Shut Up And Push!!

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

When I went in to give birth to second son, we were — son and I — put in a dangerous situation because the doctor was misinformed, and therefore misdiagnosed the moment.

To make it clear, I don’t blame the doctor — not exactly — since we were the idiots who gave him access to the report of our first son’s birth. That said, he should have been able — I think — to read between the lines and figure out that the first doctor was covering her ass. Because unless that woman was much better at writing than doctoring, an experienced Obgyn sound look at it and go “something went seriously wrong.”

On the other hand, I also get doctors trusting other doctors over their patients. They’re in many ways a closed fraternity.

So the doctor accepted that the first birth had been incredibly slow and then stopped for no good reason after three days. I never read the report, so I have no idea, but I’m going to assume it wasn’t there that the baby crowned in an hour, and then the birth stopped, so I was in hard, unproductive labor for three days. The reason for it being that the doctor thought if a little pitocin was good, a lot was better. And excess pitocin stops the contractions and causes the uterus to fibrillate uselessly. (I got yelled at for not being able to tell when the contractions were, because I was in continuous extreme pain. Yeah.)

Anyway, so believing the report, when I presented 3 centimeters dilated and with about-normal-period-level-cramp-like-pain on the day I was scheduled to be induced, the doctor logically thought he didn’t want me in forever labor. So, over my protests, he gave me “just a little bit of pitocin, to make sure you’re ready to give birth by this evening.”

The pain took the freight train to hell, and the baby was crowned less than an hour later, over the shouts of nurses for me not to push — I found when experiencing full contractions it’s almost impossible not to push — and the doctor barely made it there in time to catch the baby, still wearing a three piece suit (the doctor, not the baby. He’s not the three piece suit kind.) The doctor admitted he’d been wrong to give me pitocin, and said the next one he wouldn’t, and also he’d wear a catcher’s mitt. (No other baby made it to term, alas.)

The entire birth took an hour and a half from admission to being in a room resting. Which is fine in a way, but did some damage which I won’t describe, and could have literally maimed me or killed me. Possibly the baby too, if there had been some complication like cord around the neck, because the doctor wasn’t even there yet, and the nurses were panicky and not functioning. I might not be the only mother of a vaginally-born baby who had a perfectly round Caesarean-baby head, but we’re a small club. His head never conformed for the birth. He was pushed out too fast. “Like a cannonball” the doctor said.

So, what is the point of this story? Ah, it is because we — the whole world, but mostly this country — are in the middle of this situation, writ large and figuratively. (Mostly figuratively. The shit and the blood of such a birth, as well as the pain, screaming and danger are real.)

So I told you…. going back 12 years at least that we were in the middle of catastrophic societal change. Why catastrophic? Because normally things change very slowly.

We like to imagine that our lives will be more or less like our parents’ lives as we perceived them as small children, only maybe a little better.

The rhythm of change was already too high for that when I came on the scene. Even if I hadn’t kicked the beehive over by moving here it would already have been too much change for that time period. Now–

Well, the internet and the ease and speed of communication made things even faster. And changed them in ways we can’t fully understand. Also took the clamps that the establishment had put on arts and sciences to slow down their development and channel them along predictable paths. Because people of various avocations could communicate and find funding on line. Or sell directly to the buying public.

By the mid nineties I could already see it coming. It was blindingly obvious. And portions of it were already worrying me to death.

Like, I could see the working from home revolution coming, but then what would happen to all those empty office buildings? More importantly, what would happen to the cities that relied on having people come in to work, and having to live in reasonable proximity? For the love of Bob, what would happen when you could outsource jobs to much cheaper countries and didn’t pay enough to allow people to live and work in more developed countries. (For those who don’t know this — does anyone not know this? — cost of living in the US varies WILDLY among states. It’s more so like that internationally.)

I mean, look guys, if 40 year old me was looking at this and going “This is headed for us within ten to twenty years” — counting on natural human fighting of change — “and it’s going to have very bad echoes down the line, as well as good things” how come the people in charge didn’t see it? Because they clearly, blindingly, missed it.

I mean, look, take the writing field, because I know it and can give you the best examples: as gravity shifts from publishing houses to indie publishing, as is already happening to be fair, writers who produce regularly will make a much better living. However, meanwhile, every other step in the chain — if the market were functioning properly which it isn’t for various reasons, including fiction publishing being an appendage of much bigger entertainment conglomerates — would be out of a job or making less. Like, yes, a lot of publishers and editors, but also printing plant managers, printers, maintenance workers, etc. etc. And because the losses would be concentrated while the gains weren’t, A particularly city would be hit hard (To be fair, it’s being hit hard.)

This type of change would be hard enough on society — because most people don’t even realize the change is already in process when it’s happening. Which is why in the days of Noah people married and were given in marriage. And in our days, journalism schools are still full — even distributed over 20 or 30 years. Which it would normally have taken.

But then the idiots in charge, who are blind fools attempting to graduate to mere morons, decided to manipulate a bad flu eruption into locking down the entire country’s population and economic armagedon. Because this would allow them to steal the election and give them POWAH!

They did succeed at their immediate purposes. Sort of. It involved in front of G-d and everyone cheating at the last minute, but hey, they got it, right? Yay! Now they get everything they want, right?

They don’t get everything they want. It’s falling apart even as they try to push it.

But worse than that, because of the means of power grabbing they chose, they have sent the already catastrophic tech-driven societal change into full tilt boogey into hell.

People are not — no matter ho pushed — going to go back to the offices after years of being forced to work from home. Yes, sure, okay, some people want to go back, but entire fields are populated with introverts who don’t wanna and are not going to.

And this has so many knock on consequences. Like the fact that cities are outright dying. I read an article about the federal government being shocked their buildings are empty. The complete idiots. Like it wasn’t predictable! But so are private companies’ buildings. And the sunk costs of the empty buildings are enough to sink some of our big corporations already.

For regulatory reasons, they can’t easily or cheaply be converted into housing, even in housing starved areas.

And on, and on and on, it just keeps going on. The lockdowns also sent the implosion of mass education into full roaring freak out, because parents saw what was being taught. And add to it a completely jaundiced view of “experts.”

What’s collapsing is the blue model ratcheted onto the republic by FDR almost 100 years ago. It was always unnatural, never took fully, and was always going to fail and fall away.

However fast change is always bad. It was bad implementing it, and overall, it wasn’t that fast (and never fully took, or we’d be soviet.)

It will be bad, bad, bad losing it too fast. Really bad. And 20 years was too fast, while this will be more like five.

Particularly since the idiots in charge aren’t seeing the problems or mitigating them, but instead are trying to pile on the disintegrating tower of central control by adding the green bullshit to it, and trying to break the parts of the system still more or less working.

Imagine a tsunami long held off and rushing back in, but there are tornados on the tsunami and whirlpools sucking people into unkown depths.

Or if you prefer, you’re about to give birth, and some idiot just gave you pitocin, so everything is rushing, it hurts like hell, and idiot nurses are yelling at you not to push, while you can’t help pushing.

It’s all going to come out, baby, shit, blood and fluids, in an almighty rush. It’s going to be a hell of a cleanup. And it’s going to rip you from stem to stern in the process. If you’re lucky the essential parts can be reconstructed into functionality but it will take a while to heal.

That’s what we’re looking at. There won’t be anyone who isn’t affected by this. You have to stay awake (but not woke, which is the opiate of the masses, designed to make you fight the curtains while the sofa is on fire) and aware, and know what’s changing and how fast. (It’s easy to reason from causes. I mean, if I can reason it, anyone can.)

You have to have wide knowledge, and the ability to move and do things before what you’re counting on changes. Or find a place you won’t be touched and fortify your position. It’s one or the other.

This one is going to hurt like a mother. Literally.

But once you’re in it, you’re committed. There’s no way out but through. Shut up and push.

**************************

I have some free images leftover from funding days.

And because I’m getting a lot of donations with “we didn’t know this was happening” remember I’m not closing any of the funding instruments, and they’re available at the top of the blog. Also listed here.

224 thoughts on “Shut Up And Push!!”

    1. Medical mistakes darn near killed me and my mother both while I was being born. Low chances of survival, probably brain dead- my foot. Bah.

      And some folks wonder why I’ve never been in awe of doctors or the medical profession in general.

      It’s a hard job, no lie. But those that are driven to do it, they are still human too. All faults and grace that mere mortals are equipped with, so they are as well.

      Which is why the “Trust the Science” never sat well with me in the least. Science is based on doubt, not blind trust. Blind trust is akin to faith. And faith is what the pretend messiahs of the political class want.

      Doubt is your friend. Trust only in those who’ve proven themselves to you personally. Never politicians. Even when they wear white coats.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Most doctors are simply mechanics who deal with biological systems, as other mechanics deal with the systems involving cars, HVAC or aircraft. Nothing magical, and certainly nothing omniscient, much as they’d like you to think otherwise. And like auto mechanics they come in all flavors from excellent to poor, with most fairly competent. Unfortunately, as with horse races, you can never tell which is which until you’ve given them a chance to “practice”. On you.

