The Perfect storm

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I was alluding to something yesterday. It wasn’t exactly being black pilled, but it was something that is scaring the living daylights out of me. Not just for the US either, but for the world.

I haven’t been sleeping well. A lot of us haven’t been. I think most of us are sensing this subconsciously.

We are, facing a perfect storm. And it is worldwide. And I can’t see or feel a path through it much less what comes out at the other side.

No, this is not precisely true. I had a — not a vision — but a strong feeling; I was vouchsafed a certainty that America comes out the other end of this as America, and closer to what it was meant to be than it was in 2019. Now, like all woo woo, this might be all in my head and wishful thinking, but it was given unasked, before I knew there was any reason to ask. As it turned out, it came to me in the very last day before lockdown, in Colorado.

Sometimes this is all I hold onto in the dark of night, at 3 am, when I’m staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep or think clearly about anything.

Because I know what we’re facing, I know what we’re going through, and I understand completely there is no way back.

Let me make things very clear. First, if you feel like the world is falling apart, that’s because it is. Second, the world that is falling apart, and the US that’s shaking apart like a ship in a storm is not the US as founded. It’s the socialist, statist, center out, top down model of the twentieth century, now almost 100 years old.

I don’t care how how misty colored your memories of your childhood, the America you grew up in was more or less intentionally subverted from the design of the founders and the Constitution. In many ways — at least at the culture level — we’ve been reclaiming it for 20 or so years now. And before you squawk the insane is mostly being pushed from up to down, from center out, and is a symptom of the socialists losing power and trying to destroy what they can’t hold. (Though it started before, at the behest of the USSR, their beau ideal.) But you see the real America coming back in the fact that we’re no longer swallowing the dictates from above with no skepticism, the fact that they keep losing control of the financial system (particularly the gig economy, which yes is why they also hate it.) or gun rights. Look at the latest insanity they’ve been trying to push in the culture war and how hard the push back is.

Now America is not coming back because it wants to. It was so far submerged that it wouldn’t ever see the light of day again. But the fact is that the same way the technology changed so that it encouraged both the late 19th/early 20th century’s illusions of the efficacy and superiority of central government control and silencing of the “uneducated populace”, it changed again, so that now technology encourages a society more dispersed, more weighed towards the individual, not the same but closer to the society of the 18th than of the 20th century.

And to an extent we are prepared to go through this storm better than the rest of the world for a variety of reasons.

But first, let me outline the storm:

The first front driving the storm is the decay of what I’ll call “the blue model” from the color used for the leftist states in the US (and yes, I fully appreciate the irony of their not wanting to be associated with the color red. And manipulating things accordingly.) The blue model is decaying because even with the super-centralized technology that provided it the illusion of working, it never worked very well.

Marxism is a poor fit for the real world, and what it does — whether in national or international model — is destroy productivity and the economy, as well as human competence at anything. One part of this is hiring for political compliance. If you hire for any reason other than competence, competence decays over time. Even if you start with the best of the best, in four generations, you have people too stupid to pour piss out of a boot with instructions written on the on the heel. We are now, all over the western world, 4 to six generations into the soft-socialist hiring system, which hired for Marxism and compliance with the system.

Marxism’s sheer inability to produce or create was masked by the US not being fully taken over, and having remarkable ability to produce and create, and bolstering the entire world’s productivity and production. Partly, mind you, by being the consumer in the economic engine of the world, at least for things that the third world can sell.

The second front of the storm is that unfortunately the color revolution in 2020 put into power people who believe the way to make the rest of the world rich is to make the US poor. This idea that the US is rich because other places are poor, and vice versa, is an article of faith with them. It was in my kids’ schoolbooks 15 years ago.

So having seized power, and not liking the US very much — I mean we refused to vote them in and made them fraud — they decided to make the rest of the world very rich. By destroying our economy.

The problem is that economics doesn’t work that way. So, when we stop having the money to say buy trinkets from China, China collapses.

We aren’t doing well but it’s one of those things: when America coughs, the world catches pneumonia.

So the rest of the world also dependent on the blue model and convinced of it — to an extent we spread it to the world after WWII under the amiable impression we were thwarting communism — is falling apart much harder. It’s part of what’s fueling the farmers revolt.

Part of what’s driving the blue model falling apart is that since the USSR fell, the left has been running from insanity to raving insanity. And now it’s become obvious to everyone. They lowered the mask and revealed their monstrous face, and they’re not even aware of it, or that we can see it. so they keep trying crazier and crazier stuff.

The next front of the storm is what’s driving the ability to fight against the blue model: the more distributed production and communication model. The internet, three d printing (in its infancy), online commerce; places like this blog.

All of it, every bit of it is accelerating and reverberating other change, a lot of it unforseen — except by some of us — 20 years ago. Because of it there will be a commercial real estate crash in the US, and big cities are dying and– and– and–

At the end of this everything will be changed including the way we marry. Though it will be going back to an older model, where people worked at home, or where work was a whole-family endeavor, so… not totally unknown.

But right now? The change is so fast, so dizzying and so unpredictable to most people — and definitely to the sclerotic pretend experts whose ideal world is circa the early 20th century — that it’s shaking every structure in our world like a terrier with a rat.

