I wonder how much of America’s tendency to get mad slow (and burn very hot when we get to anger) is because we’re all very busy living our own lives and barely have time to stop and think?
Having lived in other countries, most others have more free time. Now, they pay for it in various ways, mostly in reduced opportunities/ability to do things. BUT they still have more free time. Time to sit around in coffee shops and to se bavarder about politics. In the states, not so much. We still work, often even on weekends, just on things we want to work on, rather than our jobs.
On the other hand, all of the world is busier than it was, even a century ago. There are multiple reasons for this: mostly because the government takes so much of what we produce that even most women have to work outside the home. It’s not a choice.
But also because well, even in the rest of the world it has become much easier to do or be or learn something else after work hours.
This is unheard of. Part of the reason for much slower narrative styles in the past is that people had a lot more free time filled with boredom. Well into the middle of last century.
Looking at the outrages perpetrated and the fact people haven’t rebelled makes me wonder about… well, about the perennial “why people haven’t rebelled yet.”
Because we’re busy. And tired.
Yes, demographics has to do with it. Demographics and corruption of education means most working-age people are working their behinds off.
And there is lack of ability to do much beyond being mad. Younger people, like in France, do have time to protest, usually on the stupid side, and that too is because they can’t find work. (See corruption of education. And yes, Pope Francis is often an *sspopehat but when he said the biggest problem confronting the world was youth unemployment, he might not have been wrong. It’s just that his solutions are likely to break everything.) But there aren’t that many young people. So they’re not going to be a force as they were in the sixties and even somewhat seventies.
This is why the Tea Parties and the Gillettes jeunes (I’m sure misspelled. It’s been years, and I’m dyslexic) of France were a big deal. It was the Silver Hairs getting involved.
It should have been a warning to the governments and the social-distractors.
We’re very busy, but not so busy that we can’t be angry. And we’re angry.
Remember mom and dad’s injunction? Don’t make me stop this car and come back there!
Well, if you make us stop our very busy lives and come back there, you won’t like it. It won’t be pretty.
But we’ll take care of the problem fast and set things right, because we have work we need to get back to.
And we’ll give the statists and the kakistokrats something to cry about.
We’re almost at stop the car and come back there. I can feel it. And all I can do is pray it’s not violent and doesn’t set the world on fire.
Of course it’s useless to tell the idiots to stop — metaphorically — touching their sister.
All we can do is keep our tempers hot but in check, and come up with solutions that don’t burn everything down.
If you’re a praying kind, pray.
Because it’s going to be difficult. And we need a miracle.
Distraction only works for so long. And makes everything worse when people get tired of it.
According To Hoyt 
I think the biggest reason for fewer rebellions recently is the level of comfort. Wars, especially rebellions are uncomfortable things.
People haven’t been starving, so they live (and possibly protest) but don’t fight and take up arms
Well, if the WEF and Useful Idiots get their way, we (or at least much of the world) will be starving. It’s almost as if they want to push us to war. Should that happen, things won’t be so good for them either.
No. That’s bs. America was massively more comfortable than the English when it rebelled.
The very uncomfortable never rebel. see Cuba.
It takes the right balance. When things are moving to get better, but not fast enough. When people are above subsistence but feel like they’re not where they should be, where they would be if it weren’t for THEM.
Generally what I’ve heard is that there’s a fine line involved. People barely getting by are too busy to rebel. So close to subsistence is good. But if they slip below subsistence, they’ll figure that they’re more likely to die if they don’t rebel.
Which is why North Korea is in a continuous state of rebellion, eh?
Starve them slow enough, long enough, and rebellion is near impossible.
Fighting a war, even a revolution, requires provisions. The population needs food stocks to allow a campaign, else the army starves. Starving men fight poorly. Starving families lead to desertion.
Cuba and the DPRK are far too starved to fight their local armed forces and police state.
Ain’t happening. Ever.
If those regimes collapse, most are going die. What little food exists won’t move. Mass exodus results. Cubans try to boat to Florida. North Koreans walk north into China, versus the minefields and machineguns south. China, by the way, cannot possibly handle 20+ million starving Koreans. They either mine or their side of the Yalu, carpet-bomb the other side, or they collapse.
Note how little resistance occurred in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge were liquidating a quarter of their population. It only ended when the Vietnamese communists thought they were too bloodthirsty and crazy.
Ponder just how bad it had to be, make Vietnam blanche.
Viet-fucking-communist-nam.
I hope enough of us still have that inner fire that won us a continent-spanning Liberty. Because most of the rest of the world apparently quits and dies.
Not too many examples like ours, eh?
And some of our alleged countrymen are already polishing their jackboots and talking about “reeducation”.
(Feral grin)
Careful what you seek, Comrades. Someone may just give it to you. Hard.
There’s also the fact that building takes more time than breaking. Those of us who like to build things are busy doing that, and only get truly annoyed when folk are breaking our stuff faster than we can build it.
“Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” — Thomas Jefferson
We haven’t struck them down with rage and fire because they haven’t managed to impose truly insufferable evils on us.
Yet.
They believe this means we never will, so they keep piling on the evils, and gloating. The creaking and cracking noises mean nothing to them.
And then, one day, when the explosion comes, the last thing we hear from them will be a bewildered, “How did this happen?”
———————————
Why do so many idiots believe that our problems will be solved by the same shitheads that caused them?
“If stupidity got us into this mess, why can’t it get us out?” — some wise guy.
Some are.
And I’m still thinking that whatever pushes us over the edge (God forbid), will be something so small and inconsequential that future historians won’t understand why on earth we exploded over that.
Something as inconsequential as a few crates of tea, perhaps?
-or cans of beer, baseball franchise, a cake, school books, underwear ads, restroom signs, “tuckable” swimwear… ?
That last one does ignite a slow burn, yes….
I was a victim of a bully when I was a child. As an adult I have looked into the psychology of bullying. Most bullies have a lack of security in their home life. Their bullying is a check to see if they have power over others, to help them feel secure, (but it never lasts). This is why bullies constantly up the ante. There is always a doubt in their mind that it was their power that caused others to do their will. If they think (and eventually they always do) that others were just being nice, and that they weren’t forced, they will up the ante.
The little girl who bullied me did this, always asking for more and more audacious things.
Our elites are bullies, the big asks will just get crazier and crazier. They are intentionally crazy, so that the elites can believe they have the power to FORCE people against their will.
Exactly. Wait, they’re rebelling because TPTB lowered the taxes on tea? Huh?
Oh, for Heaven’s sake.
Events which are seen by the simple-minded as seminal in a revolt are more often just a late expression of a long held resentment. The colonists were already upset that tea was taxed at all. That the tax was not repealed along with the other Townsend Revenue Act taxes only added to their ire. The fact that the Tea Act gave the East India Company a monopoly on importation of tea to the American colonies was wildly unpopular: It undercut American merchants and was widely believed to be a tactic to normalize an unpopular tax.
If it was a tactic it was a spectacular failure. The Tea Party was not because the monopoly status of the East India Company enabled them to sell for less. It was because the Tea Act was perceived as another part of a strategy for keeping the colonies under English rule. Which rule was widely seen as denying colonists the rights they believed they were entitled to as Englishmen but which being regularly denied.
Also, things had been better before, no better services were being provided, and yet the Americans were being treated worse. They had improved their colonies, yet they weren’t to be allowed to do anything but provide raw resources to England.
THIS. But….. lots of anger.
“…but but but… it was just ONE LITTLE straw!”
Ohhwhh, I shouldn’t have had that last drink.”
Like it was all because of that drink, and not the dozen you had before it. 😮
Paper or plastic?
I recall the sort-of paper straws that Costco is inflicting on the customers at the food court. I think I’m going to go back to skipping the straw. One of those is way too many.
And also they will squeal “stop, stop, we will back off now.” And the response at that time will be. “No, it’s too late, you pushed way to far.”
“You’ve never backed off before. Sure, you pretended to. Not falling for that trick again. You. Are. DONE.”
Yes, the possibility of how ugly things could get if they push too far keeps me up at night.
“You’re a Betan. You can’t do-”
Cue chop-chop.
“Shopping!”
Hmm… I haven’t been shopping for fun in a while, no….
“Want to see what I bought?”
“How did this happen?”
Also known bookishly as, “What Happened?!?”
(Yes, The Shrill and Shrewish One omitted the interro-bang in her own book title… but its substance, at least as I know it secondhand since not giving her any actual money, is basically her answering that question — in a confused, self-serving, confusing, deluded, and/or actually mendacious and fictitious way — What Happened?!? Waanhh!)
“What Happened” is people got a good look at Crooked Clinton, didn’t like what they saw, and voted against Queen Hillary in droves. It’s called ‘Democracy’ and for once, it worked.