        I’ve been lucky most times; my heart surgeon was truly excellent, and my current GP, unlike my previous one, actually listens and explains; no “pronouncements from On High”.

        Liked by 2 people

    3. More people died of fentanyl overdoses last year than were killed with guns in the last 6 years combined. Twice as many people die in traffic collisions (I hate hate HATE the word ‘accidents’. Most ‘accidents’ are the result of negligence and/or stupidity) as gunshots every year. All the rabidly-hyped ‘mass shootings’ account for less than 1% of the total murders — most of which take place in Democrat-ruled cities with ‘reasonable gun control’ where a dozen random murders just means it’s Thursday.

      But we must all be deprived of our rights, by force, because of their fears of what somebody else MIGHT do with a gun. Their irrational fear is not my problem.
      ———————————
      The Democrats trust violent criminals and terrorists with guns more than they trust you.

      Liked by 2 people

        1. Both I’ve been in certainly were. The first (I was a passenger) the driver decided to make a hard left just as a motorcycle decided to pass a dump truck there. Cue extreme damage and one motorcyclist who flew into the No Passing Zone.

          The second I was driving at a fast but normal for that highway speed, while someone coming out of a gas station decided to cross two lanes of traffic AND through a construction zone AND the third and (almost) fourth lane of traffic, and ended up scraping me down the side.

          …So yeah. Stupid kills.

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  2. I was two and a half months early.

    It was totally the doctor’s fault. They’ve also misdiagnosed my eye-condition, and still are.

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  4. Fight the good fight, every minute of every day.
    That also means fight the smart fight, pick your battles and carefully pick your friends to battle with.
    There will always be hills to die on, the trick is making the other guy die on his, not you die on yours.
    Yes the first line was stolen and paraphrased from Rush.

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  5. “how come the people in charge didn’t see it? Because they clearly, blindingly, missed it.”

    Writer Josephine Tey said in The Daughter of Time that criminals were the folk who couldn’t reason from B to C. They could get from A to B—if I do this, the next step will happen—but they couldn’t get to the further extrapolation of secondary and tertiary consequences.

    All of the political moves of the last several decades can be explained by not being able to reason past the first, most obvious step. There’s no reasoning through, just an assumption that direct effects are the only thing that will happen and everything else falls magically into place.

    I’ma going to go watch the Reason series “Great Moments in Unexpected Consequences” again…

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    1. Not just that they don’t get to third order effects, but that they assume the direct effects will be the wanted effects. So instead of Electric Cars equals No Polution they get Coal Plants to Fuel Electric Cars and Failing Power Grids.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. On top of that they have a sense of invulnerability – nothing’s going to happen to THEM, it happens to Other People. So they don’t even consider sitting down and thinking about, “okay, what if I do X and something goes wrong?”

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  6. Ah, pitocin. I remember it well. “Your labor is irregular so we’re going to give you something.”
    “You’re giving me something that will make me hurt worse.”
    (Slightly shamed look). “Well….yes.”
    Then a couple of hours later the nurse comes in, looks me up and says, “You’re fully dilated, it’s too late to give you pain medication!”
    Four hours later…
    Oh, well. He’ll be 32 in August.

    Liked by 2 people

    2. Same here. Son just turned 34 this last June. Irregular labor, so they gave me Pitocin, regular dosage, whatever that is. As I’ve mentioned in the blog before while I am not known to be allergic to any medications, they hit me fast and hard. Not bad if discussing antibiotics, etc. Bad if narcotics, and, as it turns out, the pitocin. After about half an hour the prescribing doctor was called in, observed, and said “let’s back that off to half”. Not an hour later, more like hours later, did we get to delivery. By the time they said push, I was tired. Thank God my mom was with us. She was watching the internal baby monitor. Push = Flatline baby heartbeat. Middle sister was born with her chord around her neck. Needless to say, ignoring mom was not an option. Verified the flatline. Now “don’t push”. Um. Really? I tried not to. Was worse than the back spasms I had trouble with latter. Less than twenty minutes later son was born via emergency c-section. Conversation on my side, regarding c-section was “yes”. I too exhausted for anything else. Could think “Best. For. Baby.” Could not articulate it. Son’s chord was not wrapped around his neck. Near they could speculate was that the chord was trapped between his head and the birth canal. SIL, a pediatric nurse, said not an uncommon complication. Only way to catch it is the direct fetal monitor. Complications resulting from oxygen deprivation vary. My reaction to pitocin is in my medical file. Not that anyone had any chance to use it ever again (not by our choice, just additional pregnancies didn’t happen, and IVF wasn’t really an option then, unlike now).

      Liked by 1 person

  7. It’s actually spelled “pitocin” and as a Doula and Labor & Delivery RN you have raised my BP 50 points by relating your story of OB malpractice….. Lets just say I chose to deliver my own children at home with a midwife, after working in the business.
    Like so many professions, healthcare is now broken in all sorts of ways, and I can see it rapidly moving back to the days before Miss Nightingale when hospitals were a desperate last resort ,not a place of healing or hope. My own little oasis of sanity where we cared for women and babies with dignity and compassion was shuttered by corporate Medicine and I think, Medicaid corruption. I could write a book….And since I won’t take their shot poison and thus am no longer working maybe I will.

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    1. Sorry. I’ve never seen it spelled, only heard it.
      First delivery, the doctor had already lost 4 moms and two babies in…. a year. I don’t think she practiced much longer. And we didn’t know that when we hired her. She was the only one that had openings when we came off infertility care, when I was three months pregnant.

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    3. If you really need your blood pressure raised, on that first birth (Now 32 years ago) I was pre-eclamptic, and hospitalized in convulsions THREE TIMES. They let me go to the due date and then induced, not Caesarean. So, you know. But I’d refused to have an abortion, which they pushed at me night and day, because the baby would be “retarded” (To be fair to them, he’s now an MD who SAYS he has to be retarded, with that medical history. It’s just all on what you’re “retarded” from) for months, so they probably were mad at me and punishing me. They were that kind.

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    4. Say what you will about Kaiser, they at least have the sense to have L&D on shift and trained nurse midwives (one of which I had for both of my sons, and she was pretty much the official attending for the second even if her name wasn’t on the birth certificate.) And the fact that they’re one integrated system means that all three births cost me the same, no sudden additions from someone looking to pad their services. (Very good in the case of the first, when the circus came to the birth.)(He’s fine and so am I.)

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  8. We are getting much faster now than then the kind of disorder that happened when we went from the agrarian age to the industrial age in the 1840s.

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  9. Another possible effect…has anyone else noticed vegetable quality dropping? It’s getting almost normal to cut open a potato and discover it looks like an exhibit for the Prince Edward Island Potato Museum. (You don’t want to know how many types of potato blight are out there). Onions are often wet and discolored when cut open. And some veggies are just plain old. Environmental/organic issues, or what?

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    1. This is a serious problem around the Reader’s domicile. Finding good produce requires trips to 3 – 4 stores each week. Insert ‘I’m so old I remember…’ joke here.

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      1. …when doctors practiced medicine, and bureaucrats handled the paperwork. Now doctors spend all their time filling out government forms while bureaucrats play doctor. Way to go, 0bama.

        Liked by 2 people

    2. I think they are not getting them onto the trucks in good condition, and of course the weather has been both too wet and too dry in a lot of places.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Flyover County used to produce large quantities of good potatoes. “Used to” is the operative phrase. Serious drought over a few years destroyed the quality and quantity of potatoes, and pretty much all the stock we get is from Pasco, WA (close to the Hanford site, but I haven’t noticed any potatoes glowing in the dark. Yet. :) )

        If we get “normal” weather, we might get local potatoes worth eating. Winter was dry-ish (for us, Washington was more normal), Spring was really wet, and Summer is a bit toasty. Harvest is in October, so what’s out there is getting mature.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Winter was dry-ish
          ……………

          :-( ? Valley had a very wet winter and both the Cascades and Coast ranges got hammered with snow. As did California mountains (Tiagoa Pass road through Tuolumnoe Meadows is still closed from the snow pack damage, opens Saturday, July 22), N. Cascades, Montana, Wyoming, and I think Colorado. Although to the north the Canadian mountains did not get hammered with snow.

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          1. AFAIK, the jet stream pushed most of the systems well north of Flyover County, so while we had a few good snow dumps, our water reserves didn’t start doing better until springtime. I think Bend and such got the Eastside moisture, but not us for most of the winter.

            The Drought monitor for us was not pleasant to look at until spring. :)

            OTOH, it was cold, so what snow we did have stayed around a long time. Kat likes running around on the snow, especially when it’s crusty enough to not punch through. When it’s soft, she’s not a happy dog.

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            1. Yea, weather patterns were weird last winter. Cousin lives in Baker, in town. She got so tired of snow. Her parents have property west of town where she grew up. Snow years varied, but outside of Baker was more likely to see snow than in town. Never accumulated very deep (based on pictures), but the kept getting it, well into early June.

