What comes After Fear

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

This is a very bad time for a lot of people. In fact, perhaps it’s a bad time for everyone. We’ve been kicked around so stupidly by people who were supposed to be acting in our best interests that even those like me who never really trusted experts feel betrayed.

The nature of the betrayal, too, means that lives were ruined, young people were destroyed, education and job prospects blighted. All of us — I think every last one of us — lost friends or relatives, because things like cancer checkups were suddenly “elective” for two years.

Even those of us who suffered almost nothing, who still have jobs and whose marriage didn’t implode, and who are losing the stress weight they gained in lockdown didn’t emerge unscathed. Last week I was talking to a friend how difficult it is to nerve oneself to any social gathering. This is not just for large gatherings — every time a con looms, I start looking for ways to cancel, even if I really, really, really want to go. (And we might need to cancel either SOS or Liberty con this year, for legitimate reasons, not because of this. At the VERY LEAST we’re going to have trouble getting the cats looked after if we attend one or both. Because of family things it means we’d be away a full three weeks, and on the road. And after Helena, boarding isn’t an option.) But to be fair, I’ve never been fond of cons, because they’re WORK. And because I have to be in my public persona around a lot of people, some of which will inevitably be, at best, disagreeable and at worst hostile. But now it’s difficult to nerve myself to see friends, even when I don’t have to travel, which I have always hated. My regular Tuesday “have coffee with a local writer” thing is often on the chopping block, because I freak out before he gets here. Keep in mind that the entire thing is, he comes over and has coffee. Sometimes we talk. Often we just each type at the same table. But I have a quiet freakout and have to stop myself cancelling before he arrives. Or, note I quietly freaked out before Thanksgiving and Christmas, even though the guests were my sons and their spouse/fiance. But they were “more than two people who don’t live with me.” Freakout.

I’m still fine with going out into groups of people I don’t know, with Dan, and sitting quietly and just observing. Okay, fine, to translate, “I’m still okay going into diners and having a meal.” And mildly okay going to church, if it’s not too packed. Everything else, I FREAK OUT. I usually freak out quietly and internally, mind, but it’s still very annoying, because this was never a thing before. it’s just a scar.

As far as I can tell that’s the only (biggish) scar I carry. There might also be a tendency to go from zero into full paranoid mode, or zero into anger more quickly, but that’s…. I’m not sure it’s so much an effect of the lockdowns as an effect of everything else we’ve gone through (and I’ve gone through) in the last three years. Yeah, I’m sure it’s been noticed, but truly, I’m trying to keep it down.

However, I’m aware I’m not the most affected, nor do I have reason to be one of the most affected by the entire mess of the last three years.

There’s a great anger stalking the land. It’s mostly visible on blue on blue (or in our case, I guess red on red, to update the old meme) conflagrations that come out of nowhere. (Not that the usual shit weasels don’t stand by to instigate/claim it’s out of nowhere after countless provocations. That’s condition normal for this kind of situation.) But also sometimes in person, in odd silences, in puzzled expressions.

I think mostly all that’s keeping the anger from erupting in horrible — and likely misdirected, because anger isn’t rational — violence is two things: One, Americans really are fundamentally, decent people. Our civic culture and mutual help and assistance between equals lingers enough that we tend to default to helping each other rather than taking advantage of disruptions. (People in general, not the paid astroturf of the left.) And Two, what was done to us was so large, so horrible, that we can’t fully conceptualize it. The injury was so massive that we’re still stunned and scrambling.

Put it this way: stealing elections is old hat for the left. But doing it by inventing a horrible plague out of a disease that was not big thing (and be aware, because the right is setting up to fall for the same bs again. Note the paper from China was not peer reviewed, so it’s just them bragging, because why not. I doubt what they’re bragging of could be achieved in a way that would affect the world, and not kill ten people and be gone, by US with our higher precision, care, etc. Fro them, it’s beyond reach. Second, the “disease x” thing from the Dravoniacs it’s just psyops. They’re trying to see if it sticks. Be neither afraid nor stupid) and shutting down not just us, but the rest of the world for verisimilitude? That took a special kind of crazy disregard for humanity in general that is hard for normal –or even only slightly abnormal– human beings to conceptualize let alone act on. It’s a level of psychopathy that leaves you going “if they were lizardoids from space, what would be different, really?”

Mind you — and I laughed yesterday when reading a Darvoniac lamenting that somehow, inexplicably, the last three years meant that the people in general no longer trust the institutions or the news, so that their Green New Deals and Great Resets and other grand plans of a Bond-villain kind suddenly seemed to be out of reach — part of the reason for the idiocy spreading all over the world came from the Darvoisie thinking they could use it to achieve their entire agenda faster. Which goes to show you what I keep telling you “Yes, they plan all these things, but we get a vote too. And these people have not thought of all the second, third, or even first order effects of their oh, so cunning plans.” Or if you prefer, not only aren’t they the sharpest tool in the shed, there’s reason to believe they might be a chocolate hammer.

But the point remains: the world suffered a massive injury, in ways the idiots planning the whole thing weren’t even aware would happen. And America specifically suffered a kick in the pants that removed the rest of the illusions we had about the left in this country. Even if most people are still trying to get back into their soft, warm illusions and close their eyes. It’s not possible, and they also know that at some level, which only makes them angrier.

The problem with this free floating, undirected because the legitimate targets are all too far from us, anger is that people can sense it. And some are even aware they’re tamping their own anger down.

And people can sense all this anger, this feeling of “say the wrong thing and everything blows up” and it turns to fear.

Heck, even those of us who think about the whole thing — overthink, as they’ve been telling me since I was 3 or so — are afraid, at a more rational level. Because the whole analogy of the lever (on the left) and the button (on the right) is not wrong. The left thinks of violence as a tool they use to get what they want. Sane people think of violence as a last resort thing. Which means if you use it…. it’s your last resort. This is why Americans are usually slow to wars and then finish them (when not held in check by the left, who again, think it’s a tool.)

The problem is that there is all this anger. If the button gets pushed, the anger is going to feed into the whole thing. Which means chances of its being restricted, or even hitting the legitimate targets then turning off are zero. Or less than that. This won’t be “We get rid of those holding us down, then we are done.” This will be “We get rid of those holding us down, then the traffic cop who gave me an unjust ticket, then the football player who hit my guy too hard, then the guy in the coffee shop who was rude to me, then the guy who looked at me funny, then this guy who did nothing, but my hand hurts from killing so many people.” Which is why some of us are trying to hold it back, unless it becomes absolutely necessary (and alas it might) because we’re talking of Madame Guillotine and her insatiable hunger. And you know, sure, that was a proto-communist revolution, but it was also the payback of centuries of oppression, disparagement and mistreatment by a tiny minority. The anger was there. If you want to know how out of control it burned, you should read about it. People went to the guillotine because a neighbor thought they were too stingy with the potatoes served at the potluck and no, not joking.

Yes, maybe Americans will be different. We are in so many things. I still have to wonder what’s in the heads of the people streaming in. I know what’s in the heads of those bringing them in, and that’s that they’re creating their own private army. But that’s not how any of this works. If the restive population turns (so much rides on the elections. And no, the idiots have no clue) at the very minimum everyone who sticks out will be in danger. (As someone with a noticeable accent, ask how happy this makes me.) This is likely to be worldwide, which is why I tell you it’s a really bad idea to move somewhere you’ll stick out. But in the US we’re not used to it, and in addition to the sheer mess it will be, there will be recovering after, and dealing with what happened and the scars it leaves.

