor we start new news organizations– since they’re the ones who like to skinsuit, not us– and make it work that way, by supporting the good stuff.

      Good grief, even vaguely liberal people subscribe to the Epoch Times! It doesn’t have the same disclaimers as Fox News, possibly because Fox News went more the Gateway Pundit “whatever gets attention” route.

      :COUGH, COUGH: This also works for other media, such as books! And GAMES!

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