              Pepper is as bad as the cats when it comes to snow. We have to clear a path on the deck and into the grass. Otherwise her attitude is “Oh! The grassy area came to me!” For those who don’t know, the Willamette Valley does not get much snow. When it does (except for 1969) last 6 decades, it is no deeper than 6″ and rarely deeper than 2″. But then Pepper is just a bit bigger than large cat sized small, and smaller than a good portion of very large cat. No zoomies in the snow for Pepper (we tried, she won’t have anything to do with that white stuff). We’ve had cats that acted like snow was catnip! (Not the current 4.)

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      1. Don’t look at meat other than Costco. Right now not buying any other than the 12% (used to be 8%, then 10%) hamburger at $4.99/#. Steaks we like are $22.99/#, ouch, ouch, and ouch, again. Not buying at those prices. Salmon is still looking good and salmon purchased at Costco is something we get at least 2 meals out of for the 3 of us.

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        1. Here in Plano, Sam’s does a little better than Costco or WalMart for beef and chicken. We don’t do a lot of salmon, but catfish fillets (?!?) are going about $7.00 per pound even there. Catfish is farmed…

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          1. Save A Lot. I don’t know who supplies their meat, but it is pretty reasonable price and quality.

            Sams Club also, for meat and produce.

            Liked by 1 person

      2. Maybe that’s deliberate. If they can’t stop us from eating meat, make it expensive, in short supply and low quality.

        Has anybody figured out where that virus came from that killed off millions of chickens?
        ———————————
        We didn’t spend three million years clawing our way to the top of the food chain so we could live on kale.

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    4. Where are you out of? It’s entirely possible that transportation disruptions also have an effect. (I can’t really tell, because I live in the land of fruits and nuts and dream grocery produce sections—which, if you don’t like them, you can get to an actual farm stand to get the good stuff.)

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    5. I live in the middle of flyover country, in a heavily agricultural state. I do not even bother to walk by the fresh produce aisle in the grocery store I shop at – so much of it looks like it was dragged out of the ground with a rake/thrown on the truck/held an extra week, etc. Oddly, they do usually have very good quality berries of various kinds – nearly all from Mexico. Wtf???

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        1. Likewise here in Plano. Certain grocery stores have better produce (Wal-Mart vs Kroger vs HEB), but even Wal-Mart isn’t that scraggly.

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      2. It is a Kroger affiliate. I haven’t checked to see if the produce at Hy-Vee is better, because I can’t afford to shop there. Prices on the things I usually buy tend to run 10-30% higher, at least that is the impression I got the few times I went in.

        On the other hand, I am currently paying $1.59 a dozen for Grade AA Extra Large eggs. And the K-brand frozen veggies are often 10 for $10 for the 12-oz bags, decent quality and no waste. And many are Product of USA!! So, not starving. ;-)

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    6. They started selling ugly vegetables during COVID. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it’s gotten worse since then.

      Liked by 1 person

  10. My brother: Mom went into the doctor, he said it was false labor and sent her home. Several hours later, she made Dad take her back to the doctor but he couldn’t drive as fast as my brother and she had him in the car. (His astrological sign is Ford)
    Me: Mom went into the doctor, he said it was false labor and told her to go home. Mom had Dad drive around town for an hour, went back to the doctor and had me.

    For a process we supposedly know a lot about over thousands of years, we don’t know a lot about it. Now consider society, a process that we admittedly only know a few bits around the outside edge, and the geniuses in government who think they can arrange the levers perfectly to produce a glorious future. Yes, I worry.

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    1. They believe that not knowing how to do anything qualifies them to tell everybody else how to do everything. Because it all works so well in their fantasies. “It will be Perfect, I tell you!”

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  11. …how come the people in charge didn’t see it? Because they clearly, blindingly, missed it.

    Let me tell you about the mindset that ran Hollywood for decades (and to some extent, still does), because it’s instructive.

    My first experience with it was as a would-be screenwriter, when I first bumped into one of the Ivy League MBAs who was a low level something or other in Burbank. He assured me that there was a super-secret computer program (this is somewhere before 2010) that could accurately predict what a screenplay would make at the box office if made, to within a few million dollars. Creativity and human whim did not enter into it, people were widgets and their reactions could be predicted accurately and years ahead of time.

    Less than a year after that, I was temping on the Disney lot, and got into small talk with another exec (not high level) who was adamant that they had a formula that told them the exact number of episodes that had to be produced for a Disney Channel show (Hannah Montana was all the rage around that time) in order for it to be maximally profitable. Did not matter who was writing it, directing it, performing in it (really? The hotness of the lead female had nothing to do with anything??? Because I’m telling you, only the shows with a hot chick actually kept getting made…), none of that mattered. They had the Holy Formula, and it would Never Be Wrong.

    (Keep in mind, this same exec was absolutely sure that the abortion-on-film Prince Caspian adaptation, which was lensing at that time, was going to be a blockbuster and a classic for the ages. So that worked out really well for her.)

    If you want to see an earlier iteration on public display for anybody to judge, read Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven’s Gate, the Film that Sank United Artists by the late Steven Bach, one of the producers responsible for Heaven’s Gate. It’s a very good read, but the most fascinating aspect of it is how blind Bach is to his own faults, even as he tells you about them clearly and thoroughly and in sometimes terrifying detail.

    Bach makes some efforts to appear to take responsibility for the death of the United Artists studio, but it’s only for appearances, and you quickly realize that he does not believe it in his bones. The most obvious aspect of this is his snobbery. Bach was a Yale Man, and makes sure that you the reader know it. And whenever he encounters another Yale Man in Hollywood, that is a Good Person as far as he is concerned. And one of the things that he says should have told him not to trust Michael Cimino, the director of the film, was that Cimino lied about his educational background, and instead of being an Ivy Leaguer, his undergrad degree was from… Michigan State University!!! Bach at least has enough self-awareness not to call it a “farmer’s college”, but the disgust with Cimino’s actual educational background implies it strongly enough to be seen from space anyway. It’s not that Cimino lied to him, it’s that Cimino lied to him about having an Ivy League pedigree that really frosts him.

    Or look at how TradPub killed the western and men’s adventure in the 1980s. Both genres sold well, and people liked them. But when MBAs took over the big publishers, they Just Knew they understood How To Sell Books better than their predecessors (who, apparently by accident, built publishing empires that included these genres). They were going to market westerns just like they marketed everything else, with big splash page advertising in the New York Times, and no regional marketing (in the areas where westerns actually sold) at all. Then, when that didn’t work, since they considered westerns shameful anyway, the shrugged and claimed the genre Just Didn’t Sell anymore, because it was old fashioned and its time had passed. (Men’s adventure had a very similar fate, for very similar reasons, because the MBAs were above the genre, considered it junk, and shed no tears when it died after they starved it.)

    The world is run by cunning midwits who understand schmoozing and networking their way to the top of the pile, and don’t give a good god damn about whatever industry they happen to be in, except as a means of accruing power and prestige to themselves.

    Which is why Steve Jobs was such an unintentionally destructive figure. Jobs, for all of his faults, really did put the customer first. But that is not what the cunning midwits learned from him. They learned that they should be arrogant assholes who declare what people will want, then shove it down their throats whether they like it or not. They think Jobs assholed his way to success, and conned people into wanting things, rather than actually anticipating what people would want.

    Just ask Disney how well “we will force the audience to think the Correct Things” is working out for them. At the most optimistic read of their box office returns, they are close to having lost a billion dollars just in the past year. And that’s not counting the money pit that is Disney Plus.

    Given this level of mental awesomeness, how can anyone be shocked that they did not anticipate the very obvious future that lay in front of them?

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    1. One of my coworkers actually managed to get two Westerns published in the 80s. They went I to print, languished and presumably died. But he did it.

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      1. Well, a few writers managed to keep getting westerns published. I got this info from the late Richard S. Wheeler, who kept publishing westerns through the 2010s. But he was one of the few, and he made a point of pointing up how stupid his publishers were about marketing them. For example, he wrote a mining camp story that was a farce, with nary a gunslinger to be found, and it was sold with a gunslinger on the cover and saddled with the awful nonsense title From Hell To Midnight.

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    2. Which studio did Barbie? What I’m seeing is it’s awful, and moms who take their little girls (clutching their Barbies) are going to be seriously torqued off.
      And what is it with the bizarre color schemes? Asteroid City, (which looked incredibly stupid anyway) has a highly artificial green-and gold scheme, and Barbie is all hot pinks and artificial blondes.

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      1. Warner Bros., which is flailing because leadership has to get rid of all sorts of shite they inherited (e.g., The Flash, which has now earned less money than The Sound of Freedom) before they can even get going on making their own mistakes.

        But yeah, it sounds like it’s one of the most misjudged movies of all time, up to and including a final “joke” that has mothers of young daughters fuming. (Final shot is Barbie going to the gynecologist for the first time. Because she never had a vagina before.)