We have not yet begun to fight.
Let me know when the deck is on fire.
The Reader senses the start of rebellion in the boycott of Bud Lite and the reaction to the Target ‘pride displays’. It may be that the path back to sanity will involve a lot of destruction of corporate value. The message to Target’s CEO – if you choose sides YOU are a target.
I’ll be curious to see what happens to the D-dgers. There’s pandering, and there’s that … abomination, with apologies to Abomination the Shotgun.
The “sisters” were beyond obnoxious in San Fran, but AFAIK, they weren’t doing anything in San Jose. Not surprised that they’re doing their crap in LA, though. (Would be surprised if they weren’t doing such in San Jose–the place has changed in 20 years, and not for the better.)
I saw a bit online that said the former Nuclear Wasted “Puppy” f*cker and dress stealer is also a member. I’ll break out my own shocked face. Looks a lot like my resting bastard one.
Yeah, that is so insanely disrespectful to Catholics that it turns my stomach. And I’m not even a Catholic.
And then there’s nimrods like this:
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2023/05/26/activist-tears-down-stomps-on-target-pride-sign-as-boycott-costs-woke-retailer-billions-1362478
“In the video, the man, who has been identified as 24-year-old activist and” far-right internet personality” Ethan Schmidt, is seen walking down the main aisle when he comes across the rainbow-colored display, hitting the sign, then briefly examining it before taking it down, tossing it on the floor and then stepping on it for good measure.”
So AP was caught out a couple of days ago making claims about destruction of displays and threats to Target employees without any proof. The Reader suspects this is a false flag.
Wouldn’t surprise me; the background checkup will prove interesting.
Yep.
Yes.
Well, when you start trying to peddling Satanism while refusing to carry Christian-themed clothing, or marketing transgender clothing to children and toddlers, there are a lot of mama lions who are going to sit up take notice, and reclassify you from “harmless” to “threat”. I can’t think of a better way to provoke a corporate mauling.
Disney corporation is squandering nigh a century’s worth of decades of hard-earned family-friendly goodwill on wokeness like the military on an arms contract. Once it’s gone, it’s never coming back, not even if they come to their senses and reverse course (and I’m not holding my breath waiting for that to happen) They have already dumped too much poison in that well.
At some point, its too late for doubling-down, pacifying “I’m sorry you were offended” noises, or even abject craven begging to bring back the customers you took for granted. In that last case, don’t count on support from those who enticed, inveigled, or pushed you into taking “popular” “woke” positions; they have no mercy and will shoot you for cowardice. Ask the LA Dodgers.
Disney has tripled down. The Reader thinks a lot of parents that have Disney+ to have something to pacify the kids will think twice at this. https://thatparkplace.com/disney-partnership-to-develop-queer-content-for-streaming/
Disney+ has lost 6.4 million subscriptions over the last six months.
I liked “Willow”. I was temped to see the new series on Disney+, but I had already decided that I wasn’t ever going to consciously give another dime to Disney to promote Evil in the name of entertainment, so I skipped the new series. Reviews say it was stuffed so full of heavy-handed preaching of wokeness it would have made me vomit, so apparently I didn’t miss that much anyway.
Ace had a post up noting that the Willow series has done so badly, that Disney is basically deleting it so that they can use it as a tax write-off (as a failure) instead of leaving it on their streaming service so that people can continue to watch it.
^^;;
Tax write off may be part of it, but at least part of it is how the residuals are structured. Because they don’t share the data on how many people actually watch the thing, they pay residuals based entirely on its presence (or lack thereof) on the streaming service. And because they had no clue that slapping a known name on the project and shoehorning Warwick Davis into the cast wouldn’t automagically make a good show, it pays out residuals as if the show performed something like the first two seasons of The Mandalorian.
I noticed lately that instead of just not buying things from companies, I’m actively rooting against them and hating them. Instead of not watching “The Little Mermaid” or “Indy 5” I’m wanting them to bomb in massive fashion and cost Disney hundreds of millions. I’m past ambivalent and into hatred. They’re not just losing customer, they’re creating enemies. And that sure as hell isn’t how capitalism isn’t supposed to work.
Bud Light had ONE chance to win back customers and that was to completely ignore pride month. But that was too hard, so they sponsored 30 pride parades. So we’ll fuck them they’re done. Their former customers didn’t stop caring, they STARTED HATING. It’s not a boycott to change their behavior, former Bud drinkers want the company to DIE. I want Lucasfilm to DIE. Now I’m also gonna skip the new Pixar movie too, I used to never miss a Pixar movie, but after their preview for Lightyear last year I knew their magic was gone, but for them I don’t care at the moment, but maybe this new movie will be so woke I’ll have to start hating them too. It’s been three years now and even if its the only fucking brand of a product I need I won’t buy Gillette.
They wanted woke capitalism, they got it, it woke capitalism you don’t chose the companies to buy from, the companies permit you to indicate you agree with their wokeness. Well that ain’t fucking capitalism boys so I’ll just NEVER BUY YOUR SHIT AGAIN.
The avalanche is starting and the companies are too fucking stupid to run away. Good, bury the fuckers.
I am glad that I am not alone in feeling this way. It is no longer enough to just not give them your business, such companies need to fail.
Yeah, I think Pixar went off the rails after Incredibles 2. When I saw the trailers for ‘Onward’ my reaction was “What the F?” Everything since then has kept the needle firmly seated against the “What the F?” pin.
It was a great run, but it ended years ago.
———————————
“No capes!”
Quibble: Onwards departed somewhat from the Pixar formula (there are two distinct, but sequential climaxes, and roles of protagonist and antagonist flip at the resolution of first), but it was still good, and had the importance of a boy having a father figure as its central theme.
I’m not sure I’d put it in my Top 3 favorite Pixar flicks, but it makes my Top 5 easily. Unqualified recommendation.
As to everything that’s come after….
Yeah. Pixar has become an abomination.
Same here.
#GoGaltJune
Stock up this week and in June only purchase from farmers markets and the like.
Pass it on.
Do me a guest post.
Done. Sending it to you in a sec.
Got it Monday, probably.
No. Tuesday. Monday is Memorial.
All the days… they run together 🙂
Messirs Strychnine, Arsenic, and Cyanide would like a word about libelling their family name, when the case was plainly the M.O. of Sras Cholera and “La Venganza de Moctezuma.”
If you know what I mean.
Messirs Strychnine, Arsenic, and Cyanide would like a word about libelling their family name, when the case was plainly the M.O. of Sras Cholera and “La Venganza de Moctezuma.”
If you know what I mean.
Given what info is starting to circulate about ESG and the like being required for business loans, widespread corporate destruction is probably going to be required. The big corporations need to be reminded that they’re in business for the customer/ bottom line, not woke ideals.
ESG is already the mainstream, against which there are acclaimed maverick investors trying alternate strategies.
As always: the man on the street’s understanding of the present situation is hopelessly out of date.
I’ve mentioned before that I think the US culturally is an Enneatype 9: ‘Peacemaker’ personality type.
Key thing is 9’s have a lot of anger that they side step by looking for harmony. So everyone thinks that they are nice and easy to get along with, until they push something just one bit to far and discover the volcano that lies beneath. Think the classic “man with no name” hero.
It is not that we are not angry because we are busy; we are busy because we don’t want to be angry. And take that away from us and we will have no choice but to deal with the problem. And the thing about valuing peace and quiet above almost all else is, we will make a desert if that is what it takes.
The man with no name of the Leone movies isn’t big on anger(1), though, he’s a relatively pragmatic guy who stops being pragmatic when one of a handful of moral buttons are pushed, and he feels the need to Do Something. Blackboard Jungle is a pretty stupid movie, but Glenn Ford in that one is pretty much the cinematic poster child for Beware the Fury of a Patient Man.
(1)his biggest display of anger is arguably in Few Dollars More, in response to finding a peer/rival underfoot, and it’s kind of petty.
I see it more as the instinctive response is fight, and the reflexive response is to avoid starting the fight.
If you read the Kilkenny books, he does not look angry on the outside, but he really is. He just doesn’t like the aftermath of that even more so avoids violence unless pushed.
I suspect it’s there in the man with no name, just not externally expressed. Compare him to the Ronin from Sanjuro. Mr Camillia Field mostly seems frustrated and resigned to the foolishness of teenagers, and you only see that inner turmoil when the teenagers are trying to praise him after the duel.
I would not at all be surprised to find similar sentiments at the heart of Leon; he just never has to deal with syncophats trying to tell him how totally awesome that duel was.
America was settled by the striving middle class that was being oppressed in Europe. And a few upper class nerds who didn’t care about class and just wanted to do crazy inventions or innovation without interference from the government.