This is just to give an idea of the legitimate fear most people who think and can see past the next week are living with. Then there’s the free floating fear because we sense the anger, ours and others, and don’t know when it will blow up. And then there’s the fear and anger occasioned by knowing that our institutions and most of our press are in the hands of psychopaths, who’d as soon look at us as fillet us for breakfast.

Yesterday in a group fear was brought up, and Cedar — who some of you know has a … complex and not easy history, i.e. she’s a survivor of things most of us would have been destroyed by — said “you know what comes after fear? I come after fear.”

And I realized suddenly and clearly that this applies to me too. I am what’s here, after fear. After doing things that literally felt as though they’d kill me. Things that probably killed a lot of me.

Let me explain: I always laugh when I get called a happy warrior, for the same reason I always laugh when I get called an optimist. I can see how people get that idea, but what they’re looking at is not what I am naturally, nor what I started out with. It’s what came after. After the fear, after the trials, after doing things that I thought were impossible. After thinking I would die in all meaningful ways if– And then the if happened, and we survived. Something died, but something survived. Which one was really me is a good question. But a philosophical one. I’m still here. I came after the fear.

I don’t have the kind of background Cedar had. I had my own trials, some of them severe, but it’s not my story to tell, and a lot of it has to do with when and were I lived at the time.

However, by the time I was an adult, I was so conflict avoidant and agreeable that most people had absolutely no idea what I really thought. All the groups in college claimed me, including the communists, who were convinced I was really, secretly, a sympathizer. (I kept my hooliganism away from the college, because I could endure physical confrontation. Had learned not to flinch from it years before, but I could not endure even mild conflict with people I’d have to see every day.) Mostly I smiled and slid out from under any mildly threatening argument/issue. And, like now, I hated traveling. I hated being among strangers. I hated having to make new connections.

Marrying Dan was the first time I lost my mind. And it wasn’t my fault. When he proposed, I saw very clearly that it would mean losing all my connections; going to a place where my laboriously acquired and very impressive credentials meant nothing; a place where I’d always sound funny. Now, I loved the US, and at the time I had an offer for an assistantship at an ivy league and had been accepted for a doctoral program. But I’ll be absolutely honest, if I hadn’t fallen in love with Dan, the other factors would probably have meant I’d never actually leap. I’d probably still be putting off from year to year coming over, even as way after way offered itself.

However I did love Dan (still do that) and it was stark and clear to me that if I didn’t marry him I’d regret it the rest of my life. The connections and credentials thing was just the price. And sometimes the price must be paid.

So, I came over with a little suitcase and burned all my savings-to-date on the plane ticket. And survived. Then survived acculturating, which sometimes quite literally felt like I was falling to pieces/going crazy, as all the fundamental assumptions of who and what I was and my place in the world were questioned and broken and rebuilt.

And after years of not finding work, or finding work I hated with my whole heart, we had a kid, and I didn’t want anyone else to raise him, so the whole “get serious about writing” thing came up, and Dan said it was time. I’d been writing the whole time, just you know, never expecting to break in, or expecting it to make much money. I had job(s) for that. The writing was just something I had to do and it happened on weekends and evenings if we had time. I won’t say that trying, really trying, wasn’t scary. I mean, it was. But mostly I never expected to succeed.

Oh, and along the line there were other things that genuinely terrified me. We moved twice, once across this vast country, away from all the friends, family and familiar things and places we had. Those weren’t as scary as moving across the ocean, but they weren’t easy, particularly since we had no one to advise us or organize us or even help, so it felt like we were inventing the entire process on our own, as we went along. Oh, the same for looking after the kid and all the financial and other upheavals. None of it was as scary as moving and acculturating. None felt like I would die from doing it.

The only thing that came close was publishing. Particularly once I figured out (pretty much instantly. I have ears and used to hear very well, including conversations across the room) that anyone to the right of Lenin was persona non grata and considered practically a Nazi. (Which let me tel you was a weird experience for a libertarian.) Because I saw them drop people for saying the wrong thing, or not saying the expected thing, and since I didn’t know that indie would be a thing, I knew if I were dropped and cancelled and blacklisted, it would end up being all publishers (depending on the reason, to be sure) and then I knew I’d die.

Spoiler: I didn’t die. It was unpleasant, but I didn’t die. No matter how many years I’d been terrified of it.

And then there’s this blog, and coming out politically. Which of course, this blog wasn’t supposed to do. It was supposed to be a publicity vehicle. I was supposed to write cute little things about my daily life, and what I was writing, and–

Yeah. At some point I … okay, I can’t explain it, but I had to come out politically. I just had to. For one, I couldn’t continue down the path of staying quiet and letting them assume I agreed, much less affirm the crazy and evil things I knew were crazy and evil. I could literally see the point at which I’d lose my soul. And as much as I love writing, and as much as being published is needed for that, because writing is communication, so of course you want to be read, I couldn’t go on without becoming unable to look at myself in the mirror.

That felt like dying. 

My few, in retrospect rather timid posts in this blog horrified me and terrified me. I usually had to show it to three or four friends/friendly acquaintances before I had the nerve to press publish.

As things got fraught, and I started to take attacks from the left (and sometimes the crazier right) a lot of them bizarre and out of nowhere and claiming things I couldn’t understand (irrationality scares me more than just about anything else) how they’d come to think, it felt a lot like dying. The impulse of the still very conflict averse and agreeable person within was to shut up and go away. Only I couldn’t. So I didn’t. Even when keeping going felt like coming apart and dying.

Does it still feel that way? Not most of the time. Not unless I personally care or at least like the person I’m arguing/fighting with. And that’s not very common.

It’s still not pleasant, but scar tissue — though less flexible than unscarred skin — is less sensitive. It doesn’t hurt as badly, and it’s not scary. Even knowing the enemy lists I’m on is not scary, though to be fair that never was. There’s prices to pay and you pay the price and there’s no reason to be afraid of it, no matter how bad. It was the emotional confrontation that terrified me. (And no, I can’t explain that. Maybe I’m naturally snow-flakish?)

The life I wanted, what I thought I was setting out to, was being a reclusive fiction writer, who wrote my little stories, and sold them, and made enough to justify not having another job. And no one ever knew my politics or how I felt about things.

That dream — that person — died somewhere along the line. The fear died too. THAT fear at least.

And I’m still here.

There is life after the fear. Like Cedar, and perhaps with less justification, and in completely different circumstances, I am what comes after the fear.

I just thought you should know. The fear, itself, and the thing that causes the fear, even when the fear is justifiable, and thing horrible — like being cancelled from one’s life-long avocation — are survivable. It’s possible to stand after the fear.

And maybe the anger if it explodes will burn itself quickly — we are American anyway, and therefore unpredictable — and maybe — well I was vouchsafed a certainty it would be so — the Republic is ideal or closer to ideal on the other side.