Since this is hitting institutions and governments controlled by 4 generation plus Marxists, the only thing they can be guaranteed to do is the worst possible thing. The craziest one. The one that will make everything worse.

There is a storm coming. It’s the perfect storm. We can all feel it.

I have my… vouchsafing, but I can’t trust it. It’s woo-woo. And you certainly shouldn’t trust second hand woo-woo.

I know we are indeed going to eat the bread the devil kneaded. it might be a millennial storm, as far as difficult transitions go.

But if I have to go through this, I’ll go through this in the US. And I’m glad I chose to throw my lot with y’all. I’m glad my kids were raised American.

Because of our culture, because of our funding documents, we’re more likely to come out of this okay than any other place in the world.

There is even a chance we’ll come back more like ourselves than we’ve been for 100 years.

Yes, everything is falling apart, but birth always has pain and blood, and there’s a good chance this is a rebirth of liberty.

It is our honor, it is our very great privilege to preserve liberty for future generations. To preserve this liberty-born country for future generations.

Yes, it’s going to hurt like a mother. But such a prize is worth the pain.

Be not afraid.

438 thoughts on “The Perfect storm”

  1. The make up ooor so the others will be rich bit always irked me “How is me not being able to buy a TV made in Mexico going to make the unemployed Mexican TV factory worker “richer” when he/she has no job, because I and the rest of us Americans are not buying TVs?” (Yes, this is when a lot of Cathode Tube TVs were being assembled in Mexico. (reminds me of this:

    the line is about a minute in)

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      1. Yes, but as Milady points out, We sneeze and the rest catch pneumonia.
        A lot is if everyone here is poor they get to rule over the ashes, and of course THEY will never feel the pain. Try hard enough and the pain will be short and sharp, aristo.

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          1. Lewis Carroll’s solution to “how is a raven like a writing desk” used that spelling of “nevar” to be clever. However, it’s not nearly as good as other people’s solutions, including “both have inky quills” and “Poe wrote on both.”

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        1. Yep, just look at how they sneer at the idea of anyone making a profit. As if it is impossible for both people/sides in a transaction to benefit. They think the entirety of existence is a zero sum game.

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  2. My mother passed on in 2017. At the time I was given clear information that I had two years to be ready for what is coming.

    That took me to the end of 2019. I worked my tail off, then had to leave it all behind and start over in 2021.

    Was it a waste? No. Because what I learned during that four years came with me. It allowed me to get a headstart on building up my little homestead, and I suspect strongly that what I learned will be keeping a lot of people afloat.

    Because we know what’s coming, and whether your source is scripture, “woo,” or plain observation, we all feel it.

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    1. I was vouchsafed my assurance during holy service, which I decided to attend out of the blue at 7 am in the morning the day before the lockdowns I didn’t know were coming. even though the drive to church involved a confusing three way intersection and I’m practically phobic about driving.
      I decided I had to go, got up, got dressed and drove out before Dan woke. In fact, he he woke up as I came back in.
      This was very unusual. I haven’t done week day services since we lived three blocks from church in downtown Colorado Springs and sons lived at home and often wanted to go, so I went with.
      BUT I woke up with an overwhelming need that brooked no dissension. And then while praying I was vouchsafed this certainty.
      I’ll point out I’d have appreciated a heads up over having to leave Colorado, where to look for a place, etc. etc.
      I’ll also add our new place is so unlikely to be safe as to be laughable, but we were UNQUESTIONINGLY led here, also. (As in, all other avenues were blocked.)
      So, either we’re meant to be here to be safe, or to…. well, light a fire they will see through the ages.
      I guess I’ll find out.

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      1. When you get those messages, you have to believe them. We too were given a message, in early 2019, that we needed to leave the DC area and come home to Smalltown. At the time, it made little sense, but … Everything fell into place and we were able to move in an unbelievably short period of time. A week after we got here, the first reason for the move became clear. And we were able to ride out COVID in a sane environment, while friends and family in DC and CA were still masking and quarantining 2 years later. When you hear the voice of G*d, you have to listen. Or risk hearing God tell you later, “Look, I sent you a helicopter….” :)

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      2. I ought to make a list of Fastest Answers to Prayer. This morning it was, “And let me be a help to anyone I encounter…” Phone rings. Spam Risk. Debated, answered it and got a live human being. So I said, “You interrupted my prayers. Anyway, God Bless you and have a good day.”
        Given the way the girl sounded, that may be the nicest response she’s likely to get. But it was, “OK, Lord, under five minutes again I see…”

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        1. First one that comes to mind: I was trying to figure out how to do something that needed to be done. I had a phone number up on my phone to ask for help, but I physically could not touch send.

          Told Him that I couldn’t do it alone. Was asking Him why I couldn’t ask for help when the phone rang.

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      3. Similar experience in being led out of the great state of Lincolns birth down to middle TN. Announcement of store closing. Bring the news home that night and the entire family had a plan in place in 24 hours to move. I stayed to close the store, but literally everything including place to stay, help from our church, new friends, new job, Nursing school for daughter and jobs for everyone happened in 30 days or less. Every door opened in those areas. When there was any conflict or confusion a new door opened and what we might have thought was the right one would close. it was uncanny and four years later we still talk and laugh about it.