Just my theory.
Long fuse is likely, with those types.
Or like I’ve said about Engineers as neighbors, polite, quiet, helpful, also has a homemade death Ray in their garage. Don’t worry, they’d never use it except in an emergency.
As a retired EE, I can only ask, “OK, just how did you find out?”. 😉
I did know an engineer who had a nuclear warhead in his garage. Well, it was actually just an aeroshell for a Peacekeeper MIRV that had been rejected in final QA but, when all painted up, it was pretty convincing. Someone even called the cops about it once.
We discussed adding a loudly clicking clock that could be activated by a kick (“Nah! This thing is harmless. See…” Kick!) for the next time the cops showed up. However, the next morning we decided that a little too much of hold-my-beer lunacy.
Truly EEVUL. It’s the only way to be… 🙂
The Reader retired with a collection of souvenirs from his career, making his library off limits to foreign nationals. Nothing so interesting as a MIRV aeroshell though.
Clearly what it needed was a large LED or nixie display counting down to 0…
So it could be the star object in a bad thriller? 😉
“I’m a 30-second bomb! I’m a 30-second bomb! 29, 28…” works for the MI, but in LA? Nah…
Definitely Nixies. Have it stop counting down at 007. 😀
One thing I’ve noticed is that the Europeans I talk to have inexpensive hobbies.
Americans, however, have the habit of big, expensive ones. Even lower-middle-class people spend money on “luxury” hobbies.
If the world economy goes sideways, and the Americans no longer have access to things like expensive bass boat engines, high-end sound systems, and $3000 bicycles (to name a very few), what sort of things will grab their attention?
Note that one of the expensive hobbies is “collecting firearms…”
I was noting the rather large number of boats (bass boats on down) for consignment sale. Pretty well convinced us to wait a few years before putting the neglected jon boat up for sale.
The Great Divide continues. With NYC mandating DEI / ESG and FL / TX / etc. mandating none, how long before the banks and finance companies are caught between them?
Note: my personal expectation is that the Feds will come down on the side of NYS via “interstate commerce”.
https://americanwirenews.com/are-you-paying-attention-nyc-officials-freeze-accounts-when-banks-fail-to-meet-anti-discriminatory-requirement/
and then the feds will be in trouble. Ultimately
Of course, the corruptocrats in Texas are trying to impeach the Texas AG for refusing to play along.
Of course they are.
I mean, if you haven’t been indicted by the Travis County DA, you’re a Democrat.
And we have a continuous problem with the Legislature being squish.
Are any non-squishes ever allowed on the ballots?
We only get to vote for the candidates yacked up by the corrupt political machine. Yet Another Reason they hate Trump — he walked in the side door and bypassed all their careful arrangements.
———————————
Grandpa voted Republican until the day he died — but he’s been voting Democrat ever since.
PRECISELY.
I sometimes wonder if Trumps initial intent wasn’t just to get a little more publicity and milk it and irk folks (like Obumbles) that mocked him. Then Shrillary’s team started pushing him via the MSM to get what they thought was an easy kill. And then he started winning because someone was finally actually saying that the emperor (i.e. the two parties) had no clothes and both despised the voters. The Republicans just despised them for a different reason (mostly).
There’s a middle ground. If FL / TX / etc aren’t allowed to forbid ESG, they can at least put warning labels on it. Ever see those warning labels about how the State of California has determined that something in the gizmo you just bought causes cancer? That’s a California state law, but somehow it’s on everything in the US. We can do that, too.
On the front cover of every annual report and every prospectus from a company or fund that follows ESG guidelines rather than green-eyeshade accounting: “This investment is UNSAFE because it fails to meet its fiduciary duties as determined by the state of Texas.”
That might get some traction, and it’s perfectly legal. California showed us the way.
I expect Texas to conquer the US at some point in my remaining lifetime.
Conquer? If things continue as they are it’s more likely to be “repopulate”.
This is something that has bugged me in my most black-pilled moments…I see what’s going on and I throw my hands up in frustration and ask, “Why aren’t there a million normies (and Odds) marching in the streets? Why is the silent majority not getting loud? What will it take for Yamamoto’s ‘sleeping giant’ to finally awake and start fighting back against the monument-destroying, power-grabbing, wants-to-replace-and-kill-me Left? Why can’t we make these people fear us?”
Which leads to the obvious next question…”why aren’t YOU out there?”
“Oh, well, I’ve got deadlines at work and I’m fat and old and have a bad arthritic knee so I can’t march much and I’ve got a wife and kid who need my health coverage…”
At which point I realize what a screaming hypocrite I am for wanting younger, fitter, better people than myself to face the danger to save my ass, and I shut up.
But I think that things are getting closer to finally pushing me out of my comfort zone. Me and a lot of other people. And one thing I know is, you NEVER want to push an American out of our comfort zones, because we’ll plow through Hell itself to get back to them and Author help anyone who’s in the way.
Because we’re slower. America is always slower. ALWAYS.
I’m no Sassenach, but America is at its base.
It was not suddently bred.
It will not swiftly abate.
Through the chilled years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the Saxon began to hate
What was it Churchill said? Something about America always doing the right thing after it has exhausted every other option first?
There’s apparently no record that he ever said it.
https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/americans-will-always-right-thing/
But people have stated that the general sentiment fits with Churchill.
And we have to be slower. Because if we were quick to anger, we wouldn’t be able to be the marvelous melting pot of cultures that we are. Surviving as this kind of culture requires a certain attitude that allows a certain level of annoyance from others, and that attitude tends to encourage being slow to anger.
“I fear all we have done is anger them and filled them with a terrible resolve” Admiral Yamamoto after he bombed Pearl Harbor. Paraphrasing the quote.
The powder keg has been cracked, the people are angry, all that is missing is the spark. The spark will come, and when it does may god have mercy on their souls, the people won’t. The spark will come because they are too stupid not to light it. And yes, they will stand around and wonder why?
This leads into probably the thing I am most proud of about my country. Our reaction AFTER we dropped the bombs. We can debate the bombs themselves, but that’s not my point. We had developed the most powerful weapon known to man, to which there was no equal. What would the Germans have done with this? Hell, the British might even have used it for the Empire. What did America do with it?
GET
OFF
MY
GOD
DAMN
LAWN
And that was it. That was what we did with The Bomb. America didn’t want to be an empire. We wanted to be left the fuck alone. Of course, Eisenhower’s warned about military-industrial complex proceded to ruin that, but I believe that’s who America is at core. We don’t want to start shit, we want to be left the fuck alone.
And I really hope it’s true. I hope that we are both willing to engage in the boycott equivalent of a nuclear bombing campaign against Woke Capital, and once they have truly surrendered, and admitted defeat, that we are willing to say “Good. Oh, and now that we’re not killing you, what do you want for those Samurai flicks?”
Because if I’m wrong, I’m afraid we’ll go too far. We’ll have our more religious countrymen hating all gay people, or people suffering from gender dysphoria just trying to cope. Or hating all black people. That too much of us will have mistaken the Establishments human shields for the actual enemy, and that we will become monsters ourselves.
I don’t think that will happen, though. I think we’re still the country that just wanted to be left alone. That the sleeping giant doesn’t want to devour maidens and devastate cities, and was only taking a rbeak. That we just want to be left to go back to sleep. I want us to be the country that Churchill thought we were. “Americans fight to go home.” If we are, then we can make it through this conflict with our souls intact.
And I, for one, cannot wait until I don’t have to give a shit about someones skin color, or who they have sex with, ever again. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. And I am fucking pissed that I am not allowed to have something so simple.
But it won’t happen until we’ve nuked these companies. I don’t want them to apologize. I want them to BURN. I want their charred husks to remain as a terrifying reminder of what happens to companies that don’t just shut the fuck up and sell me something. I want future CEOs to talk about Anheiser Busch for generations. I want them to shit themselves a little bit whenever they find out that some young marketting idiot did something even slightly controversial to their customers.
If they cannot respect their customers, then let them fear their customers. I’d rather have the former, but I’ll settle for the latter.
Why would religious people hate gays and blacks?
Not everyone is religious. And I worry if the push continues it will lead to that.
Signed in: tans more than usual.
That’s the hazard of making skin color into a uniform: one purpose of uniforms is to tell people who to shoot. It’s why it’s a war crime, Perfidy, not to have one, because not having one leads to “kill them all and let God sort them out. ”
Gays can disguise that they’re gay, or claim to be gay when they aren’t for advantage. It’s why the worst thing for gay people would be if someone proves gay IS genetic.
This.
Why? According to Leftroids, being male or female is not genetic.
Although they act like being a ‘MAGA Republican’ is.