        Which, I’ve got to say, the marketing department at WB deserves some kind of award, because they managed to sell the movie it should have been, with barely a hint of what it actually is.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. I saw a trailer and instantly assumed it was trash. The only trailer I’ve seen that gives me any hope is one for, “The Creator,” which they seem to be marketing as straight SF. (Yes, it looks like all,the important good guys are minorities, but so what? Is it a good story? Looks like it might be).

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          1. I’m not the target audience for it in any event, but what it looked like was actually a solid idea for a Barbie movie. And from what I hear, the bones are there for the same, but basically every decision made ruined it after the structure and premise.

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          2. And very, very few trailers for current movies make me want to watch them. I stick to old schlock on Blu Ray myself. I almost went to see The Covenant in the theater, but didn’t. Will probably actually watch it at some point, though.

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          3. For a little bit of heartburn, the director who made Barbie the “special” movie it is, is currently working on an adaptation for Netflix. The Chronicles of Narnia, God help us.

            (I suspect she might to better with another C.S. Lewis. That Hideous Strength might fit the woke movie style. Unfortunately, there’s two other books to ruin.)

            Liked by 1 person

        2. The current response to this I’ve seen on the internet is, “Well, the movie is rated PG-13. OBVIOUSLY it wasn’t for little girls who like Barbies. Never mind that it’s about a kid’s toy, never mind that there has obviously been a lot of marketing aimed at the same market that’s buying Barbies, this was clearly an adult movie! If you took your kid to it, that’s on you, and you’re a whiner for complaining about it.”

          Somehow, as a mother, I find myself less than impressed with this logic.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. The movie is for boxwine Karens who hate men and their own lives and want to blame everybody but themselves.

            Which, really, is not anything a Barbie movie should be, if Mattel were run by people who wanted to make money instead of “changing the world”.

            Liked by 1 person

      2. Oh, don’t you know? Barbie dolls are always marketed with pink, and she’s an artificial blonde, as is Ken. /sarc

        In all truth, I have no idea why anyone would make a live-action Barbie movie. The CGI Barbie movies make sense because you can use the dolls for models and soften their doll-like looks. When you try to make living people look like the dolls and give the film the various pink shading of Barbie packaging as a color scheme…. You wonder how many of the actors are going to come out of this high on something just to deal with the psychedelics of the promo posters. UGH.

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        1. Oh, it makes sense in a crazy-Hollywood way. Hollywood producers, never a creative lot to begin with, are always looking for safe bets. Used to be sequels to successful movies was the safe bet. The past ten years or so, it’s been “intellectual property”, with a strong preference for brands that everybody already knows.

          Literally everybody in the west has heard of Barbie. Therefore, it’s a “safe” bet. Then the producers got extra clout by giving the brand to an indie director with all the right opinions.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. The “indie director with all the right opinions” is a whiny shrew that makes films loathing middle-class Sacramento, California life the same way that Woodie Allen makes films loathing upper-middle class Jewish New York life.

            Except Woodie Allen-in his earlier days-could actually tell a story without beating people over the head with his opinions. (I had to watch Lady Bird for a class. Dear God, that movie was just sad and a reason for an involuntary psych hold and Barbie sounds like the same with a bigger budget…).

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            1. Like I said, she has all the “right” opinions. The person I really feel sorry for is her “partner” and co-writer, Noah Baumbauch. He holds all the same opinions, but can’t even begrudge her far greater success within the system, because feminism. And his films are no better than hers.

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              1. They’re all art films that fill that artistic niche, worth watching on Netflix when you’re bored, need some noise in the background, and just have nothing better to do. Like committing suicide by cutting your wrists with a dull butterknife.

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            2. Also, Allen can still make good movies, at least as of a few years ago. Always small, always idiosyncratic, but nevertheless, good, if you don’t mind the nihilism in his serious pictures.

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              1. I’ve had to watch his “serious” pictures, which is why I stick with his comedies whenever I can. His nilhilism has only gotten worse over the last few years, and even his comedies have issues since…mid ’90s?

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                1. It doesn’t help that he has never respected his own talent for comedy.

                  And say what you want, Crimes & Misdemeanors is a brilliant exploration of his own despair of finding any meaning in life. I don’t agree with it for an instant, but it’s a damn good film.

                  Liked by 1 person

                  1. I’ve done stand-up comedy. Comedians are fundamentally neurotic people. Everything I’ve seen…yea, if you thought Bill Cosby and Louis CK were terrible people, the people on the chicken circuit in San Francisco were worse. I even did some time in LA, and dear God in heaven…

                    Liked by 2 people

              2. After a while, I just got tired of Woody Allen playing Woody Allen in every movie. He’s always the same character. Even as a voice in an animated movie.

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                1. That’s fair.

                  As a slight pushback, I should point out that many of his self-portrayals are highly critical of himself. He’s basically the villain in Annie Hall, despite being the viewpoint character, as one example. In Crimes & Misdemeanors, he’s portrayed, quite deliberately, as venal and vindictive, possibly the smallest-souled character in the entire film, including the gangster.

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        2. I saw a very well-done dance routine where the dancing couple started out pretending to be dolls (stiff arm and leg poses, that sort of thing), then transitioned into more natural movements as the dolls “came alive” during the dance. For a five-minute show, it was great. I don’t think I’d want to watch that for two hours, even if the film hadn’t been laden down with political-messaging slop.

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          1. An Australian kid using actual Barbie dolls to make a web series (Grace’s World) is tons better than the Barbie movie.

            Sadly, they have successful Barbie cartoons but did not hire those writers for this. And the movie hates and blames Barbie for everything, just as much as it blames and hates Ken. Ugh.

            People like their Barbie dolls. This is torquing off the normies.

            Liked by 1 person

        3. Why did they make a live-action Barbie movie? They did it for the same reason Disney is making live-action versions of all of their animated classics. This is despite the fact that other than Mulan (which they remade as a Wuxia flick) and The Black Cauldron (which they haven’t done, despite rumors for years that they were going to announce one shortly, and despite the fact that a series of movies based off of the original novels could be the next “Lord of the Rings” if done well), the switch from animated to live-action doesn’t really seem to serve any point.

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            1. That doesn’t really make sense. The basic stories and titles are in the public domain. And the live-action films (or at least the more recent ones) have significant differences from the original animated movies – to the point where they’re effectively a different story. For instance, I’ve heard that the live-action The Little Mermaid movie cuts out the love story, which is a huge chunk of the original plot.

              I’m not sure how that would protect the IP, or what they’re necessarily even protecting.

              Plus, if it were for copyright reasons, I would have expected them to start with the earliest movies first. Instead, they’ve focused on many of the more recent movies, such as Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin. These animated movies are still a long ways away from having their copyrights expire, and an extension generated by making a new movie wouldn’t grant that much extra time. Meanwhile, the very first Disney animated fairy tale – Snow White and the Seven Dwarves – is only just now getting its live-action version made.

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    3. May Hollywood and ‘The Mouse’s’ deaths be the bonfire that roasts all liberalism. Get Woke, Go Broke. J.R.

      Liked by 1 person

          1. I’m not sure they’ll be able to sell “We can’t afford Hulu” to the government as a deal. More likely, as I said, Iger will break the company up. He’s already put their TV networks on the auction block.

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            2. Ace has noted that Iger is offering up all of the stuff that was bought prior to Iger’s ascension, plus a couple of items that previously were considered an intrinsic part of Fox (and thus purchased along with it). Ace’s conclusion is that Iger’s scared of having to sell something that Disney acquired while he himself was leading the company and only getting half of what was paid for it. That would make the value destruction on Iger’s watch so blatant that only the most willfully blind wouldn’t be able to see it.

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              1. I wouldn’t even credit him with that much insight. The man runs on ego, to the point that he admitted that Disney had been in violation of Florida law for over fifty years, on the record and in public, and keeps repeating it despite what his lawyers have to be shrieking at him behind the scenes. So I readily believe that he’s not selling what he bought purely because he bought it, therefore it has to be good.

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                  1. He has characterized Desantis’s dissolution of the Reedy Creek Improvement District and replacing it with a similar body not controlled by Disney as “retaliation” for Disney voicing a corporate opinion on pending legislation.

                    The governmental body was always supposed to be separate and not controlled by Disney. Legally, it had to be. So to admit that Disney controlled it for decades, and to characterize its dissolution as an attack on Disney is exactly such an admission, is to confess to a fairly massive illegality. And he did it first in a recorded legal meeting, a Disney earnings call to its shareholders.

                    Legal Mindset has covered it extensively:

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            3. But Disney is absolutely “too big to fail” by the current lefty donation standard. And even more so by the woke standard.

              If we were talking about a logical system, you would have a good argument.

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        2. Good story on that here – https://finance.yahoo.com/news/inside-structure-disney-comcast-complicated-110000589.html

          The Reader thinks that Disney is going to have to sell some assets / do some very creative financial engineering to deal with even the minimum $5.4B it owes Comcast. Without this looming deadline, Disney could have continued the decline of its woke businesses for at least a few more year. And Disney’s stock has a lot of room to fall. At today’s close it has a price / earnings ratio of just over 38, which is pretty pricey for a company not paying a dividend and with issues in all its business areas. From the Reader’s perspective, it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch. He has concluded that the destruction of a lot of financial value is going to be a big part of the pain Sarah referred to above.