But we have to face whatever comes, and we have to know that we can get through it. We can get through the fear and the anger. And we have to have hope. Doomerism never solved anything. And doomerism has never been right either. Yes, in certain times and places thing have gotten and will get very bad indeed. But the ultimate defeat of the forces of good hasn’t ever happened. And communism, the particular hobgoblin we’re facing, has never triumphed anywhere. And no — hattip to Don Surber — I don’t think it will be seventy years. Seventy years is what it lasts with external support. We supported the USSR in many ways, financial and not. Even if we were to go full stupid, there is no one with enough resources to support us. There isn’t a USA to support the USA should the USA suddenly go non productive and idiotic. The limit on that seems to be closer to 14 years. Maybe less.The Nazis lasted that long because there were countries they could invade and whose resources could support them. Again, there isn’t a country vast enough and rich enough to support us. We could invade half the world, and it would just cost us more resources.

All totalitarian regimes are warmongering. They have to be. It’s how they survive. But we can’t get anything by wars, except expense. The math doesn’t work. 14 years. Maybe less.

And yes — like Don Surber — at my age that’s likely my remaining life. Or more. But history doesn’t move at human pace. it moves at the pace of large groups of people. Which means, slow and stupid. On our side — and against us, both — is the fact the left by and large is older than us (their young are both stupid and by and large ineffective) which is part of the reason they’re so desperate to “win.” And why each misfire drives them nuttier. Which means they’re likely to get even crazier than locking down the whole world to steal an election. Which means this might be over earlier, just extremely ugly. There is probably no way to avoid the extremely ugly.

But there is a reason to stoically accept the fear, trust we’ll be here when it’s gone. And to not let the fear fuel the anger, and not let the anger burn out of control. Yes, it’s possible they’ll do something so monumentally stupid it all collapses without the anger getting its say. (That is something else to contemplate, because what happens to all that anger then? I don’t know.) And we can hope and pray for that. But if the anger must be let out, let’s try to keep it small and targeted, and effective. (And no, this isn’t a call for violence, Fed the Fred. It’s a call for hoping it doesn’t come to pass. And if it DOES, to keep it as targeted and small as it can possibly be.)

Don’t be ruled by anger and fear. If I hadn’t been so conflict avoidant from the beginning, my career would have been completely different and possibly much better. And perhaps the anger wouldn’t have built up, and I wouldn’t have ended up out of the political closet. I think I am where I’m supposed to be.

But in general, and in group movements letting your fear and your anger decide what you do is bad. And leads to bad things.

So, have hope. Doom is not coming. Something like it might come, but it won’t be doom. Not THAT doom at least. And even if it did, we’d survive. Or our children/grandchildren/young people in our nation would/will.

Waste no time on fear. What will happen will happen. And we’ll come after the fear.

In a way, we won’t be us — trust me on this — what we are will die in the conflagration anyway. But we’ll become what we have to be. And what we have to be — as individuals, as a nation, as a civilization — has a good chance of being better. And it will go on.

Be not afraid.

187 thoughts on “What comes After Fear”

  1. For me it’s what comes after the fear and with the pain. They aren’t particularly linked but they’re not separate either. I’m not talking about fear of pain either. Though fear IS a pain.
    Both experiences are equally molding.

    Did I just drink too much caffeine?

    Liked by 1 person

  2. RE: Solved without anger release –

    I think that would turn out fine. Anger and frustration will decline naturally over time if they’re not being constantly fed. Turn off the heat beneath the pressure cooker, and the pressure will reduce as the cooker cools. The explosion is averted.

    Or at least that’s my thinking.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. We can also laugh at the idiocy.

        Humor is depressurizing.

        Sure, it is like laughing at a train wreck, or the short bus. So?

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    2. But that’s not how they’re wired. If the actions called for by their Great And Infallible Wisdom are not producing the desired results, that just means they’re not doing them enough. They must keep doing the same things, only cranked up to 11.

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      1. I was explicitly responding to an hypothetical in the post above. Ergo, whether or not it’s likely or even possible is irrelevant.

        And I do think it’s possible. It might be difficult, and divine intervention might be required. But the positive always has a chance. Once upon a time, we thought that the only way the Iron Curtain would be ruled back was through a violent world war.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. If they do something that’s so monumentally, visibly stupid that their whole agenda falls apart it will probably wash the anger away in laughter. Remember “Let’s go, Brandon!”? Crank the laughter that greeted that to eleven. If then some of them go kinetic it doesn’t lead to the sort of witch hunt Sarah noted, because we’ll be primarily in defense mode; the perps get hammered, but no one goes looking for scapegoats. Anyway, we can hope.

          Liked by 1 person

    3. That “build under, over, around” and such… includes safety valves.
      If we are fortunate, they are being installed fast enough and will work good enough.
      Though realize that sometime the ‘safety’ is still deadly.
      Steam locomotives eventually had a “safety” system.. that kept a boiler from killing the passengers. The crew survival was… unlikely.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Yes, even the best case scenarios end with bad things happening to good people. Good might eventually come out of 1/6, but a lot of good people will suffer in the meantime.

        It’s the way that things are.

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  3. The wife was reading me a fairly innocuous piece from the Daily Mail yesterday and I just blew up. Kill ‘em all, God will know his own and all that. She let me know in no uncertain terms that that was not acceptable and that I’ve been condemning all and sundry too much for too long. Really rocked me that did, the anger is just ….. there. The effect my anger was having on others though, that I didn’t realize.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. I concluded long ago that a cynic is an optimist by nature and a realist by sad experience. Maybe we need a few scars.

    I don’t know what sort of words of support I could offer without freaking you out. But we’re all with you. We’re not expecting, demanding, or even hoping for perfection. We’d like you to be you, to do the good that you do. And, okay, maybe that is a lot.

    Liked by 1 person

          1. Condolences. City water or well? Either way, the supply line should be below the frost line; at least 18″ deep in most places, more in places like Fargo. Or Nome. ;-)
            Anyway, best of luck on getting it fixed.

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            2. When they were burying the power lines into the house, I was told that the safe burying depth here is FOUR FEET. (The power lines aren’t that deep; they don’t freeze.) I find that difficult to believe; I haven’t tried to confirm it.

              They’re redoing the water and sewer on my street (and the street, itself, too). They’re not four feet down. I’d guestimate about two.

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              1. I suspect the power line depth requirement is for safety; wouldn’t want to cut them with a shovel. ;-)

                That said, was it 4′ for the power lines, or for the water? Seems excessive for water, even if you live in central Alaska.

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      2. Ouch.

        We had something similar mid-’90s. “Why is there six inches of water between the house and the Giant Sequoias?” Because the Sequoias broke the PVC water line that went under them. Water turned off. Got lucky in that the sewer lines had been completed down our street. We had a year to connect. Water line break moved that time table up to “immediately”. Plus, for reasons, the total cost, including the property assessment of the sewer itself, was interest free. Adding a rerouted copper water line into those costs, was minimal VS if that was all we were doing (didn’t increase the digging or other costs that had to be done for the sewer line connect anyway). Plus we got to the contractors and got on the docket quickly. Limited time without water.

        Similar less drastic situation with hubby and I. I didn’t change countries. But I did scale back my dreams. Including a horse (sounds petty). Wouldn’t change my decision one iota. Do I wish I could have stayed home with our son? Not really. I’d have gone nuts. We did what was best for him, first and foremost, and us secondarily. Meant passing up options. Meant giving up financial. Hubby gave up a lot of overtime, not an insubstantial dollar amount, to be able to coach teams, and do scouts. Hubby could do that, because I was bringing in income that could be saved (not lived on). Which is why we can do more than survive now.