The sleeping giant…
Maybe. However I suspect things have to get well past the “they came for…. but I wasn’t… so I did nothing” (Look around, we’re there now.), well past smoke on the horizon (We’re there now.), past regular weekly drive-by shootings in the cities (We’re there now.), political prisoners (We’re etc.) to I don’t know what before enough folks start humming The Battle Hymn Of The Republic.
It hasn’t touched most people directly yet. We know these things are happening because we read the alternative news and are very plugged in. But most people don’t have any direct contact with it.
I suspect the Bud Lite and Target things blew up the way they did because for a lot of people this was the first time they were asked to directly accept the trans thing.
Up until now, it has mostly been in a few small areas or hidden from view. This is likely the first time a lot of moms ram into “how to tuck your male organ” in their kids’ swimsuit instructions.
Most folks, until it touches them directly, so not know, care, or care to know.
They’ll treat you like a terrorist whether you are or not, apparently.
https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2023/05/26/dem-rep-says-gopers-who-want-spending-cuts-in-debt-ceiling-deal-are-economic-terrorists/
That’s nothing, you’re a terrorist if you don’t shop at Target.
No shit, that’s what they’re saying on Lame Stream Media. Two years ago, looting Target was fine and dandy, but today refusing to shop there is terrorism.
———————————
It takes a LOT of Education to make somebody that stupid.
“Racist! terrorist”. You keep using those words. I do not think those words mean what you think they mean.
Given that Spongebob Squarepants, cold weather, the Winter Olympics, solar eclipses, dirty air, dogs, babies, farmer’s markets, obesity, and being white have all been deemed racist, I’m about to start asking “What isn’t?”
And when when any disagreement is grounds for a charge of terrorism, one is slightly tempted to produce a thermal detonator and say, “you mean like this?” Except that putting it away and then saying “Now, let’s stop being silly and discuss this like mature, civilized adults” might be a great movie line, but still probably not work IRL.
Snow is racist! It’s WHITE!! REEEEE!!!
“I can give you yellow snow…” 😀
Well, it is Asian-American/Pacific Islander Heritage month …..
[Yes, that was tacky and crude, even for me. I will go think shame on myself.]
Watch out where the huskies go …
Why? Because once that line is crossed, things go very, very ugly. The American way of war is historically one step shy of outright genocide
Ask my red-skinned kinfolk. The ones not extinct.
” when this is over, the Japanese language will only be spoken in Hell.”
Very very few revolutions result in more freedom, broadly.
We kicked out most of the northern Tories to achieve our revolution.
Dan’s side are mostly extinct….
“Why can’t weake these people fear us?”
They DO fear us; hence gun
safetycontrol measures. “You once posted about fighting back against the government? Red Flag! You’re a danger to the public! Away with your guns!”New York is clearly already doing that. https://www.timesunion.com/state/article/state-police-union-says-investigators-18093968.php?IPID=Times-Union-state-spotlight
Gilet. The English call those Barbour vests women wear gilets, vest not being non-U don’t you know. The word is of Turkish origin.
That, and some dialects using “vest” for “undershirt.” Which could cause some sartorial confusion. Why would someone wear a waterproof, quilted undershirt with ammo and game pockets? Especially one that costs “how many Pounds?!?” even on discount.
Well, they could have called it a waistcoat, or weskit as well called it back in the day. I’ve never heard it called a gilet by a male, or a normal,woman, only women what horse and equivalent.
What did the policeman say to his belly?
You’re under a vest.
Carpapult ready. Carp loaded. Cock, TWANG!!!!!
Recock. Reload. FIRE!
I’m just hoping that whatever disaster happens, we’re outside of the immediate blast radius.
(I think with some good planning, maybe. Block the Waldo Grade tunnel, the Richmond Bridge, and Highway 37 and its mostly marshland and boat territory to get here from the SF Bay Area without making a LONG swing up 29. And a few places on 101 where decent barricades and pre-registered artillery can make most mobs go away easily…)
The thing is-most Americans aren’t “political” in a European sense. For most Americans, the only difference between politicians and plumbing is that we pay politicians to stay away when we need them and pay plumbers to come over when we need them. And for the most part, we don’t care unless something goes wrong. We’re too busy building our own lives. We don’t have the grand ambitions to rule large swaths of territory, for the most part.
(I don’t think Americans are even harem-keepers in that sense of the term, either. It’s too much work to try and service that many women in an honest manner. And I think most Americans have certain core honesties that don’t get violated.)
The problem is…we’ve got people that have been shown that they can rule large groups of people, they have enablers and sycophants that are willing to sell anyone out for a chance to be the last person in line to the gas chambers, and we’ve been soaking in their dysfunction for the last seventy years, minimum.
And we’re already seeing the first cracks of the snapback. Look at how Bud Light, Target, and Disney are getting in trouble for being extremely and stupidly woke.
Ron DeSantos-like him or not, but he’s proposing some very mild things and the Left is screaming how he’s murdering LGBTQIA+, how Florida is bringing back slavery days, and that he’s going to put everybody in Handmaiden robes if he wins the Presidency…
…when half the stuff he’s proposing could have come out of a middle-of-the-road Democrat in the mid-to-late ’90s.
I’m just hoping that the snapback happens with as little blood as possible. And I can develop an income again, as quickly as possible.
Serial harem, not parallel.
Genetic don’t lie. Americans get around.
I’d prefer parallel, because I’m not the sort of person that just,…gets rid of people.
But, I can see how the serial thing would work.
I much prefer cereal
Some years back, I opined that the reason there wasn’t mass rebellion and civil war, was that everybody still had too much to lose.
That’s becoming less true by the day.
The problem with that is wars don’t usually start because participants have nothing left to lose. Wars usually start because one side thinks they can achieve an easy win.
They’re usually wrong about that, mind you.
The left seems to think they’ll win easily.. Worse, determined opposition is currently failing to disabuse them of that.
The Left is dancing on the ledge of the abyss of “genocide”, and thinks only the Left can push.
The left believes that violence is a dial they can turn up and down.
The right believes that violence is a switch. And a lot of the usual suspects that would be making noises…aren’t. And for anyone that has kids, it’s when the kids go quiet, something bad is happening.
The left believes that violence is a dial they can turn up and down… The right believes that violence is a switch.
To look a little more deeply, i.e. below meme-sea-level (so to speak), I wouldn’t say lefties are exactly 100% wrong there — sometimes you can turn the ‘dial’ you control just a little bit, and get only a small change in the result or the reaction. Sometimes.
But they really seem to miss all the other times, when you turn the input ‘knob’ just a little bit and get instead not only a huge ‘sudden’ change in the output value, but in the way inputs convert into outputs, for a while or a long time — you can turn your ‘knob’ back a long ways, then, and never even get back down to the ‘output’ you started with when you “pushed it a hair too far.” That control ‘knob’ might never be able to turn back far enough.
Mathematicians (and fancy-math fans) will know this, exactly, as “catastrophe theory” — and physicists and engineers having experience of magnets and such will talk of “hysteresis” and so forth. But really, what you get is a whole new output vs. input curve, once the system ‘snaps’ — just like a light switch going from ‘off’ to ‘on’ or vice versa. Just like the point on the catastrophe-theory surface jumping up or down to a different input-output relationship. Just like when the geyser starts to boil, way down deep where it really counts… cooling it back off a little, then, won’t stop the fountain. Or even slow it visibly.
See: Bud Light’s self-inflicted ad campaign, and Anheuser-Busch’s ‘wokeriness’ level vs. net sales of its products. Snap! Likely its later (attempted, ham-fisted) backpedaling has done it some good; it’s just likely also buried under the time-delayed effects of the SNAP! it had (evidently) no clue it was about to trigger. Which may amount to ‘corporate leprosy’ for quite some time, or forever. Especially given all those other similar things, each reinforcing all the others at about this same time…
Any true scientific management — would already know about this. So theirs… isn’t.
And, yes… when the kids get quiet, or the cats just look at you… walk carefully, think hard.
I believe Janis Joplin sang about that. When a critical mass no longer fears losing more than they fear doing, that’s the time to duck.
I believe Janis Joplin sang about that. When a critical mass no longer fears losing more than they fear doing, that’s the time to duck.
I read the news today, oh boy.
Of course I read it most every day, usually I can laugh, sigh, express myself crudely with a few choice expletives & move on, but today…
Seems everything is revolting except the people that should be. One might say; “So Jim, why aren’t you at the barricades?” The thing is I can throw it right back at you, why aren’t you? I don’t think ‘we’re too busy living our lives’ is a fair answer. I can’t fully buy ‘the time isn’t right yet’ either.
Today, oh boy, today I’m feeling the way Charles Bukowski put it in The Underground (Published in volume 8 number 3, Issue 31 The Wormwood Review) ; “We carried the chairs back upstairs, the revolution was over.”