          Liked by 2 people

          1. I will be shocked if Comcast agrees to $5.4 billion. Disney is going to have to sell a lot, and take on enormous debt, to manage it. And they can’t get out of it, either, which warms the cockles of my heart.

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              1. Yep. Which is why they are having to try to sell off ABC, and FX network, and… and… and…

                The hilarious part: selling LucasFilm, even if they got what they paid for it adjusted for inflation, would barely put a dent in what they are going to have to pony up.

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                1. If they sell Lucasfilm I sincerely hope George’s ex, or someone who hires her buys it.

                  The movies she edited were the ones that made the franchise.

                  Liked by 1 person

          2. Disney has real problems. Like immediate real problems. Their balance sheet is set up assuming a constant flow of money, there’s no cushion, none. they have $29B in Current assets and $29B in current liabilities. That has worked for them for a long time and you see the same thing on other consumer flow business (e.g., Proctor & Gamble). The old Current Ratio of 2x is long dead and gone.

            Still, there’s no margin for error and Disney has made several errors in a row. They have to be under pressure to mark some of their assets as impaired, I know I’ve marked them down and assume a lot of others have too. This could turn into a fire sale really quickly. really, really quickly,

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              1. Just so. Priced to Perfection is DIS. Having margins of safety is so inefficient,

                they burned through $4.3B in Cash last year. That’s an actual burn through, not paying it out to share holders. They had borrowed $15B in 2020, all short term all coming due ….. now, Interest Rates are significantly higher for everyone and DIS. Well, DIS is on the edge of impairment. They’re still rated investment grade, but that could change in a heartbeat if they have to revalue their intangibles.

                they’re still selling at 1.6 x book. How much is Lucas Films worth now?

                let’s just say that I’m glad I don’t own any,

                Liked by 1 person

                  1. Wait, there’s more…. let’s talk about Draft Kings. yes, Draft Kings is a DIS property that they paid way to much for and are having to mark down.

                    Liked by 1 person

                2. They have also been lying about how much stuff had been costing, and how the money got passed around. Oh, they are broke.

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                  1. Hell Hollywood has been doing that from time immemorial and Hollywood was Weehauken NJ. That’s part of what got the Tolkien estate so peeved was that the LOTR movies did a billion or two each worldwide an New Line Cinema claimed minimal profit. Bloom and Bialystock in the Producers was a documentary as far as I can tell.

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                    1. Jeffrey Boam, one of the most brilliant screenwriters of all time, who died far too early (fuck cancer), laughingly told how Warner Brothers insisted that Lethal Weapon 2 (which he scripted) never made any money. Hollywood Accounting may not go all the way back to Joisey (I’m sympathetic to “Edison was a monster” arguments from that time, honestly), but certainly it goes back to the 1980s, and even the 1970s. Before that, deals and contracts were very different, so they did not need to be creative on those fronts.

                      Liked by 2 people

                3. And the stories going around saying attendance at the theme parks is between horrible and disastrous. I did see that the parks are now affordably priced for a family bringing in something like $400K per year.

                  We were at D-land in 1995. It was fun, and I’m glad we went. I’m very glad we haven’t gone since.

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                  2. We took the (then Girls) to Disneyworld in July 2002. This is a year after 9/11 and the park was fairly sparse. Pictures I’ve seen seem to indicate park attendance is even lower this summer.

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                    2. I’ve read theories that Disney abandoned families in favor of well-to-do fan boys (gay? Childless?) with plenty of disposable income. Exeept there are a lot more families than fanboys.

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                    3. We were there across the July 4th holiday. If you saw a group of a pudgy dad, a 9 year old read head, a 6 year old curly redhead and a tall auburn redhead all of them greasy from sunblock that was us. I will say that Disneys 2002 July 4th fireworks were some of the best I have ever seen Rivalling the Boston ones.

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                    5. Still it is a small world. We went because 1) in 2002 Disneyland had HUGE discounts as did the airlines as people were still (justifiably in some cases) freaked out about 9/11 and 2) Grandma/mother in law lived in Naples FL and was whining that we hadn’t visited in a while 3) we had promised the girls Disneyworld at some point, 4) I wanted to visit Cape Canaveral ex Cape Kennedy. Voila multiple issues solved in one fell swoop… Actually was a pretty decent vacation, Surpassed only by a Yellowstone visit in 2008.

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                    6. Been to Yellowstone many, many, many, times. Florida, once. We too did the “cram as much as possible” into the Florida trip. DisneyWorld, all parks, Shamu, and Kennedy/Canaveral, in one trip. Two surprises: 1) The multiple parking lots for different DisneyWorld parks. 2) Toll roads caught us by surprise. Luckily we had appropriate change. (We do not have toll roads out west. National Park entrance points may be toll roads on Google Maps, but they really aren’t, they are park fees. I am not even sure how far east before toll roads are actually something that happens.)

                      While Yellowstone is a lot closer than Florida, it is still 900 miles (by the short route). Isn’t the distance fueling the choice.

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                    7. Yellowstone is 2391 miles from here, Orlando a mere 1385 miles. In neither case did we drive :-) . And Yes the East Coast has MANY toll roads, much of I-95 is toll in the NJ-Virginia section.

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                    9. Yellowstone is just a mass of different items that can be found in only one spot. From its Mountains and mountain vistas (available only in rare spots in the east) to the plentiful elk and bison to the canyons and waterfalls. A night sky so dark and clear due to altitude that the Milky Way seems to have 3d texture. And of course there are all the geothermal features, Geysers, Grand Prismatic the pools that flow over the mineral deposits making cascades, the ridiculous and yet terrifying mud pots blooping comically with mud that between its temperature and acidity would kill you in minutes. I’ve been to MANY of the US National parks, The only two “biggies” I haven’t seen are the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. Yellowstone is unique in all the world, what’s not to like? The only place that even comes close for our family is Washington D.C. We’re a family of Museum lovers and the Smithsonians (especially the Udvar Hazy Air And Space annex) can consume us for days let alone the monuments and things like the National archive and the Mint.

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                    10. I know. Just wanted to read another’s perspective that isn’t as close.

                      We’ve been to most the National Parks west and south of Custer National Monument (something that has to be seen at least once in person, pictures just don’t convey fully), which includes the Canadian versions. I’ve been to D.C. and the museums and monument mall, twice.

                      Just made the N. Rockies to Tetons 16 day jaunt (*theme, Bears and fresh snow on glaciers, success on both). I think we are going to plan a fall Tetons (fall elk rut, fall colors) and south through Utah parks to N. Rim Grand Canyon, then home through Sequoia, Yosemite, N. Redwoods, finally Oregon Hwy 101 southern coast, before cutting east home. Yes, we will drive. Whether Pepper goes depends on what we see weather wise (too hot, she isn’t going, I won’t risk her). We’ll have her on reservations just-in-case (we book pet friendly when we can anyway, not legally required prior notice of bringing service dog, but I want to know denial before we get there). If we don’t take her, we can notify that too via messaging.

                      We always have a trip “theme”. Granted most the time that theme is “we’re out of here, bye” :-)

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                  1. In all seriousness: read DisneyWar if you have not already. I hate the author with the fury of a thousand suns, but it’s a good book even so, and makes Roy a good guy.

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            2. Disney and WB and their ilk have truly killed the golden goose.

              I hope the Writers/Actors Strike causes studio failures, because the crash of these studios might be the only thing that gets that message through the heads of the Money people.

              And in terms of fire sale situations…who would they sell things to? Just Disney’s physical properties alone are out of the range of almost any buyer.

              Liked by 2 people

              1. WB is under new ownership that’s trying to fix things. They’ve cancelled some stuff outright, including one movie – Batwoman – that was reportedly quite close to completion.

                Whether they can pull it off is an open question, though. And given that Batwoman was cancelled outright, everyone’s puzzled over why they went ahead and released Flash.

                Liked by 1 person

                1. The current theories I’ve heard about “The Flash” was due to Ezra Miller. The reasons were either “we either release it or we pay him more than if we don’t release it” or “we release it or he gives out the blackmail material, because he has nothing to lose.”

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              3. The Reader could see the Saudi or UAE sovereign wealth funds picking up some of the pieces at a fire sale.

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              1. No kidding. Have you seen the prices? We aren’t poor. We couldn’t afford to go now, let alone costs to get there, or accommodations. We always said we’d go back to Florida, if only to tour Kennedy again. Never got back.