        We’ve survived two forced transfers. One involved a move (company paid for the physical move). But left us with mortgage plus rent, eventually two mortgages, until a few years later when housing market allowed us to actually put it on the market and get it sold for at least what we paid for it. Since we’d turned into a rental we broke even financially, and slightly better on paper. But that is hindsight.

        Second forced transfer did not involve a household move. Put us into mortgage and rental situation again. At least this time the rental was for parking RV trailer, and was only triple what we paid to store the thing anyway, plus commuting fuel. My nerves for hubby driving up every Monday morning and home every Friday night? OMG. I didn’t breath until he checked in Monday night, and got home Friday night. We talked every night. Hubby went over math homework every night with son. Didn’t help that the reason they forced transferred him was because the office learned I wasn’t working. Figured he couldn’t say no. Weren’t wrong. But what they didn’t know was he was retiring the second he hit 55 years old, and 25 years working. Would have been difficult but we were ready for that to happen. That was 30 months. As it turned out he was transferred back at 18 months. I did have a job 5 months after he was forced transferred but the income wasn’t enough to make bills without his income. I hated being a single, not single, parent. He hated being gone.

        One thing that we both agree on is OMG retiring is the best. We are not dependent on anyone. If things go to heck financially everyone is going to be in the same boat. It is something we have little control over. If things blow, not like we are going to be anywhere there are demonstrations. What happens will happen.

        We’ve raised our son. He is a good man. Wish he’d find someone to share it with. But it is his life to live. Not ours.

        Oh. I expect to live more than 14 years more. Mom is 89 and going strong. That is at least another 22+ years.

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  5. For surviving fear, I suggest a blanket.

    …Yes, I’m serious. I got through a heck of a lot having a warm blanket, or five, so that at least when I could sleep I was warm. (There was a significant stretch of time, most of a year, when I was running on 2 to 5 hours of sleep a night. That nearly did kill me.)

    Just got a couple more to have more reliably warm feet (I toss and turn a lot), and it helps.

    Warm blanket to get as much sleep as you can, when you can, and it gives you that much of an edge to deal with all the rest of the craziness.

    …You can also hide under it. And again, I’m serious. Sometimes the sane thing is to take a few minutes (or hours, or all night) and just hide under the blankets pretending the rest of the world doesn’t exist.

    Because there is a lot of fear and anger out there, and… yeah. Not good.

    Liked by 2 people

      2. I offer the inspiring example of Colonel Abraham Davenport, serving in the Connecticut legislature during the Dark Day, where a piece of paper at arm’s length could not be seen without artificial lighting:

        “I am against an adjournment. The day of judgment is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause of an adjournment: if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought.”

        Liked by 1 person

    3. (Looks at Army issue “poncho liner”/”woobie” at foot of bed)

      (Looks at extra warm wool camp blanket on bed)

      Yup.

      Good sleep is essential. Do whatever you must to get good sleep.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Lordy, this resonates.
    I, too, feel there’s a lot of anger out there. Maybe that explains the utterly nasty, utterly stupid crap pouring out of some Trump supporters on X. “You DeSimps are stupid! Hope you cry harder!” Yes, there’s nastiness on both sides. Maybe we all remember we’re supposed to close together after primary season behind the nominee? Instead of alienating potential allies and making the fraud more plausible to carry out?
    Meanwhile, I got a note today from a class instructor that since she’s at high risk for Wuflu she will be wearing a KN95 mask and hopes we will wear N95s to protect her and her family, who she will be visiting after the class. Part of me wants to reply, “Honey, the only thing that mask is gonna do is make you feel better, and give you a probably false sense of security.” OTOH, since it’s a dye class, and the mask might actually work at keeping out the dye particles, well it probably does make sense during class hours. Afterwards…well. That’s another story.
    And just to make life exciting (not) we just got the word to boil all our water until further notice. Oh, goody. Espegiven how low the flow is and how long it takes to get water. And the weather is forecast to be below freezing until Sunday.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I think, and saw it in 2016 a lot of “trump supporters” are actually “Russian operatives” or perhaps Chinese, but the syntax was Russian if you dug down.
      Because REAL Trump supporters were not anti-semitic or racist. But remember how all blogs were infested with racist, anti-semitic “Trump supporters.”
      Here wasn’t, because I blocked Russian IPs way back. Again, think on it. They did try to cause strife “on both sides” but really they always work better with the left because they buy it.
      I bet you most of the vocal and crazy Trump supporters on Twittex are foreign operatives. They’re just not as racist/antisemites as they were in 2016, because it’s not credible now. But yeah..

      Like

      1. One is quite good when it comes to animal rescues. He’s in Florida, though, and he seems to feel betrayed by DeSantis running for President. That brings out the ugly.
        Then there’s Posobiec, who was actually referring to Trump as, “daddy.” I unfollowed because he was skirting the edge of antisemitism. And come to think of it, he has a somewhat high opinion of Russia.

        Like

        1. A lot of people in FL do feel betrayed. not all. But he did promise to finish his term.
          BUT a lot of the ones I see on twitter seem to be Russian. NOT that they say they are, but I’ve gotten pretty good at the feel.

          Like

        2. DeSantis has done some very good things. Punching through the red tape to get Americans out of the way of harm in Israel (which makes the IDFs job easier) demonstrated that he can do better as a governor and private citizen than Biden can as President with the entire U.S. government. Which just reinforces the fact that Biden is the absolute worst President in the history of this country. Makes Franklin Peirce look like a decisive genius.

          Like

      3. Quite a while back, Neoneocon also commented on how many IPs she was seeing from odd locations. While I don’t remember how explicit she was in saying it, the meaning was pretty clear.

        Like

    2. Yeah, part of my joy this week has been defrosting the quail water and watering them with liquid water twice a day. On top of the water in the basement, of course….

      Like

      1. I enjoy caring for the strays at the new place (someone clearly put the sucker signal up over the house. Chamomile brought me a fifth mouth last night) more than I ever did reading news.

        Like

        2. Sucker signal lives over our house too. OTOH it hangs over multiple neighbors houses too. So I have to trip over them (how we got Thump) on my own. Hubby brought in the last one. Inlaws the one before that.

          Liked by 1 person

    3. Whereas I’ve been seeing it from the other direction.

      I’m not married to Trump; I started out as a Cruz guy. But I’m sitting there gobsmacked as to why these people seem to think that DeSantis isn’t going to hit the same issues with personnel (recruitment in the face of organized intimidation, background checks by the CoupBI), a Congress that’s mostly UniParty, and endless invented nonsense.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. The Reader subscribes to Heinlein’s view. Determine who / what to vote against and stick with voting against it. The Reader has followed that premise in every election he has ever voted in.

        Liked by 1 person

        2. That’s pretty much where I’m at. I know what I will NOT under any circumstances vote for, and so I vote for whoever/whatever will most effectively oppose it.