Hum, actually Feeling better about it all now. When one sits back, take a breath, in spite of whatever, the last line from another author’s thingy in that issue of Wormwood comes to mind; “damn Fine Party!”
Life goes on. Think I’ll go do some garage and house cleaning and some yard work.
Because “barricades” don’t get you anything. This is a different technically-enabled implementation of none-dare-call-it-what-it-is, when the state coopts the businesses (or vice versa) so that there’s no meaningful distinction, and the policy direction of the government lies in the hands of the Permanent Bureaucracy.
What gets you somewhere is building alternative structures and disengaging from the most-corrupt companies. The first allows you to to hurt them in their pocketbook right now, and gives us all things to fall back on if the excrement hits the rotating device. The second both provides feedback loops which, sooner or later, may well change behavior, and you gain the power to do the second by doing the first.
And the time and energy you’d spend marching in the streets are much better spent on such activities.
(A reply to some comments made previously)
You will never see “a million normies and Odds marching in the streets”. What you would see is a MOB. Looking just like the leftist commie MOB. Exhorted by the same bullhorn-carrying self-righteous would-be leaders without a rational plan for “ok, we reached the end of the march and no one is listening to our speees, what’s next?”
MOB is not tactics. It achieves no long term goals.
Rittenhouse and “the Kenosha Hat-Trick” demonstrated what one half-trained rifleman can do with determination.
Now imagine 10 thousand well-practiced folk going silent, then “lone wolf”. Not all of those are Freedom adherants, by the way.
I assure you, that gives some folks nightmares.
And stupid shit like the fedsurrection and various black bloc bullshit just make it more obvious a winning strategy.
Boycotts are much less damaging, yes? And much harder to infiltrate. Shun the poop heads. Not much they can do except bite the metaphorical pillow.
“If people don’t want to go to the picture, nobody can stop them.” – Sam Goldwyn
Just police your brass
You won’t have time to police brass.
Americans occasionally do mobs, but it’s usually Democrats who do that.
Everybody else just kinda wanders around, or runs around, hitting targets of opportunity in small groups.
It’s kind of amusing in games. Unless people are in big enough games to have pre-set guilds with rules and stuff, everybody just wanders around and gets things destroyed real good. It’s done on rational lines, but it just looks messy.
Nearly forgot: if Distraction fails, there’s still Ambition, Uglification, and Derision.
As well as reeling, writhing, and fainting in coils. And washing, extra.
fainting in coils?
1. A quote:
“Well, there was Mystery,” the Mock Turtle replied, counting off the subjects on his flappers, “Mystery, ancient and modern, with Seaography; then Drawling – the Drawling-master was an old conger-eel, that used to come once a week: he taught us Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils.”
2. A link to Vasovagal Syncope (at the Mayo Clinic).
3. Fainting: Causes and First Aide (at the Cleveland Clinic).
4. A 70s-sounding lounge jazz song (dreadful, imho).
I liked my imagined gowned-woman-collapsing-slowly-into-a-heap before I looked it up, better.
You obviously need to continue your education and read the Alice books. 😉 Am annotated version, if possible, because a lot of Carroll’s humor (though still relatable) references a lot of literature we are no longer intimately familiar with.
I’m feeling mildly overwhelmed at the moment. We have been sprucing up a church camp the past few weeks. Late last week, I finally noticed the “Love is Love,” flag and the transgender flag hung up on the lodge, same ridge as the denominational flag.
Then yesterday, at the, “Thank you,” lunch and pizza party, the manager began talking with local volunteers and it turned into a mutual progressive back-scratch of the, “So many camps are closing because those Southerners, in Missouri are cutting funding.” And how important it is to be progressive, how the csmp manager had switched to a more progressive flavor of his denomination when he realized his original one was not sufficiently progressive. (Not the denomination of the camp, btw).
It seems clear to me they’re watching the other movie, the one where, “Jesus was a progressive, so anything we’re told is progressive must be good,” is playing. To give credit where credit is due, my beloved, when one of the volunteers who said she was a “historian,” and who could barely avoid hissing in disgust at the vile KKK and Nathan Bedford Forrest, reminded her Forrest was the first white speaker at the NAACP – the Klan did not go the direction he wanted it to go. She had the grace to thank him for the reminder and the discussion.
I still feel like an accomplice, and I could not find a good moment (or the words) to say so to the manager. Sigh.
Forrest recanted the Klan.
“Sheets” Byrd never did.
Forrest also got in trouble with the Reconstruction authorities for arming his former slaves and gifting them property to support themselves with. (Shrug) it was a complicated time, and he wasn’t a cardboard character from villainous central casting.
As soon as it was clear that the Klan would be violent.
Took out a full-page newspaper ad urging other Klansmen to show their good intention by resigning.
Ouch. It’s like a poison toad that just creeps up on your picnic, and suddenly it’s right in the middle of your main course, lolling around when you’d finally relaxed… All condolences.
The way I remember / heard / read the Bedford Forrest / KKK story is even less, ah, narrative-friendly. The excesses of Reconstruction (made possible by arguably that greatest traitor to the Confederacy, as measured by results, John Wilkes Booth and his cursedly good aim) impelled Forrest (and others?) to start the original Ku Klux Klan. Which was aimed not much at racial / racist terrorism, but at resisting and ultimately ending said “let’s beat up the South ‘cuz we won, so there!” idiocy by the Radical Republicans. (See surrenders not just at Appomattox Court House but places like Bennett Place in North Carolina… negotiated and notmilitarily forced in the short run, for very much an opposite aim and perspective.)
When those excesses stopped, Forrest (and others?) essentially disbanded his/their original KKK, its purpose served and its existence obsolete.
What we know as “the KKK” was essentially KKK 2.0, a later resurrection by the racist wing of the D party in the South — essentially a bunch of hateful wanna-bes free-riding on the old “leave us be and let us rebuild” brand-name KKK of Forrest and similar figures.
Now, Nathan Bedford Forrest is definitely in the running for Least Likely to be Choirboy Ever. So when he says something’s gone too far… ((shudder)).
Quibble: The excesses didn’t stop.
Tennessee Governor “Bloody” Bill Brownlow ramped up the abuse, declared martial law, and challenged the KkK (founded in Pulaski, TN) to an open battle if they wanted to stop him.
The veterans en masse decided that starting a new round of Civil War was a really bad idea, and folded when their bluff was called.
And the first iteration of the KKK officially ended…
But not really.
It continued to be a force in other Reconstruction States for several months, until things came to a head in Arkansas 1869. There, D. P. Upham forced a similar decision point. The veterans opted out, but there were a bunch of young hotheads who picked up the gauntlet, and got absolutely slaughtered. The KKK was shown to be impotent and ceased existence, there was a final round of recriminations and abuses against the families and friends of the hotheads, and abuses sharply tapered off*.
*In Tennessee, where the first iteration of the KKK officially disbanded, abuses and recriminations ran their course a bit sooner. Brownlow basically appointed himself Senator in 1869, and everybody breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“I still feel like an accomplice”
That’s a thought that has been haunting me for some time. In the state (of IL) office building where I work, there is a circular reception desk set up in the hallway just outside my agency’s office. It’s not OUR agency’s reception desk, it belongs to the office of the governor, but I walk around it every day to get to my agency’s office. Anyway, they currently have it all decked out in cutesy rainbow Pride Month decorations with one of those crafty-looking signs that says “Everyone is welcome here!” (Except, of course, pro-lifers, anti-vaxxers, people who don’t believe you can change your sex at will, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and anyone who voted for or would even consider voting for them. IOW, people like me. But I digress.)
Now, my particular agency doesn’t report to the governor, we report to a standing bipartisan legislative commission, so we aren’t beholden to either party and don’t push this crap, for which I am eternally grateful. Still, having that reception desk right in front of our office could easily give people the impression that we, and by extension I, do, even though we don’t. But this isn’t a Bud Light or Tar-Gay clothing display that one could surreptitiously knock over or move to a less conspicuous spot. This is the office of Governor JB the Hutt Pritzker, who as many of you know, has a tranny cousin and whose family (heirs to the Hyatt hotel chain) funds all sorts of LGBTQXYZ causes, including gender clinics at CHILDREN’S hospitals.
It bugs me to no end, and you could even say it’s “triggering”, but since I have always taken, ahem, pride in not letting personal feelings get in the way of doing the job the taxpayers pay me to do, unlike those snowflake Millennials we love to deride, I just walk past it every day without saying anything other than an occasional “good morning” to the person behind the desk. Is this tacitly endorsing what they do, or not?
No, it’s not. But you should be “keeping a little list”.