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    4. There’s a reason why I kept saying that we’re seeing a repeat of the 1970’s in our culture, with a vengeance.
      I’m of two minds of Oppenheimer-I like Christopher Nolan and he keeps showing up as a guy that just sincerely wants to make good movies. But his successes means that people of lesser talent think they can get away with massive auteur movies that make Heavens Gate look like Manos-The Hands Of Fate, without the “B” movie charm.
      I can’t watch most TV shows, because they have absolutely no ability to do subtext or have good characters or even anything that’s remotely fun.
      Books…I swear if it wasn’t for Kindle, I probably would only be buying Baen Books these days. And even that’s starting to run a little ragged.
      I’ve given up on most comic books. It’s pretty much just manga these days. And even that is having issues with translations (i.e. translators putting in their own head canon vs. what the creator wrote…).

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      1. If we’re re-living the ’70s, where’s our Godfather? Where’s our Gene Hackman? Where are our David Bowie and Lou Reed and Herbie Hancock? Where is our Roger Corman and his New World Pictures, making glorious low-budget schlock with tons of T-and-A while also distributing works by master filmmakers like Kurosawa and Bergman?

        Liked by 1 person

        1. …most likely on YouTube, because God knows you won’t see it out of Hollywood.

          I’m hoping after the crash happens (and I think we can start to hear the first bit of glass breaking), they’ll grab for any talent that can at least pretend to direct, act, and perform and we’ll get some good movies. After the crash in the mid-’70s, we got Star Wars, we got the great movies of the ’80s…

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          1. We’ve all got cinema-making machines in our pockets, anyone who goes to Hollywood is insane at this point. The ONLY problem to solve is distribution, and I think theater chains are going to get a whole lot more amenable to digital indie distribution, soon. Because they’re barely squeaking by with Hollywood product right now.

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            1. Hollywood has built itself to the place in the same way that New York City has built itself into the place.
              It’s the aspirational point where you’ve made it. It’s the destination where the muggles know you’ve succeeded in your particular esoterica. Doesn’t matter how many indie books you’ve sold, you haven’t Made It until you’ve been picked up by a Manhattan publishing house. Doesn’t matter how many indie movies you’ve distributed on your own on YouTube, you haven’t Made It until you have the Hollywood studio putting in six figure bids for your next screenplay. You could have built a true AGI in your basement (with a box of scraps!), but you haven’t Made It until you’ve gotten your first venture capital girlfriend in Silicon Valley.
              It’s the ultimate in value-added creations of intangible products.

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                1. It’s the fantasy, if you think about it. Explain what success means to an indie writer to your average muggle and their eyes glaze over and they tune out half-way through.

                  Tell them that your story got bought by Disney and they’re making a movie, they know you’ve succeeded. Because that’s where Hollywood sits on that landscape.

                  Liked by 1 person

              3. I believe Youtube and Tiktok are an aspirational point now for some. Our grandchildren are 14, 16, and 18 and they spend at much of their free time on these two. The older two have told me of their plans to make it big on these two. Part of the attraction is both are filled with people just slightly older.

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          2. I’ve hit the point of late night babbling where I’m wondering about the possibility that I’ve misread that situation.

            I mean, it isn’t like I haven’t been seriously wrong before.

            I’m outright prone to catastrophizing.

            Anyway, from my track record I can do a lot of stupid in this sort of tired.

            So I should sleep.

            I should also tend to some of my own business that needs midning tomorrow.

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  12. Yeah… knowing just what will happen when you push “that button” or yank on “that lever” is an ongoing folly of the elite. I remember reading “Future Shock” when it came out (lord, I’m old 1970) and thinking this guy knew what he was talking about. Now, I think he way underestimated what was coming.

    Birth – having something new come into your life is messy, has pain and downsides but can provide a wonderful outcome once you get beyond all the process and have the result. I think that Sarah is right and we need to push through, deal with the pain and mess to be able to start anew.

    Side note – Wife was in delivery room clutching my hand (ouch) and we’re doing the whole puff-puff-blow thing and timing contractions and Miss Cuteness Nurse wanted her to not push and just relax as Doctor would be here soon. Oops… as nurse left wife told me to hurt her but don’t kill her if she comes back in – my response: Okay. Lucky fact she didn’t come back and Doc showed up to catch son so all ended well.

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      1. While our future is still “open” I will vote for good winning out.

        While Bill Cosby had/has his issues – his bit on child birth is still funny.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. So is Crosby’s bit on his dad’s snoring. Remember recent post on snoring and sleep apnea. My dad and maternal grandfather individually were exactly as described. Together 10x worse, just we weren’t asleep to “benefit”.

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          1. To this day my siblings and I say, “How long can you tread water?” When talking about a big rain storm.

            His Noah and the Ark bit is still a classic.

            And the football bit.

            And his TV shows had great actual people who happened to be authentically black and great characters. He didn’t just put black face on a previously white character for diversity. That its what is so insulting about the current Hollywood crappy films with POCs in formerly white roles. They are such low talent racists they act as if you couldn’t do a great story with a person of color that had a fresh vision.

            Racist hacks.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. The LP shelve should have my copy of Why is there air?. His bit on driving in San Francisco got a lot funnier when I had to do the same thing with a ’70 Beetle with a wonky transmission.

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              1. I Played that bit for my elder daughter when she was learning drive manual. She was NOT amused :-)

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    2. The only reason I understand in any way at all the concept of “murder of passion” is because I have been in labor.

      Luckily for medical personnel, women in labor are not physically in a position to kill.

      Himself help the human race if some evil scientist is able to harness that emotion and transfer it to soldiers.

      Liked by 1 person

    3. I’ve read all the books in my grade school library about how The Future was going to be.

      None of them predicted the Internet.
      None of them predicted cell phones, other than a Dick Tracy-type “phone with a screen” on your wrist.
      None of them predicted a lot of how we live today.

      And to be fair, some of the futures they suggested are not ones I’d want to live in (they keep thinking that Malthus will have the last laugh…).

      Liked by 1 person

      1. What’s the line? “A good science fiction writer might predict the automobile. But it takes a great writer to predict the traffic jam.” or something like that? For writer, ‘futurist’ if it helps. Retro-futurism can be very amusing. You can see in some cases that it was reasonable extrapolation… only it didn’t account for innovation. Evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, progress. Despite evidence all around that was not the way to bet. Just the easiest to consider. Otherwise… what is forecast and what is fantasy?

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        1. This was the genius of Heinlein. He didn’t predict all the effects of new technologies – who could? – but he was very good at bringing his gadgets to life by showing their side-effects.

          My favourite example is when the protagonist of Space Cadet has what is quite obviously a cellphone (not called that in the book, of course), and as he is getting ready to embark at the spaceport, he stuffs the phone in the bottom of his duffel bag so his mom won’t be able to call him. That bit was perfect.

          Liked by 2 people

  13. I prefer the sandbagged top of the dam model to the tsunami one. Keep piling bags on top raising the water level, and the pressure keeps going up as the acre feet back up. Eventually you don’t have enough base to keep raising the bags, and when the water tops over it, they fail catastrophically and spectacularly. The end result is a whole magnitude worse than if they’d just let the original dam go.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. I was very lucky that my first botched by medicine delivery was actually my 4th delivery.

    By then I knew exactly how it should be going and when the nurse told me I couldn’t POSSIBLY need to push since I hadn’t even been there an hour, I ordered my husband to go find the doctor NOW!

    He went.

    The doctor had just gotten to the hospital and was in the hall, since we had called him before we left the house. Good thing we had done so, as he had instructed me, because the nurse never did and he had an hour drive to get there.

    He didn’t even have time for gloves, just sprayed his hands with disinfectant and caught our daughter with Betadine dripping fingers.

    The chewing out that nurse received after all was said and done was legendary. She quit not long after because the doctors were “mean” to her.

    But, yeah pitocin is the worse. I had that for one delivery too.

    I am now feeling fairly horrified that we are in the clutches of people who have no more wit about them than the folks who are currently PRACTICING medicine.

    Especially considering how badly the medical field has fallen since Obamacare was foisted upon us.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Two years ago, I had a lump removed from my back. $SPOUSE said it was two lumps, one a sebaceous cyst, the other an unknown hard lump. (No idea what it is, but it’s old enough to drink at a bar–it’s just bigger now.) It’s a teaching clinic, connected with OHSU, so a resident did the procedure. Got the cyst, left the medium-sized lump.

      Fast forward two years. The lump grew and there’s another sebaceous cyst where the first one was. Yet another resident is scheduled to remove it. (The D.O. who looked at it saw both lumps together. The MD who did the signoff just noted the sebaceous cyst. Arggh.) If the resident doesn’t understand that I want/need the combined lump removed, I’ll walk.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Reading these stories, I’m going stop complaining about my 3 natural childbirth events. I had back labor the whole time, very painful.
      1st kid – over 24 hours of misery (not counting the 8 hours for me to persuade my husband to call the doctor – I was a month early, and he ‘knew’ it was false labor).
      2nd kid – around 12 hours, the last hour with the nurses taking bets on how big he would be (the size of the head was very misleading – he was an 8 pound, big-headed baby).
      3rd kid – by the time I got prepped, I asked how long, and was told “about 20 minutes” – she was right. It was a GREAT birth.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. There are Birth Simulators that mimic the process for men. The videos are hard to watch, and I’ve been in labor (21″ 7#’s) for 20 hours before the emergency C-section. In addition, I’ve only done so once, not two or more times. (Not by choice. Someone greater than us had other plans.) It has been 34 years, and I still remember the pain like yesterday. Worth every minute. Not the point.