          Like

      2. I think most of them do realize it, but they’re hoping DeSantis will just have less baggage to defend.
        The real question (aside from artificial promotion) is why anyone would think Haley isn’t going to deflate like a balloon if by some miracle she got the nomination. Right now wishful thinkers noting she’s getting votes from Democrats can blither, “She’s getting bi-partisan support! Exactly who we need to Heal Our National Divide!”
        Then they’ll be shocked, shocked I tell you when all those Democrats vote lockstep for Brandon.

        Like

        1. “they’re hoping DeSantis will just have less baggage to defend.”

          Like the vast majority of Trump’s “baggage ” isn’t horribly exaggerated or completely made up by their propane arm.

          Like

          1. Yep. Again, I have to wonder where they were for Romney. or McCain. Seriously. if they can’t find it, they make it up. At least with Trump, 99 percent of it is obviously BS.
            BUT if they can convince people that a man with a Jewish daughter and Jewish grandchildren is a raging anti-Semite (I know people thus convinced) what can they convince them about anyone else?

            Like

        2. DeSantis only APPEARS to have less baggage to defend. If he becomes the GOP candidate, everything that’s been aimed at Trump will be aimed at him. And unfortunately, as good as DeSantis appears, I don’t think he has the fortitude to hold up under sustained fire that Trump has displayed.

          Liked by 1 person

          2. Wait a minute. President Trump is in the basement because he attends MIL funeral? Has to attend court hearings during the day, then flies out for campaign engagements, then flies back for court the next day, only to repeat the process? What are they blind? President Trump isn’t ever not in front of cameras, one way or another. Except funerals. That would be tacky.

            Agree. Whatever they are throwing at President Trump, they will throw at any other potential other GOP general candidate. None of the other options can state what Trump can about having Jewish child, SIL, and grandchildren. Let alone all Trump’s dirty laundry is in the full and bright sunshine and already proven to be BS spewed by his enemies. Doesn’t stop the moron slimes from repeating the BS.

            Like

      3. So did I. In all of my years of voting (45 years now), the only time that I voted for someone that I actually WANTED in a primary was 2016. Every other primary, the candidate had dropped out before it got around to Arizona. (Okay, I can’t count 1984; Reagan really had no opposition. In 1980, I was young, stupid, and didn’t get my absentee ballot application in from New Hampshire.)

        Like

    4. We went through the ‘no water’ and then ‘boil all tap water’ a couple of years ago in Snowmaggeddon ’21. At least this time around, there hasn’t been a foot of snow in South Texas, and the power has held steady. Which is reassuring – just about all my neighbors were expecting the worst. Another hard freeze for a couple more days is expected this weekend, so – still cause for concern.
      There is a lot of free-range anger out there, I would agree. Remember all those videos of brawls breaking out in fast food places, and reports of really awful and fatal road rage incidents. A lot of people are just one more little life frustration away from yielding to it.

      Whatever happens with the new version of the Commie Crud – I will not wear a mask again. Full stop. Or get some hastily rung-up clot shot, on the say-so of health authorities who shot every bit of credibility they had over the last few years.

      Like

  7. After surviving, or at least being in remission from two cancers, all the illegitimi can do is send me home.

    And Jesus, as he was on the cross, prayed “Father forgive them…” about the people murdering Him. He didn’t enjoy the experience; but He looked forward to the reward.

    In a similar way we go to work each week expecting a paycheck. And we’ll either get through this or not; but we’ll be there, standing in the gap, as long as we can stand, for those we love.

    God bless us every one.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. I’m seeing more headlines of fairly young celebrities and athletes dying of Suddenly.

    And my first question is always “How many COVID boosters?”

    Also, how many ‘nobodies’ are dying without making the news at all?

    Our own Publick Health Authoriteez are killing people through either incompetence or malice, and will never face any sort of punishment. Fauxi still denies paying the communist Chinese to make the virus. Still getting millions of dollars from the shots that are killing people.

    The question is not “Are you angry?” but “Are you angry enough?”

    Liked by 1 person

    2. The deaths aren’t a bug. They’re a feature. The Biden backers are all solid Davosi and they want a smaller and more easily controlled global population.

      Like

      1. But the idiots are killing off their own sheep, rather than their enemies. It would be funny if it wasn’t so appalling.

        Dare we hope some of the Davosites drank their own kool-aid, and will be kicking the bucket?

        Liked by 1 person

          1. Most* folk-lore vampires just do their thing to survive. They’re more forces of nature than truly evil in the way that some of the Davos crowd seem to be.

            *Not all. Interestingly, burials of “vampires” or where bodies have been staked or dismembered to prevent vampire-ism go back to the Neolithic. Make of it what you will.

            Like

            1. I’ve seen references to staking evil spirits – and not just vampires – in other sources. Often, though not always, the shadow is involved.

              Like

                2. Well, generally, you’re looking for shadows that are in the wrong direction. So they’re easy to spot if you know what you look for, but not something that people typically pay attention to.

                  Like

      2. The idiot morons don’t realize that if they get the 500 million population they so desire, those half a billion will end up living in a total shithole after they kill everyone who keeps the lights on and picks up the trash.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Reminds me of the miniseries ‘Tin Man’. The Wicked Witch wanted to block out the sun to increase her power. Not having any scientific knowledge, she didn’t realize that eternal darkness also meant eternal, cryogenic cold. The plants would die, all the water would freeze, then the carbon dioxide, and then the nitrogen and oxygen in the air would condense and eventually freeze too.

          I would have told her, “As the most powerful being in that world, you’d be the last one to freeze to death.”

          Liked by 1 person

  9. They can’t see beyond destroying their enemies, they really can’t. They are blind to the anger, they think it is astroturf like their own. They feel they are just this close, so they won’t give up. The Davosise don’t realize how hard it is for their own pilots not to crash their planes, trains, and EV limos. Or how much that cute little stewardess they just pinched wants to poison their drinks with eye drops. To para phrase a very bad old movie it’s coming to a head, like a giant zit and no amount of zit cream is going to stop it from popping. Because no matter what, they can’t stop squeezing. Whatever happens, they brought it onto themselves, how bad it gets depends on how much they keep squeezing before it pops.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I think it will play out like this:

      The steps of dealing with the elite totalitarian global left
      1. They weasel their way into organizations and we don’t notice.
      2. They start making those organizations do stupid shit, and we go eh, that’s stupid.
      3. They begin making demands that we agree with what they say. We don’t say anything.
      4. They begin hurting people for not saying what they demand. We say, privately um that’s not right.
      5. They begin jailing people for not agreeing. We start getting pissed.
      6. They continue their demands and we say “Go Fuck Yourself!!” <– we are here.
      7. They actively attack those who disagree. It’s on.
      8. We separate the elites necks from their bodies.

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  10. Right now is a lot of anger and frustration in general and in specific.
    I have to remind myself that I can’t lose my temper. Or do something stupid.
    And find joy where I can.
    Sadly, there’s not a lot of joy to be had in my life these days…

    Liked by 1 person

      1. The SI thing is particularly interesting. Apparently the company that owns the trademark had licensed it put. And the licensee stopped paying the license fee. So the owner took the trademark back.

        We might see it back before long, hopefully under wiser (read: non-partisan) management.

        Like

        1. Nah.

          Most “use of rights” contracts include terms of “Don’t crap it up or I can revoke”.

          If the SI owners objected to the malarkey, they would have sent lawyers to harrumph at the renters for “damaging the brand”.

          They did not.