C4c
Hum awaiting moderation again. 🙂
A lot of people forget that the American War for Independence took nearly a decade from initial talking about revolting (more than just grumbling about the King and Parliament) to when shots were fired in Lexington and Concord.
People were busy with their lives back then too.
They should also remember that the shots fired at Lexington and Concord were a response, and act accordingly.
Indeed. Don’t be startin’ nuthin; but don’t be afraid of finishin’ it. Nor of having a good plan and friends set up ahead of time for the doin’ of it. The government would argue otherwise, but planning and prepping to fight and take over a failed government that is not conducive to legal correction is not seditious. Well, unless you lose, of course.
Lose? We don’ do no steenkin’ “lose”!
But only briefly. The crying will get cut off, real sudden-like.
The thing that is apparent to me is that this is starting to smolder all over the world, right now the people are trying the traditional routes, voting political parties, when that fails all bets are off.
By “starting to” I take it you mean “in the past decade and a half or so”, though it IS accelerating, granted.
As for unrest, watch China. Things are getting interesting again. Local Government default is the next domino. Yunan province might already be bankrupt. Bureaucrats aren’t being paid. Things are bad, very bad.
BTW, US Real Gross Domestic Income, which should be the same as GDP but never exactly is, declined for the second consecutive quarter and four out of five. Oh, and Germany is in full blown recession with a fairly dramatic collapse in Production.
Sure, poor,people don’t rebel, but people who were well off and now aren’t do.
Bloomberg was reporting the “experts,” had “slightly,” downgraded their estimate of China’s growth. No, I don’t watch Bloomberg, our team went to a restaurant that had one of their TVs tuned to it.
As someone who lived on the Mainland for several years: western China “experts” are delusional fools, or worse, with very rare exceptions.
You have NO idea how hard I’m hoping for sudden, massively widespread student protests in China. The Party literally cannot pull another Tiananmen coverup now. They can do mass slaughter, but not the cover-up, no matter how locked down the internet there is.
The anniversary of the slaughter at Tiananmen is just over a week away, probably explaining my deep depression at the moment. (Happens to me every year. I was only 14, and only saw it on TV, but I saw it, and can never forget it.)
The thing to remember is that was one protest. A few tens of thousands of students, in one city. The recent protests? Millions, in cities all over the mainland.
I speak no Chinese at all, which really limits me. What I did do, but not for years, was keep my eyes open when I travelled around southern China. If something was a mess in Canton or Shanghai, it had to be orders of magnitudes worse out toward Yunan,
The students seem to be “lying down” Given the level of youth unemployment and the shortage of available women there’s not much else they can do, except rebel of course. They’re making recent college graduates do field labor and non graduates get, well, nothing. College graduates who can’t find work have been a flash point in several places around the world but not yet in China.
I really fear student protests. China, not Russia, is the world’s leader in “then everybody dies”. I think there’s a real possibility that China fractures and we have replay of the warlords again. The coastal cities would do OK, but western China? Warlords with nukes. of course, the same damn thing could happen in Russia. I don’t see good outcomes for either place.
And I fear, “Well, if I’m going down, you are, too!” Because I suspect the Chinese might be better at getting nukes to the “right,” location even without missiles.
OK, secondary nightmare scenario: China blows up, famine…..and Joe pulls a Cercescu and ships as much of our food as possible over as, “humanitarian relief.”
“OK, secondary nightmare scenario: China blows up, famine…..and Joe pulls a Cercescu and ships as much of our food as possible over as, “humanitarian relief.””
Nothing so crass, good sir. Just let “Chinese private companies” buy the farmland and food processers. Surely you don’t want the government to regulate the market?
As I indicate above, if China has an internal blow-up, the likelihood of anyone involved even thinking of taking the rest of the world with them is small. When the chips are down, in Chinese culture, China is the world, or the center of it, and anything outside of China is not worthy of consideration, at least not immediately.
The only really possible exception is if the CCP/Xi manage to hold power for a bit, and decide that invading Taiwan will rally the people back around them/him. Which could very possibly be what happens. Or, contrariwise, it could get the people to realize, oh, wait, the CCP does not control Taiwan, and therefore does not have the mandate of heaven. No way to tell how the majority of people would react to that.
No. They really, really, really aren’t better than the Russians. Not by a country mile.
Fracturing China is the best possible outcome, even with warlords. It would utterly remove them from the global chess board.
Let’s say it fractures into a small number domains. Five or ten. The very first thing that happens is none of the warlords has the mandate of heaven, because none of them controls every bit of land that was ever controlled by “China”. So each warlord has a few immediate concerns that will each swamp any geopolitical considerations. First of all, outside of his immediate circle of trust, he won’t be able to trust anybody, because nobody will view him as legitimate. (And that’s before you get to all the avenues for potential assassins to pop up.) Then he’s going to want to fight all the other warlords, gain their territories, to regain the mandate. (Which, I’m thinking with Taiwan still separate, will never happen in any event.) And even if the mandate somehow fades culturally, and a sort of detente occurs, the warlords will turn even more Chinese and be concerned with only their own kingdoms. The rest of the world will be of little concern, except for trade.
If the CCP loses power, whoever gets control of the nukes won’t lash out at the rest of the world, they’ll be involved in internal scrabbling for power. Maybe they’ll lash out at Taiwan or Japan (or, less likely but possible, India).
But the fact is, there is another possible scenario, without all-out war.
I grant that Xi Jinping and his cabal are fucking evil and willing to sacrifice everything for their power. But. The People’s Liberation Army is a different story.
It’s not a well-known fact, but it is a fact, that the PLA considers the Tiananmen massacre to be their moment of greatest shame and dishonor. When the CCP was writing the official history of those events, they wanted to call the student protesters counter-revolutionaries and the protests an attempted coup. The PLA absolutely refused to allow that. The students were, they argued, the very people they were supposed to liberate, and they failed them. After internal fighting between the politicians and the generals, Tiananmen is now referred to as an “incident”. That might seem innocuous, but it’s actually huge.
Are there factions of the PLA completely loyal to Xi? Bet on it. Is it going to be the entire military? No way, especially if he directly orders a bloody crackdown on widespread protests. What happens then would be very ugly, but at least as ugly for those who gave the orders as for their intended victims. (Tiananmen 1989 was a result of unclear orders coupled with lack of training and panic, far more so than deliberate malice.) (And no, I’m not apologizing for or excusing what happened in the slightest. What happened was the evil of incompetence, far more so than the evil of deliberation.)
This is an interesting perspective from an angle not otherwise available to me. I had assumed the army was drawn from the interior and the money was on the coasts, thus setting up tension, From my reading, that is a very common pattern in Chinese history and a common pattern for dictators generally. The end for the dictator comes when the officers won’t give the order to shoot because the sergeants won’t can’t keep the men in line. That usually comes when the men realize it’s their own people they’re shooting at.
Still, China is the “then everybody dies” place and I worry.
China is always more complicated than can be expressed in a few words. Or a few million. The truth is, nobody knows anything, to include myself.
The best I ever heard was ‘ China is China’, whatever that does or doesn’t mean. Objectively it is not really any different than it was under the war lords or the Emperors. Just the names they call themselves have been changed to protect the guilty. For me it has always been China is the people, and they are hardly one people. You have the provinces which in many cases have their own cultures and their own languages. The Chinese are not that well liked by their neighbors who have very long memories and deep seated hatreds. It will be interesting to see what the next few years bode. The CCP/Xi are really pushing to try and get some type of nationalist movement going to try and unify their people. Part of the whole reason for a space race against the west. Which no doubt for many Chinese is quite the joke, and then there is the fact that if the astronaut that goes into space isn’t from their province that province really doesn’t care. So it is really hard to get the people unified.
This is why the Reader thinks that Xi will go for a ‘short victorious war’ against Vietnam before attempting Taiwan. Assuming success, China can eliminate a rival for low cost manufacturing that is taking jobs from China, eliminate a rival claim to both oil and fishing rights and improve their strategic position in the South China Sea. Plus the PLA is fundamentally a land army and invading Vietnam would play to their strengths. The Reader remembers that Vietnam gave them a bloody nose in 1979 but the PLA has come a long way since then and the West couldn’t help Vietnam the way it has Ukraine even if it wanted to.
For the Reader:
Also, kill lots of men and take the women back to China as war brides.
I’m not so sure about the PLA. They still do very badly against India in the mountains.
Eh, give a few decades, perhaps, and the borders will be flexible. It has grown and shrunk.
I’m talking about the Chinese mindset. The reality is of minimal importance to the perception.
“We’re almost at stop the car and come back there. I can feel it.”
I’d like to think so.