          “Oh wait….” is right.

          Like

  16. There’s been so much news about evil and stupid corporate actions (q.v., Bud Light). So I thought I’d call out some good news, If you haven’t heard, it turns out that Goya Food — local boys from Jersey City — put up the money to get Sound of Freedom away from Disney, who’d buried it, and out into the theaters.

    The people who run Goya are among the biggest funders of anti child trafficking programs along with working toward “overcoming the war against the working class” and being public supporters of Donaldo del Trump. AOC called for a boycott of them a while ago, If AOC is against you, how bad could you be?

    We’re lucky here being just down the road from the HQ and having a big Hispanic community so you find Goya everywhere, but seek them out if you can. Try their Maria biscuits, Delicious.

    Liked by 2 people

    2. I recall during the previous administration that Goya got some heat from Das Left (article chosen with care…) which tried to minimize things. To my amusement, just a bit after that the amount of Goya products at a local (regional chain) grocery store all but exploded.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I haven’t looked for it at the Kroger affiliate, but the big independent (three stores doesn’t make for a chain, though at least two are big stores) has a good selection of Goya. Looked at their beets when $SPOUSE needed her fix (I can’t stand them), but the Midwest-based Essential Everyday beets were substantially less expensive.

        We’re eating veggies from the garden and replenishing our stock. Will keep Goya in mind, though we do need to watch the budget.

        Liked by 1 person

  17. I’ve always had issues with my doctors. The last good one that I had was for exactly three appointments, before he retired. Every other one in the last ten years has wanted to put me on a pure vegetarian/vegan diet, cut everything refined sugar, and/or consider me fully diabetic. I had to do a lot of shucking and jiving to avoid that one-I’m still considered pre-diabetic, but I’ve cut out the snacking, smaller portions, trying to get to the gym, etc, etc, etc…

    So, I’m very much not into “trusting the science.” Especially when I’ve been watching climate science and environmental science change from actual disciplines into religions (“hottest summer in years!” And this is after they changed how they measure temperatures…).

    Liked by 1 person

  18. I have been privileged to aid probably close to a thousand women thru some stage of their birthing experience. And had 4 of my own. Maybe why the essay resonates so strongly with me today. Birth often feels like a near death experience, but also a character strengthening, touchstone for a women about to take on raising a baby to a functioning person. So if you frame the coming storm as a birthing event, I can be unafraid to be right there. Can we just get things moving before more harm comes to the innocent ? It seems like every day now is multiple examples of clown world and damage. Who can be so blind to not see it?

    Liked by 1 person

  19. I will note one bit of good news amongst the chaos: I have absolutely no idea how Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves escaped the horrors of Hollywood, but it is an honest-to-goodness fun and serious fantasy movie.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. Quoth Sarah: “…how come the people in charge didn’t see it? Because they clearly, blindingly, missed it.”

    One of the Great Lies of all time is the one that goes “We’re from the government, we’re here to help.”

    An interesting tidbit of information not widely known, is that the Liberals in Canada increased the size of the Federal government by 40% since they took power in 2015. They’ve added 98,000 new employees since the plague hit.

    Imagine being one of those federal government bureaucrats. Everything that is happening right now, from work-at-home to commercial real estate to censorship to entire industries folding up and dying… does any of that -matter- to you? And by “matter” I mean if all the commercial real estate in downtown Toronto goes vacant over night, will you get fired? Will you lose any property, investments, will anything at all happen to you personally?

    No. Nothing will happen. In fact, your “industry” is growing!

    Imagine for a moment that there might be some people called to account for the lockdown, the vaxx-jab, the loss of freedom. Does any of that matter to Mr. government employee?

    No! Nothing will happen to that guy.

    Because did anything happen to the guys who ran the post office in Nazi Germany? No, of course not. They just delivered the mail. And after the war, with the 6 million killed by the German government, they just kept on delivering the mail.

    Same with the sewer guys, the road guys, the whole vast apparatus of German government. They just kept going. New management, same factory, same product.

    Here we are, 2023, and the German government looks pretty much the same as it did when Adolph was running it. And so does the American government AND the Canadian government, the British government, Australia, France, etc. Even Russia is basically the same.

    They didn’t see it coming because they don’t need to see it. They’re not even looking. There’s no benefit to them.

    Looking ahead is what WE do. Not them. We are weirdos. They are Normies.

    Cut their budgets. Start imposing conditions and performance reviews on them. Make them work. Fire the stupid ones. THEN they’ll look ahead.

    Like

        1. Honestly rule by those aliens would be preferable to rule by these escapees from “The Marching Morons” . At least their cattle were well cared for before they were slaughtered.

          Liked by 1 person

  21. And speaking of firing the stupid ones, I note at this time that the Random Penguin has made big news this week by firing a bunch of their famous ancient Boomer editors. The polite term is “buyout” but really, they’re taking a chainsaw to the place. Its a fire sale. Everything must go.

    So it would appear that the Invisible Hand of the market just slapped the penguin a dandy. Kapow, baby.

    Liked by 1 person

  22. “We like to imagine that our lives will be more or less like our parents’ lives as we perceived them as small children, only maybe a little better.”

    Please don’t say things like that, it makes me think I’m playing this game called life incorrectly.

    Humor aside, I knew my life would be nothing like my parents from four and a half… they had this thing called color, and light didn’t hurt their eyes. Trust me, being a color-blind Drow as a kid isn’t exactly easy… there were more to my vision problems than this, but this is the one that kids had the biggest hang ups with, light hurts, and no color.

    So whatever my parents life was like as kids, was not going to be my life as a kid.

    Hold that for a moment, and let’s switch topics just a little.

    The folks off in government land knew that all the things you’ve mentioned, by and large, where coming. There were two camps — there were/ are more, but two major camps. One saw this as an oppertunity to gain, more, more control, more of a grasp over the economy and education, and greater dependency of the American people; while the other group said the research isn’t perfect, so we can only deal with more immediate problems, and wait to determine what the actual shape of things are. The second group is partly a response to the first and is in a large way shaped by it, because to a large degree that is the form that American politics has taken. I could go into great detail on various research projects I’ve been part of, just on work at home, and can talk about how varied the data was, before the lockdown, and how some of that data was suspect for a host of reasons, and how what was suspected was not something that could be entirely varified.

    One really small example is, a lot of people, months before the lockdown, thought that working from home would either be too expensive, or wouldn’t be possible with his/ hers technical skills, or both. A portion always said they wouldn’t work from home, and it was always suspected that a portion of these gave this response, because they didn’t want to admit to either not having the supposed skills, or the finances, nor, I suspect admitting to the fear of taking a pay cut. This was, by the way quite common for work at home jobs when I first started working. That cut was on top of the cut I took as being disabled, and was the only way to get my foot in the door. That aside, nobody anticipated the degree to which work at home would have exploded, yes it was growing before the lockdown, but like homeschooling, the entire landscape was markedly change. We are talking whole Effect Sizes different now, since the lockdown, when compared to before. While some research suggested this would happen, its predictability was somewhat suspect for a host of reasons, partly due to the fact that no model of the future is ever a hundred percent accurate. There was evensome evidence that suggested that people would want to escape their children by going back to the office, which is certainly true for some, but how much of the sample? Who knows.

    Forcasting human behavior about somethings, not all, but some is harder than for the weather, and how often has your weatherman been totally off? Oh, sure, Congressional groups have had a horrible track record, overall, listening to data groups, some by design, never waste a disaster, and some by, well, the same reasons anyone doesn’t listen, those of us that are honest don’t provide the kind of certainty others want to hear.

    The point here is its often better to think, why are they not reacting to what we see coming, and is there a good reason, or not, and is there something else they are fixated on? Over, how can they not see this? American Education, I’ve said before on this blog, and the evidence is all there, is doing exactly what it was intended to do, since the take over by the Educational super complex. Until it is entirely dismantled it will keep doing exactly what it was intended to do, and even if the teacher is really good, all that can be hoped for is minimizing the damage. This is hardly the only case where this is the case. Something appearing to be poorly planned, or damaged in form to produce the stated outcome, when the actual outcome is not the stated one.

    If I wanted to achieve UBI, or Universal Basic Income, which would allow the government total economic control, the current path would get us there.

    If I wanted to take it further and damage this country to such an extent that we would be hard pressed to recover on the international stage, then we’ve started down that road, we aren’t, as bad as things might seem that far down on it, yet, but we are headed in that direction. The question is, and it is not one you, or I can realistically answer at the moment, is how much farther will we go? What will we, by this I mean you and I, do if we continue down that road? Yes, rhetorical question, I know, but its one you and I need to have answers for.

    I have a few.

    If you do too, then great, hang on tight, because its going to get worse, but nobody can tell you just how much worse, and for how long. I do mean that, no one.