          Either they thought the strategy was a moneymaker, or they didn’t care. Do not expect better this time. They revoked for non-payment, not for ass-hattery.

          Like

      2. I’m thinking that is not a bad thing. Especially considering that ESPN is starting to look like yet another disaster for Disney. And how the sportsball market is starting to go crazy as well.
        My hope is that we finally hit that pain threshold where the idiots are shown the door and maybe some sanity can rule.
        But I’m not optimistic.

        Like

        1. The Sports Illustrated trademark is owned by another company, and apparently the company currently licensing it missed one or more licensing payments. As a result, the license has been suspended.

          So yes, EVERYBODY. They’re literally not allowed to publish the magazine anymore, so there’s no reason to keep any of the employees on staff.

          Like

          1. Unfortunately, somebody’s going to pony up for the brand rights — the trademark owner is “committed to keeping the storied brand alive” — so it’ll be back, and probably not any better. (I did a bit of reading last night.)

            But in the meantime, all those “journalists” are unemployed. That’s worth a small celebration in itself.

            Like

            1. Someone might very well do so. But unless there’s a marked improvement in content immediately out of the gate, it won’t matter. Some rich prog can come along, license it, hire a bunch of staff, and start producing new issues that have transwomen on every cover. But people aren’t going to buy that in numbers sufficient to keep it afloat. So the only real result will be to waste some rich prog’s money.

              Which is fine by me.

              Like

  11. Doom is coming.
    But not for us.
    We’ll face trials. (In some cases, literally.) But we aren’t the ones with the hubris to deny God and reality.

    Hemingway was a ratbastardcommunist, but he nailed it when he wrote, “Life breaks everyone. And some are stronger in the broken places.”

    Liked by 1 person

  12. And on a not so bad note of ‘Get Woke, Go Broke’ Sports Illustrated just laid off everybody, The Waaaa Po and La Slimes are both losing millions a year and firing/laying off people left and right. I would cry me some crocodile tears if I wasn’t laughing so hard, who knew overweight women in bikinis and tranny’s wouldn’t sell? No really, please, you can stop any time now.

    Liked by 1 person

        1. “Ah yes. You finally discovered my plan Mr. Bond. I’m going to set off a nuke in Davos and wipe out the entire controlling class of the world with one fell swoop. Then the masses of the world would proclaim me their new savior and cede full control to me.”

          “That’s diabolical, and you stand a good chance of succeeding. Unless someone stops you.”

          “You, Mr. Bond? With no weapons, naked, and chained? I think not.”

          Burst of machine gun fire and Bond’s body is riddled with bullet holes.

          “Dismember the body and put the pieces in that sack while I’m watching. I’m not making the same mistake those other dolts did and turning my back on James Bond until I’m positive he’s dead.”

          Like

          1. He already made the first mistake by being induced to stand around telling Bond his plan.

            Don’t tell him stories. Just frelling shoot the guy, ferheavensake.

            I mean, I like Sean Connery as much as the next moviegoer, but really.

            Like

              1. Carpapult loaded. Aiming verified. Twaaaaaaaaaang!

                (It was funny, but we have to follow tradition. :) )

                Like

            3. Agent X: “Before you kill me, why are…”

              BRRRRAAAAAAAP!!!!

              BRRRRRAAAAAPPP!!!

              (Carefully aimed headshot) BANG!

              Dr. Spite: “No.”

              BANG!

              “Commence the operation.”

              Liked by 1 person

        2. That Davos has not been Sodomized is an indicator that the good Lord wants us to deal with the problem ourselves.
          (Or that they are very carefully keeping ten innocents in town. Probably locked up. Under armed guard.)

          Liked by 2 people

          2. One Mk-61 set to mimunum yield. Just one. The F-22 was designed for the mission.

            Evil Geniuses For A Better Tomorrow ….

            Like

        3. They did get an aboriginal shaman (shawwoman?) to cough in all their faces. Maybe something will catch.

          And Re: A comment elsewhere on yhe page, I have a hunch that there’s a good bit of Sodomizing going on in Davos right about now.

          Which brings up a point I’ve been pondering for a while : why don’t we call it Gomorrahing?

          Liked by 1 person

          2. Gomorrahing: a highly infectious disease, causing death by circulatory collapse due to disintegration of all the blood vessels in the body. First instance observed in 202* when 99.9% of the attendees of the WEF in Davos contracted the illness and died from it.

            Like

  14. Fear left me long ago.

    It’s mostly allsotiresome.gif now. Weariness and annoyance that we have built a literal paradise on Earth, and idiots are going to burn it all down for various and sundry reasons.

    If they at least acknowledged that it was going to ruin everything I could respect their honesty. That they earnestly believe it’s all going to be perfected on the other side of the ashes just adds to the tiresomeness. It’s like watching someone try to shoot themselves convinced it will make them immortal.

    I literally have my grave reserved. There is nothing more to fear, just a dark laughing remains.

    Like

  15. This week Biden unwittingly (how else?) revealed the Democrats’ plans:

    “Are the airstrikes in Yemen working?”
    “No.”
    “Are you going to keep doing them?”
    “Yes.”

    That’s it. If something doesn’t work, keep doing it. Because they’d rather waste trillions of dollars on stupid useless shit than ever once admit they were wrong. Why not? They don’t have to pay for it.
    ———————————
    If a business tries something and it doesn’t work, they either stop doing it or they will go broke. If the government tries something that doesn’t work, they just keep shoveling our money into it forever.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Can I be something else
    And hide from day to day?
    Can I watch as sanity melts
    And reality seems to fray?

    Grounded in unchanging seasons
    Tossed by unseen foes
    I spin together all the reasons
    And gather all the woes.

    I weave them all together
    In truth’s fine warp and weft
    And tie it to a feather
    That hope’s bright bird has left.

    A fancy and a dreaming
    Shimmer in the cloth
    But truth’s bright hope is gleaming
    When reason says all is lost.

    Fear cloaks souls in shadow
    And anger drives them mad,
    But hope’s bright light can scatter
    The terror that they had.

    So do not hide your dreaming
    Do not cloak your soul.
    The truth is more than seeming
    And hope much more than goals.

    Liked by 2 people

    2. Been a while since I saw one of these. Truly wonderful to see one more of the same.

      Hope, true hope and not the fear disguised as “I hope it won’t…” or some other brass-sovereign, tin-shilling counterfeit, is more than a virtue, more than a thing to cling to, more than a subtle gift of grace.

      It is a skill, and it can be practiced; and that is a practice. (Otherwise called, making sure you feed the right wolf.)

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I’ve been writing, but trying not to spam the blog with them. This one gave me the “Now look here. Write. Post. NOW.” treatment. When they’re that mouthy I try really hard not to argue.

        Liked by 1 person

  17. What kind of psychopath goes to a con to be disagreeable or hostile to an author?

    I don’t know that I’d call the Davosi anything nice like a chocolate hammer. More like cheap mud (or cow) pie hammers with a rope handle.

    Speaking of illegal aliens and private armies; if this goes hot and TPTB try to use those Chinese illegals, or China does so, it’s going to be a nightmare for every person in America with Asian, Pacific Islander, or even Native American ancestry who looks even a smidgen oriental.

    Sarah teaching in an Ivy League college? The mind boggles. Dan was infinitely the better choice.