I’m seeing the Truckers revolt as a “no choice” moment for one set of people. It took an awful lot of drip-drip-drip to get all those guys to drive to Ottawa, the Forced Jab was merely the last straw.
In the USA there are many constituencies kind of in the same place the truckers are (still are, yep, just no jab now.) Consider writers as a constituency, most of us are not making rent out of it at this point. It’s been that way for a long time. The difference between us and truckers is we don’t have the lease on the $300,000 truck to pay off every month. If we did, things might be different.
Going by history and other countries, if a third of the country is getting ground under then there will be a problem. It isn’t enough to have your beliefs and traditions insulted and your institutions pillaged. France for example, as Sarah says the Gilets Jaunes (yellow vests) happened when the government jacked the fuel tax one too many times.
But that’s not why it happened. People couldn’t keep up with the unceasing tightening of regulations, the ever-increasing cost of driving, and the ever-increasing cost of everything else. Plus the government mandated -stupid- things like every car in France had to have a yellow vest in it. The fuel tax thing was the last straw.
What will be the last straw for America? I think it might have been Bud Lite. They literally can’t give it away now. Target Inc. lost $20/share off their stock price this week over the “tuck friendly” children’s bathing suits. Joe Average Normie isn’t having it. Suddenly, they’re making videos of themselves pouring Bud Lite down the drain, using it for skeet practice, or going to Target and tossing the Groomer Flag store decorations on the floor. That’s not going to die down.
What’s it going to be in Canada? My money says healthcare. The single-payer system is utterly corrupt and utterly bankrupt, doctors are quietly leaving it. I think that -this- year they will start closing hospitals in big cities they way they have been in small towns the last three years. When that happens, you’re going to see something. All that has gone before will seem as nothing.
The following is going to tick off a lot of farmers, kennel owners, and the occasional pet owner who does his own work (not many, but some).
https://pjmedia.com/columns/megan-fox/2023/05/26/fda-bans-farmers-from-caring-for-their-own-animals-without-costly-vet-approval-n1698371
I’m guessing it was a reaction to the ivermectin-at-the-farm-store “scandal”, though it’s consistent with the rest of F-U Farmers coming from the FICUS maladministration.
And yeah, John Freakin’ Kerry saying confiscating farms because greenhouse gases is going to go over really well. Can he be the lead when it’s time to take the Bundy’s ranch? (or one of the many like him…)
It isn’t that they’re competent, it’s that they’re stupid enough to eat the big white mint.
Because they can’t read the sign. 😀
This is the drip-drip-drip of regulation filling up the space we live in. Sometimes they are extra-stupid and take too big a bite. That’s what’s going on in Holland right now, and it is what happened in Canada with the truckers.
When your malicious reach exceeds your grasp, and the sheep start using their horns on you. Honk honk.
Let them ban fertilizer, like they are here in Canada. Then you’ll see something.
Wait – the idiots in Ottawa are banning FERTILIZER?????? Are they completely insane?
Well, in the sense that they believe their fantasies can supersede reality, they are insane. No matter how decisively, and how often, they are proven wrong, they will never accept that their delusions won’t work.
They think their words can remake reality.
The Useful Idiots definitely think that. Post-Modernism. Thank you, France.
The other ones, the “smart” ones, they think they can win. Take everything they want and crush anyone who says different. Push harder, tighten the fist, lie, libel and destroy.
And they can. So far, they’re getting everything they want. Because so far, the rest of us have let them.
But as we see from Bud-Lite and Target, there IS a point at which the Normies stop playing along with the gag. A switch, as someone else commented. And you never know when it is going to go “click”. Once it goes, oh well. Too late to try and back up now, its on like Donkey Kong.
I’ll be very pleased if the “smart” ones look at that AB-Inbev brand destruction and extrapolate to them being the brand. Nobody -has- to buy T-bills, right?
I doubt they’ll do that, but I can hope.
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We don’t have to. The big banks buy them, with our money. Even if you take all of your personal money out of the banks, at great inconvenience, every business you deal with puts your money right back in. Government pension funds are held by the big banks, and what an abomination that is.
And the big banks keep getting bigger. The big fish have already gobbled up most of the little fish, so now the big fish are starting to chew on each other. In the end, we’re looking at One Bank To Rule Them All, And In Darkness Bind Them.
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Governments can only print money; they can’t make it worth anything. They can make it worth nothing.
I think the precarious nature of our financial system is one of the biggest dangers we face right now. We could literally see the music stop, all around the world, the same day. Then everybody is going to be scrambling for a chair.
Wouldn’t it be nice if somebody with a clue started unwinding all that before it breaks? Notice how -nobody- is talking about it?
it’s worth noting that part of why SVB went under was that they followed the instructions of the regulators to put their money in safe T-bills and when the interest rates changed, too much of their money was in low-yield t-bill and they had other things happen that forced them to actually sell them and see the loss (rather than treating them as full value on paper)
many other banks have similar problems, but until they have other strains or the t-bills mature, they aren’t going to have the losses show up.
David Lang
No, they are not insane. No, they are not stupid. This is what I keep saying.
What you’re looking at, with something like a plan to restrict the use of fertilizer (which they are definitely doing, yes indeed) is a plan to immiserate the population that doesn’t vote for them. Break them down, ruin their lives, crush them into poverty, destroy their families, and ultimately kill them.
Friends get comfy government jobs. Enemies lose their farms/jobs/homes and live in tents in the park, then die in the winter.
That’s what gun control, pronouns, government funded drag-queen story hour, windmills and solar, are. They are PUNISHMENT, rained down on the part of the population that refuses to go along with the socialist program. They are not meant to accomplish any positive policy goal to help the public. They are meant to harm you, and as opportunities for the In Crowd to steal money.
And they will KEEP DOING IT as long as we let them.
We, the idiots, look at what they’re doing and call them crazy. What makes us idiots is that WE are getting crushed and THEY are getting every damn thing they want, every goddamn day.
Its not insanity. Its evil. Plan accordingly.
They are crazy, Phantom. They think it will work. No, it won’t. Kick that black dog. If they succeeded (they won’t) they’ll starve first, because THEY ARE STUPID. It’s not natural, but they were educated into it. And they haven’t succeeded at gun control. NOT EVEN IN THE GREAT STUPID NORTH.
The reason they’ve gone rabid is that information control has escaped them.
Nowhere to run.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/05/29/government-science-opens-new-biolab-studying-animal-pathogens-in-middle-of-kansas-n1699012
I agree, it won’t work. News from Alberta today, the NDPee went down to defeat, the conservative party won a handy majority, beating the margin of fraud. Polls and newsies were frantically screaming that the NDPee were going to win, for weeks.
Of interest, from Quebec it seems the high school kids are about done with the Pride flag. Two “incidents” this week of students not taking it anymore.
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2023/05/30/quebec-students-tear-down-trample-school-pride-flag-in-protest-of-lgbt-agenda/
I think the thing for me is that we all need to stop thinking these people are crazy, stupid, some subspecies of demented loser. They have been WINNING since World War 1. It isn’t lunacy, it is a deliberate, carefully planned attack. And they never, ever stop attacking.
Yes they’re deluded, in the same way bank robbers and crack dealers are deluded. They think they can win, and they’re willing to kill people to get what they want.
Now, finally, they are starting to lose. When the (white, middle class Quebec) high school kids spontaneously start wearing black on Pride Rainbow Day and ripping down the propaganda banners, you know its on. (Imagine the freakout those teachers had. It must have been epic.)
If we want them to keep losing, we need to acknowledge who they are, what their goals are, and how good at their jobs they are. We need to take them seriously, take advantage of ever crack we see and drive a wedge into it.
That’s how you split an oak tree. You don’t chop or saw the whole thing in half, because its far too big. Instead, you start a little teeny crack with your axe and you put a wedge into it. Then you pound the wedge in with a hammer. As the crack widens, you add more wedges and pound those too. Pretty soon, you’ve got wedges all the way down the tree. One last tap and it falls in half. Plunk.
That’s how we do it. One Bud-Lite, one Disney at a time.
One must be precise in identifying the form of insanity, otherwise one can’t strategize properly.
Hey, it worked (or didn’t) in Sri Lanka.
Well, the idiots that imposed it had to flee for their lives; I’d say it worked out OK aside from all the unadorned lamp-posts left behind. 😛
“When that happens, you’re going to see something. ”
Especially since the safety valve that was American healthcare will also be tied down at the rate Joe is going.
They never ask themselves why so many Canadians travel to another country and spend thousands of dollars when Canadian healthcare is ‘Free!’
Or why most big American cities have more MRI machines than all of Canada. Americans wait 2 hours for an MRI, and Canadians wait 4 months. If you die before it’s your turn, oh well, problem solved.