    Like

    2. Note, I’m not calling you crazy. It’s a form of despair we all fall into now and then.
      BUT it’s not …. cogent with reality. Things keep not going as they expect and shocking them. Obviously so.

      Like

      1. Yuuup.

        For public record, I have done myself a world of good mental health wise by remembering a few observations about human nature, and rules.

        The succinct version is that our opposition is theoretically wrong, because they have chosen error, and built a broken model in support. Reject their methods, and keep looking to truth, beauty, and goodness.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. “Things keep not going as they expect and shocking them. Obviously so.”

        It would have worked if it wasn’t for you meddling kids!!!

        Yeah it is all our fault that their perfect plans never seem to work as the five year plan says it would. Not even the five year plans for the end of the world. We should all be dead from an ice age, from starvation, from cancer because of ozone holes or acid rain, drowned by rising seas or baked by the runaway greenhouse effect. Not to mention nuclear winter or the threat of microplastics.

        Liked by 1 person

    3. “The folks off in government land knew that all the things you’ve mentioned, by and large, were coming.”

      This assumes those people are pro-active and know what they’re doing. Two facts not in evidence.

      Example, Universal Basic Income is a stupid idea created by stupid Leftists years and years ago. It can’t possibly work, and it only takes 5 minutes for a not-very-bright person to figure that out.

      You’re seeing it in the news these days because of stupid Leftists trying EVERYTHING. They’re throwing the whole manure pile in a desperate attempt to get something to stick to the wall. UBI happens to be sticking a little longer than some other shite, given our cities filled with bums sleeping in parks. They’re pretending that UBI would allow those bums to get apartments.

      Question for you: If Government Leaders and the Eeeevile Intelligentsia of the Ivory Tower were so all seeing, all knowing and well prepared, would they have allowed their whole Trans narrative to get blown out of the water by a single beer commercial?

      Wouldn’t they KNOW not to mess with beer commercials and the Superbowl? Wouldn’t they have the data and modeling to be able to avoid that? Yes they would.

      If Netflix was run by -intelligent- people who paid attention to the perfect data-stream they have which captures every single click you make on their platform, wouldn’t they know that the Woke (TM) stuff doesn’t sell? And if they kept doing it they’d go broke?

      Go back and watch the video of Alissa Heinerscheid talking about her great, fabulous Bud Lite commercial that was going to really stick it to the frat-boys. That is who these people we’re talking about really are. Popular girls from Harvard with a good tennis game. AKA insufferable, oblivious Normies who were Peter-Principled far beyond their true competence.

      Like

      1. Universal Basic Income is a stupid idea created by stupid Leftists years and years ago.
        …………………

        Under practice for a few generations now. It is called “welfare programs”. All the welfare checks have done is create dependents on the welfare system (escape is possible, just not easy). Technically social security too. Especially the programs that have been stealing from the social security funds for decades now.

        The entire social security program is predicated giving senors a minimum income. Two things however. One, most pay into the program during their working years before taking it (either themselves or, if pass too early, their dependent children or spouse). Second, who with more than two brain cells to rub together expect the program to actually still be there when they retire (we didn’t, were wrong, but they did change the rules on us) or expect to be able to live on just that amount (even x1.5 or x2 for married couples)? (We sure in the heck didn’t. We were not wrong.)

        For decades our joke was our SS payments was just an intermediary of the path to fund my grandparents (x3), the inlaws (grandparents generation), eventually my parents. Now we call son our 7%, and hubby calls the business owners he golfs with, his 14%-ers. Full disclosure. Both my maternal grandparents (died in their 90s), paternal grandmother (died at 80, and collected on aid-to-children, had 4 at home, ages 8 to 15, and one on disability, when grandpa died in ’59), and now my mom, have earned more in SS than any of them, plus paternal grandfather and dad, paid into the system But not more than any of their descendants have collectively paid in.

        So, what have the demorats done? Double (tripled?) down. What they want to do Will Not Work. (Preaching to the choir? Duh!)

        Liked by 2 people

        1. I’ve been paying Social Stupidity taxes for 45 years.

          If I live to 80 (not a stretch at all; 3 of my grandparents lived into their 90s) I will be ‘entitled’ to collect 3 times what I paid in. If I hit 90, they owe me 5 times what I paid.

          Now multiply that by 70 million.

          And Leftroids still can’t figure out why the government is going broke running the world’s biggest Ponzi scam.
          ———————————
          Today, every child in America is born $139,000 in debt.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Yes. I paid in for 40 years (17 to 59, with a few months “off”), paying on every penny earned (neither of us hit the “tax holiday” SS yearly income). Even taking it at discounted percentage at age 62, (odds are) we’ll each collect way more than either of us paid in.

            Liked by 1 person

      2. It makes sense, sort of, if they actually see themselves as missionaries of Progressivism. They have taken their jobs so they can provide Edifying Stories to Educate the People in the beauties of Progressivism. Those poor, simple, ignorant commoners who only need to be shown the truth and educated so they are almost as good as their teachers.

        I didn’t use to think I was sarcastic. I was so wrong.

        Liked by 2 people

  23. First comments are automatically held by WordPress for approval by the blog owner; it’s got nothing to do with their content. You may want to re-post your comment that got held up, because if it was a day or two ago it’s probably buried in WordPress’s spam filter by now and there’s no guarantees that she’ll be able to find it.

    Like

    1. THANK YOU.

      My words bo being seen by Sarah are like the 9th circle of hell. I will try to dig them up. They seemed to me good words, obviously. What is an email address where she will receive them, btw,

      Like

      1. Just post again. But my address is first 2 initials last name at the hot email.
        Or the promo email on the book promo post. I receive both and check the second once a week.

        Like

    2. Half the time, it spams comments from long term users who are perfectly approved for no reason I can figure of. And sometimes it EATS them so I can’t find them.

      Like

  24. To clarify, I mean that comments by first-time commenters are held for blog owner approval, because 90% of the time (at least, that’s how it seems to me), first-time comments are from spambots. Which is also why I suspect she’ll have a hard time finding your comment even knowing the email address it came from, because WordPress’s user interface is… let’s just say “not great” and leave it at that.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Wow you have a work-for- Sarah level of greatness. Suffice it to say I like Sarah’s politics and her linguistic dexterity, per my original post. Nuff said.

      Like

      1. What Robin Munn forgot to say is sometimes WP delays, holds up comments for someone to release, or comments disappear into spam, or the ether, for no reason. Not just new to the blog commenters, but long term commenters that have been commenting on this blog since the beginning. Also, WP has some “rules” that one trips over. A big one is two links in one comment. You’ll know when someone complains about “lost comments”.

        Like

          1. To be honest to Don, one doesn’t get told your comment is approved unless you go back and scroll down to it. That requires refreshing the page to have it pop up, as well as any replies. I never know if any of my not-immediately-approved comments make it through WP unless someone actually responds to that comment and then I am getting the response via email. Or another comment just happens to be inserted near the original comment. Since I do not know, I let it go, and don’t repost. Guaranties not double posting.

            FYI. I thought you had replied to the post he didn’t think ever got posted, but wasn’t 100% sure. So I refrained from mentioning that. Glad you can go in and remove imprudent doxing post. Won’t claw back the posts that went into the ether as everyone else’s emails. I deleted the one I got. Can’t guarantee that for everyone.

            Like

    2. Most first time comments are trying to sell me proxies? I’m so internet un-savy I don’t even know what those are or bitcoin.
      Alternate they’re from Chlamydia under yeat another name, calling me names. They’re not even CREATIVE names.

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  25. The thing with indie, to me, is how do I find out about them (besides here)? Maybe it’s just that I am Amazon shy—I have bought a few ebooks from them—but indie seems overly dependent on Amazon.

    The larger societal issues—educational and hollow downtowns—make sense but I only catch a glimpse of but what you say makes sense. Your insight is superior to mine.

    I had someone ask me a question at church no one has ever asked me before: does the church takes checks (yes and cash—and that needs to change).

    Like

    1. “…but indie seems overly dependent on Amazon.”

      It is. Amazon is the only platform where you have any hope of making a buck, at the moment. Even the dead-tree publishers know this, and hate it. The book retail business is effectively dead, killed by Amazon. Basically a monopoly in all but name.

      If you want to find the good stuff you can’t depend on the automatic recommendations. You have to go digging in the pile yourself.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Oh, there’s Amazon ads, and they seem to work. I haven’t had time to experiment but I intend to. And other stuff. I’m trying to gt Jack Wylder to write a book on promo.
      Maybe if we beg.

      Like

  26. THIS COMMENT IS NOT A PRIVATE CONVERSATION. Please remove your email.
    I don’t ban people without reason.
    Sometimes wordpress hides comments from me, included.

    Like

  28. I’ve been saying for years that they are mining the foundations for stone to build the Glorious Tower of Next Tuesday. Now the whole thing is tottering and they are rushing around with hods of purloined bricks trying to keep it from collapsing on top of them.

    Liked by 1 person

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