    I consider all enemies lists I’m on as medals of commendation. I’m doing something right because they’re terrified of me. And governments are supposed to be terrified of the people, not the other way around.

    I don’t think the Dems will succeed in removing Trump from the ballots. Their convictions on trumped up charges will continue backfire. I think the Dems are going to try the massive fraud again this year; and if they succeed with the fraud, I think that’s going to touch off a violent retaliation against those who perpetrated it, at all levels. However, they might just try to off Trump; and that would be just as bad, because unbeknownst to the Left, Trump is actually holding back the anger and violence by being a beacon of hope. Which is weird, since I damn sure don’t think of Trump as a messianic type.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I read somewhere that Trump wasn’t our last hope — he was the last hope of the Deep State that they wouldn’t end up choking the Potomac River with their bodies. He was our last shot over the bows.

      Like

        1. The Lefts winning move was to yawn and say “Him again? Okay. Easy peasy.” And then double down on frustrating and sabotaging 2nd term. Focus on blocking any judge nominations, and whisper rumors. Avoid drama, avoid direct fights, just be obstinate. Let Trump be the “combative hysteric” while maintaining poker face.

          Don’t give Trump something he can punch. Give him endless oatmeal. Splorch! Another mess caused by his style. Meanwhile. 15 other shitty little tricks to keep him angry and busy.

          They got him to go along with freaking “covidiacy”, and that was a freak event. There will be a deliberate diversion for term 2.

          But their “deliberate” is often highly dysfunctional, so how he handles the next “weird/freak” is key.

          Trump probably “wins” but doesn’t get as much actually done if the Donks use an oatmeal strategy.

          But they like “fighting”, and want his scalp, so they probably F it up.

          Like

          2. I don’t think that would have been even possible for them. They’re temperamentally incapable of accepting any setback; every hill is the one to die on (figuratively, of course; actual blood, if it’s theirs and not their victims’, would have them fainting, or puking up every meal they’d had for a month).

            Probably as well that they’re ignorant of most history; they might read Sun Tzu or von Clausewitz and learn something about effective tactics and strategy.

            Like

          4. Megan Kelly was the first pundit I saw openly say “either Trump wins or he dies in prison.”

            If they martyr him, bar the doors, as a martyr he’ll be a rallying call for what comes after Trump.

            The left are idiot toddlers playing with a flamethrower in a pool of gasoline.

            Liked by 1 person

    2. > Sarah teaching in an Ivy League college?

      [visualizes alternate-timeline Sarah chaining the doors shut and setting fire to the faculty building during a meeting]

      Liked by 1 person

  18. What classic writer apologized for the length of his letter, saying he didn’t have time to write a shorter one? Could have been you…

    Like

    1. Dunno about that one, but it was Mark Twain who claimed that writing was easy. You only had to cross out the wrong words.

      Like

    2. Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.

      Blaise Pascal, 1657

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        1. Not the point. And not a classic writer. My husband’s favorite mathematician.
          I just get tired of “Gee, you sure write long.”
          Yeah. and sometimes longer than others. If I took the time to cut, I’d do a post a week.

          Like

  19. The thing about “the aging left’s last chance” resonated for me – Here in the Valley of Silicon, if you have hair as grey as mine and don’t own a venture cap fund, you don’t get to work in Tech. Sure sometimes there are consulting gigs when the kids can’t figure things out, but they don’t make the grey-hairs permanent, no matter what the Feds say about “age discrimination”.

    And I’m on the trailing edge of the Boomer definition, though I reject the stupid definition that includes me in with 1946 babies.

    Not kvetching, it just is. I’m happy to have cubical-land behind me.

    So given that environment, the boomer libs are hitting that age-out wall or already out the door all across Tech, probably a bit less so but still teh case all across the country. They are mostly signed up for Medicare, so not in the health insurance marketplaces annymore, and likely started taking SocSec. They can see their influence and control waning. They hear “Okay Boomer” more and more where they try and tell people what they need to do. The C19 thing gave them a chance to complain to the manager more for a bit, but the backlash makes them walking around in the grocery store wearing their two masks a laughingstock.

    They feel old.

    So this time around could very well be their last shot, and here’s DJT, note from solidly in the boomer generation, coming back strong despite all the stuff they’ve been throwing at him, and beating Brandon like he’s a mule rented from Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the publicly reported polling, which means you know the internals are way worse.

    Their guy is losing, their influence if fading, and the kids on that side just want to light everything on fire.

    So this is it. Last throw of the boomer lefty’s dice.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Medicare D (prescriptions) was horrible enough that I opted out. Last I looked, if I wanted to start, I’d have to go back to Day 1 and pay all the old fees before I could enroll. Nope. The meds I’m on are generic, not the latest and greatest, but they work. And I can afford them.

        Like

        1. We are on medicare advantage ($0/monthly co-pay) which covers prescriptions at various schedules, and has a limit that neither of us has hit, yet. Unfortunately, apparently, none of the diabetes 2 drugs (not there yet). Currently the insurance is paying most of our prescriptions (only about 1/3 of the rosesa medications, but can afford it). Whatever. Before medicare the retiree insurance prescription yearly limit was so low, and the 30 day copay VS just-pay-for-it 90 day “we don’t have prescription insurance”, that we didn’t bother. Seriously, 3 x 30 copay through insurance was 1.5 x higher than just paying for a 90 day supply under “we don’t have prescription insurance” discount (because pharmacy wasn’t billing insurance).

          Like

  21. Btw, that Earl of Pembroke who ran off to Europe with Kitty Hunter, who apparently was the ur-source of silly romance heroines?

    Yeah, his cavalry and horsemanship book is actually pretty good. It’s called “A Method of Breaking Horses,” but it’s actually reward-based training, with an insistence on not overworking young horses, and encouraging them to only practice moving correctly. (If they do something wrong, they just stop the horse and start again.) Very Xenophon-ish.

    So you’ve got someone who can plan ahead and do very sensible things… with horses.

    The next chapter is on how to teach soldiers to ride, again with an emphasis on correctness from the beginning, forethought, and non-stupid training.

    Argh, argh, talk about compartmentalization.

    I’m almost afraid to read further, but presumably it wouldn’t have been the standard manual for years and years if it weren’t any good.

    Liked by 1 person

  22. OMG. Pembroke’s method of accustoming cavalry horses to the sound of the drum, gunshots, etc. was to use those noises at feeding time, as a signal that it was time to eat, so the horses would learn to like loud noises.

    Pavlov’s cavalry horse. It makes a lot of sense.

    I wonder if that was in Xenophon also? I didn’t get terribly far in his horse book.

    He also talks about how to accustom horses to various scary sights and to fire.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I don’t recall that in Xenophon, but then battles were somewhat quieter back then. He did write about getting the horses used to being around infantry, but the translation I read had nothing about accustoming them to sounds like trumpets, drums, and other loud noises.

      Even as late as Xenophon, most battlefield signals among the Greeks and Macedonians were still voice calls, if memory serves.

      Like

      1. Aesop explicitly mentions a trumpeter being used to send out orders and signals in one of his fables, iirc, though that would have been later.

        Like

  23. We have half the people mad because TPTB locked everyone down, stole our health, our economy, our trust and refuse to acknowledge it.