I saw an episode on one of the Mike Holmes shows about a Canadian couple who couldn’t afford to fix their house because they were paying $20,000 a year for their ‘Free!’ healthcare. Seems the wife needed drugs that weren’t so ‘Free!’ after all.
Then there was the infamous political ad that showed a long line of miserable people waiting outside a depressing gray building, contrasted with a shiny modern operating room, claiming that Socialized Medicine was The Best Evah! Except it turned out the miserable line was at British National Health, and the operating room was in a Philadelphia hospital.
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Under socialized medicine, each patient incurs expenses which end when the patient dies. In private practice, each patient provides profits which end when the patient dies. Which patient would YOU rather be?
I have literally seen a Canadian in an online dispute assert that Americans should change their system to be like Canada because the world is laughing at us, and also because Canada can’t fix its problems as long as America serves as an escape valve.
The East German government made the exact same argument — that all the failures of communism in East Germany were caused by the success of West Germany. If only West Germany would submit to communism, everybody could join in the triumphant collectivist utopia.
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There are forms of stupidity that businesses can’t indulge in. There are no such limitations on the stupidity of government.
The province of BC is literally shipping people to Washington state for cancer treatment and surgeries. The reason is staffing, plain and simple.
Province of BC -fired- a whole bunch of doctors and nurses in 2021/2022. Because vaxx, right? So all those fired people said “Okay then. Guess I’ll retire/go do something else.”
And now the province is shipping patients to a foreign country, at government expense. Because it was more important to FORCE people to do as they were told than to heal the sick. During a pandemic, not to put too fine a point on it.
Malice. Not stupidity.
Aww, can’t it be both? I’m rooting for both.
Ultimately, it is stupid because they’re destroying the place where they live, out of hatred. What goes around comes around, eventually.
But short-term, they don’t have a downside. Provincial government loses money, the officials don’t. They get paid just the same.
It is always important to remember that for government employees, there is no downside. They can pursue the most destructive policies imaginable with perfect impunity. No one knows who they are, and no one can do anything about it. They’ll collect their pay for 25 years, retire at full pension and never be called to account for anything they’ve done.
Unless they are the one caught without a chair when the music stops. Then, that might not be so good for them.
Bureaucrats need to feel the pain of their incompetence and malfeasance. Until they do, they just won’t give a shit. They have arranged the rules so that it’s almost impossible even to fire them.
Teachers unions are the worst. They have fought against teachers being fired after they were convicted of molesting students. The unions wanted them to be paid (and to pay their union dues, of course) while in prison.
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What do you expect when the government subsidizes failure and punishes success?
I’d say that Hoyt’s Corrollary to Hanlon’s Razor covers that: “Sufficiently advanced malice is indistinguishable from stupidity.”
The other side will try something in response to the Bud and Target boycotts. What that will be I don’t know. But I can guarantee you that they’ll try something that will ratchet up the tension, because they literally cannot let something like that sit. It’s like with the various blue state responses to the Supreme Court Bruen decision (the anti-gun control decision), where pretty much every last blue state has passed even more restrictive gun control laws than the ones that were already on the books.
I hate to say it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the blue states ultimately ends up flipping the bird at the Court over the decision, and simply ignoring the ruling. Basically pretending like it (and Heller) doesn’t exist. And if that happens as a result of gun control (and specifically gun control), I have no idea what will happen as a result.
Governor Hokum is confiscating thousands of guns using ‘Red Flag’ laws as a pretext. One ‘anonymous complaint’ that you ‘pose a danger to yourself or others’ and they come for your guns. The police are so overworked keeping up with gun seizures they don’t have time to deal with actual crime.
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How can Leftroids create a Perfect World when everything they do makes this one worse?
According to the prophecy (Guess whose). Incidentally, this is where “it isn’t all Stasi, just a few bad apples” goes to die. All of those NJ cops were entrusted with authority in return for swearing INDIVIDUALLY to uphold the Constitution. Shutting up for a pension would seem to violate that oath, but as long as they aren’t directly participating in violations they know about, it’s all good…..
The Reader thinks New Jersey is already there. https://www.ammoland.com/2023/05/new-jersey-politicians-enact-largest-gun-ban-us-history/#axzz82lH00tQX
So far, the pattern is put these laws on the books and selectively enforce them against any open “resistance”. What’s going to tip things over is junk like this:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-american-electric-reliability-corporation-nerc-summer-assessment-power-blackouts-green-energy-2ddc6510
“Texas last summer narrowly averted a power outage by leaning on businesses to curtail operations. The state has since added enough solar to power about 200,000 homes. But demand has grown by even more, and the sun doesn’t shine at night. NERC forecasts a 19% probability of a grid emergency at 8 p.m. Do Texans feel lucky?
One new variable this summer is the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently finalized Good Neighbor Plan, which requires fossil-fuel power plants in 22 states to reduce NOx emissions. NERC predicts power plants will comply by limiting hours of operation but warns they may need regulatory waivers in the event of a power crunch.”
My part of the state has had, oh, three-four hours per day of sun for the last week and a half. The wind has either been calm or thunderstorm. Neither of which are great for wind turbines. Yes, this is somewhat unusual (thank you, El Niño!), but “unusual” is what you are supposed to plan for. And the regional power company is based in Colorado, so they are going “carbon neutral” and shutting down coal plants or converting them to gas [how do you stockpile a week’s back-up supply of natural gas, pray tell?], among other follies.
Bring on the small nuclear plants, please!
I’ve already sent letters to the Gov, Ltd Gov, AG, ERCOT, and my state legislators asking them to stop out of state power sales FIRST if that happens.
We’ve got idiotic wind farms. What we need are nuclear power plants.
Stands up and Salutes!
What will a star faring species think when they find us? Humans have the technology to build nearly pollution free sources of electricity from nuclear fission. We have the technology to create low pollution plants to handle surges over the baseline power provided by the nuclear plants. What’s more, we’ve had this capacity for over 70 years.
But what will these hypothetical aliens see? We are building windmills! Frelling windmills!
I can imagine these aliens thinking we must be insane and mark this solar system down a for later recon for colonization after we manage to make ourselves extinct.
“The other side will try something in response to the Bud and Target boycotts.”
They will double down. Maybe triple down.
Disney, in response to the -thrashing- they’re getting from Florida and in the stock market, has announced they will be producing -more- LGBTQCIAFBI5G content for children on their streaming service.
Ford Motor Company released their “Diversity Lightning” F-150 commercial -after- the AB-Inbev boycott was biting down hard.
I’m looking forward to watching a lot of very big companies roll hard Left and go down in flames leading up to the 2024 election. Got my popcorn right here. Mmm, popcorn.
What do they expect? Doctors spend all their time filling out government forms while bureaucrats practice medicine.
Speaking of hitting back:
https://www.cbr.com/florida-furry-convention-disrupted-ron-desantis/
Furry convention reluctantly decides not to allow children, Ron Desantis demonized.
Question, what form of MUTANT takes their -child- to a Furry convention? Seriously. These things are for adults to get their kink on. Leave the kids out of it.
Actually, the only one NOT involved in Trump/Russia collusion was Trump. The Russians were involved with Queen Hillary in framing Trump.
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Some of the politicians nominally on our side need to be taught the difference between ‘compromise’ and ‘appeasement’.
Speaking of distractions….
https://redstate.com/brutalbrittany/2023/05/28/state-farm-the-largest-home-insurer-in-us-wont-take-new-clients-from-ca-the-most-populous-state-n752697
Now, the more interesting question is this: As rebuilding costs go up, a lot of insurance policies required by mortgages require the policy amount to cover 80% of replacement cost. Will this policy prevent increasing the amount of those policies as all those factors make rebuilding more expensive?
A couple of days late, but here I am. Today is Pentecost, a good day to pray for non-combusting fire.
I think I’ve figured out where the ‘Progressives’ are at. They believe they can program 330 million people to produce exactly the results they want if they can just get complete control over everybody. Adults resist being programmed, so naturally they have to start by indoctrinating the children.
When they found out that USAians don’t take well to their programming, they brought in hordes of foreigners to program in our place — unaware that the foreigners bring along their own programming, which is mostly incompatible with ours.
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“When you prohibit people from thinking, stupid is what you should expect.”
“the foreigners bring along their own programming, which is mostly incompatible with ours.”
They aren’t concerned with that. All they are concerned with is that their attitudes be more compatible with serfdom.
They aren’t though, truly. They’re more compatible with anarchy. The left is drinking its own ink again
Yep. They think people are widgets
I’ve been having some fun in my current WIP chastising a society of AIs that treats individual members as disposable widgets. The most fun so far is convincing individuals from that society that they’re not disposable and not widgets.
Also the profligate use of enormous weapons, very satisfying. ~:D