    We have about a quarter of the people who don’t think TPTB hit us hard enough because they are on the take and don’t want to be found out or they have been convinced that this civilization deserves every bad thing that happens to it and they will come out roses once the riffraff is cleared out.

    About an eighth have completely lost their minds over all of this because they weren’t tightly wrapped to begin with.

    That leaves an eighth of the people who have no idea anything at all is going on. These people are getting nervous though, like cattle hearing the distant rumble of a thunderstorm. Anything at all will set them off. If they stampede the crazies and the riffraff cleansers we might be hard pressed.

    But I still like our odds.

    I have been strangely upbeat lately.

    Reminds me of my sainted mother. She would have a cow if you bothered her with a silly sliver. But if you came in with something and she was all fake cheerful, you knew that she was trying to not scare you, and you should be scared.

    They should be scared. Not us. They are the ones with the sucking wounds in their worldview.

    Liked by 1 person

  24. Yes. And what’s that saying / movie scene?

    “No, we’re not just locked in here with you; you’re also locked in here with us.” ((Strangely-bright and wistful smile))

    Liked by 1 person

  27. Not that peer review these has anything to do with science, the scientific method or demonstrable truth.

    Like

  29. Poland update –

    I was just watching one of the videos posted yesterday on the Podcast of the Lotus Eaters YouTube channel. One of the guys mentioned a bit of info regarding Poland. Apparently he has a source within the country who gave him an update on what’s going on. Apparently the new Prime Minister has basically arbitrarily declared that any justice not appointed by his party is not legitimate, and is ignoring any and all pronouncements from the bench by such justices. He’s also ignoring what the President of Poland (who’s from the other party) is saying.

    I could use more info about what’s going on there. But it’s pretty clear that this is basically a coup by the new PM and his supporters.

    Like

      1. I’ve kind of been expecting something along those lines with regards to the recent 2nd Amendment tilt by the high court. But the court hasn’t started cleaning up the “Bruen follow-up laws” yet, so the blue states haven’t needed to.

        Liked by 1 person

  30. Bit off topic. But bright good news. New little hope (because all babies are a little hope) for the future. Born today, 1/20/2024, to niece (one having pregnancy induced liver issues), 4 weeks early, a healthy baby boy. 6# 10 oz. Early induce date was to be 1/22. Oliver John (middle for two maternal great-grandfathers) joins 3 year old sister Logan, 10 year old (half) brother Eli, and 4 year old (golden retriever) Gus (heaven forbid I leave out the dog. A niece and nephew inlaw after my own heart :-) )

    Liked by 1 person

  31. “The left thinks of violence as a tool they use to get what they want. Sane people think of violence as a last[-]resort thing.”

    The implication would seem to be that “tools one uses to get what one wants” and “last-resort things” are mutually exclusive categories.

    So my question is, which one do fire extinguishers belong to?

    (And now I’m regretting that I didn’t convert this comment into panels and submit it for today’s meme post. Oh, well.)

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    1. Silly comparison and obfuscating question.
      A tool you use to get what you want is optional.
      Sure, you want the fire gone, but it’s not optional. (ROLLS EYES).
      Or do you mean people use the fire extinguishers all the time to PREVENT a fire. Or pretend they had a fire. or?

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  32. Sarah said : “This is a very bad time for a lot of people.”

    Well, apparently.

    I wasn’t going to comment, but I went out today and ate in a sit-down restaurant for the first time in maybe three years. Dim Sum in a fairly traditional Chinese restaurant in Mississauga. (I was waiting for the Distaff Side to do something, and had a couple hours to kill.) It was one of those places where the ladies come around with carts full of different dishes and you take the ones you want. Many fond memories of eating in these kinds of places in my youth. And I love Dim Sum.

    I lasted half an hour. I literally couldn’t sit there, it was killing me. Too many people. Then I went to pay the bill, having had three dishes (this is nothing at Dim Sum, normally you have like five and bring food home) and they charged me nearly $40.

    They charged me $3.50 for -tea-. I have never seen a charge for tea before, they used to just give it to you. Clearly I don’t get out much.

    Sitting in the truck was -far- more enjoyable than sitting in the restaurant.

    I’d like to be able to blame the restaurant, but I met up with Distaff Side at a chain cafe (Second Cup, nothing special) and paid $20 to two cappuccinos and a slice of carrot cake. Oh, and locked bathroom.

    Sixty bucks for not-very-good lunch and a snack? Are you kidding me? Nope, not kidding.

    And I couldn’t really sit there in the cafe either. Hyper-vigilance is tiring, and not enjoyable.

    So yeah. That’s just a normal lunch, nothing out of the ordinary. But there I am, flipping the f- out.

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    1. I’d like to say that sounds like a lot, but I’ve seen what the prices are at freaking McDonald’s lately. It’s fairly out of control.

      (A large part of the appeal of In-N-Out in California is not the speed—it’s not much faster than regular fast food. It’s that it doesn’t seem to be succumbing to inflation at anywhere near the level everywhere else is.)

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      1. I love the media gaslighting:

        Media: The economy is great, why don’t you people agree.

        Actual people: We buy groceries.

        Vile media: But all the economic “indicators” are great, why don’t you realize the economy is good?

        Actual people: I need to buy a new car and it now costs what houses used to. And used cars are an even worse value.

        Lying sack of shit media: BUT Biden has done awesome with the economy, everything is amazing!!

        Regular people: I can’t afford a house and rent had become obscene.

        Agents of Satan: Stupid people can’t even recognize Biden’s great economy…

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        1. The economy is doing just fine for the elitists, including their media mouthpieces. It’s doing OK for the Dolists. It’s just the productive class that’s getting the shaft.

          They’re going to wind up like the 16th century Spanish aristocracy — all their money can’t buy what ain’t there. When their toilet backs up in the middle of the night and they can’t get a plumber, maybe they’ll get a clue.

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          1. Lenin spoke of destroying the middle class, grinding them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.

            Hmmm.

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            1. Straight from Marx. Immiseration drives the petit bourgeoise into the proles, and thus gives them enough force and enough motive to overthrow the bourgeoise

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                1. They’re cadre, they are. They will be the leaders.

                  As Orwell observed, the leaders tended to be at least middle class because they were accustomed to things happening because they said so. He cites a time when he was living in a working class neighborhood and needed information, so he went to City Hall. His neighbors thought that wouldn’t work at all. (In fact, he got only part of it, but he did get that.)

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      2. Bagels at the local shop are up to a dollar a piece. That’s highway robbery, except I know what the ingredients cost, and how hard the baker is trying to not raise prices more than he has to.

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  35. can’t remember where but saw a quote about beware the anger of a man who just wants to be left alone .. something about those that want to be left alone, when they finally push back they are unfettered by their own safety/security/future … the “leave me alone” crowd knows that going to guns is their own end … their lives will never be the same … actually they know their life/lives are over and once they decide to go to the guns they won’t stop by just pushing back on the gestapo thug in front of them … it becomes a purge …
    the Left is tapping on the glass of the tigers cage … a very thin glass that the tiger can easily break thru … right now the tiger is held back by his own desire to survive (he know its death, either figuratively or literally to break the glass and maul his tormentor) … but to quote from the move Open Range … “Sometimes there are things worse than death” … so keep tapping the glass … see what happens …

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