        As far as sleepless nights and the knowing. Yes for sure, I am surprised so often that the balloon has not gone up, and then I remember we are Usains. We may spoil for the fight but we are thinking and laying the groundwork first. It will be alright. We have the instruction manual. Though it is gong to be difficult, we are starting with the documents that lead the way to individual liberty and prosperity. Backed by the most ingenious people on the planet. Going to be okay.

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        1. I understand the “wrong door closing” analogy. I got a lot of interviews when I was off late ’02 – early ’04, but never got the jobs. Later would find out the jobs in question would go away (might be a few years, but the jobs did go away). Would have been looking again, shudder. And I thought age discrimination was alive and well when I was in my late 40’s looking for programming work. May not have been the highest paying job. But I was working, and it lasted until retirement. (Had a few other perks too. Like no deadlines. None. Zip. Had the interesting clients too, but I got paid the same regardless of how many times I had to patiently help them, nor how long it took. Still not a call center.)

          Not moving household when hubby was transferred up north was the correct call too, much as I despised the separation during the week. Union changed the volunteer transfer rules giving priority to those forced to work away from home under forced transfer so hubby got transferred back after 18 months. Those northern jobs? Disappeared after 30 months. The ones who uprooted and moved, were not happy. Don’t get me wrong. The area would have been our dream, except no job for me (commute would be impossible). Couldn’t last.

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  3. True progress always involves pain and discipline. It’s the difference between the Okefenokee Swamp and the St. Lawrence Riv.er. A swamp is diffuse, spreading over a wide area. It produces little of value. A river like the St Lawrence, however, enhances development. Communiism, no matter what the name or form, has never worked. It can only leech benefits from the productive.

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      1. Being the kidneys of the ecosystem is important. Bureaucratic swamps, on the other hand, seem to become fetid, anoxic backwaters choked to death by algae and decay.

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        1. A swamp is a living dynamic ecosystem. A bureaucracy on the other hand, is more like a cesspool. Sure, there’s an ecosystem, of sorts, but it’s all based on shit.

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          1. It’s the difference between a swamp with a vibrant ecosystem and the Dead Marshes. Bureaucracies fall into the Dead Marshes category at best (the really evil ones are Donaldson’s Sarangrave)

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  4. I don’t have as much optimism. As younger Americans complain about their circumstances on social media (e.g. the exhausted gal not making rent), the commenters are cement-headed socialists who can’t see cause-and-effect because the anti-capitalist slogans are too deeply engrained, e.g. “wage-slavery” and “greedy capitalists bought all the affordable property”. There’s a sickening insistence that government punish business-owners who increased prices for goods and services and/or aren’t paying “a living wage”.

    The thing that really gets to me is that I am old enough to have seen the “a hand-up, not a hand-out” policies turn into entitlements. Back in the day, people recognized the problem with propping up people who habitually made self-destructive choices. We didn’t always say something (being polite and minding our own business). Now the expectation is that housing, education, job-training, and food programs are human rights. Some of the blindest people are those outraged that the pool is being drained by the migrant crisis.

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    1. Are you actually calling this optimistic?
      Also, bullshit. the kids aren’t socialist. Yes, I know what the polls say. BUT note that they had to extend “socialism” to mean “having roads.” THE KIDS ARE NOT SOCIALIST and less so every year. Kind of like us, after we got out of school.
      The right could perhaps understand that the children are drowning in this kakistokracy and stop being boneheads. Then the kids would KNOW they’re not socialist.
      However, by all means, go ahead, keep throwing stones.
      Still what comes out on the other side will NOT BE socialism, whatever they call it.
      As for handouts, hand ups, whatever. How about we understand the entire academic system now is the government farming the young for their earnings, such as they are?

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    2. “Look at those horrible horrible young people, saying there is something wrong! Idiots!”

      :Carefully ignores they’re dealing with the nonsense that prior generations didn’t stop but are dang well willing to abuse others for noticing:

      Maybe try pulling your nose out of the air and try making a coherent argument. You’ll have to start by actually listening to people, and then going and looking at if your assumptions about “the way things are” are wrong.

      I’ve noticed a lot of response to the exhausted gal was from folks who had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what the modern laws are, nevermind what kind of scheduling nonsense happens as a matter of course.

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        1. As you know, I’m all for yelling to get off my lawn…but it’s gotta be my lawn, and someone has to be on it, so to speak. :D

          I managed to stay conservative IN SPITE of folks making dumb assumptions at me, so I do get annoyed. :D

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          1. I only know about the game with hours because I have younger fans/friends who work retail. In my day we got hours assigned, and that was that. But people are treated now as more than disposable.
            And I’m still salty about an entire society pushing kids into debt, the government taking over the loans and practically enslaving the kids, AND THEN yelling at the kids it’s their responsibility, because they entered into a contract.
            Spits.
            I think there’s something in the Bible about not driving children to despair.

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            1. “In my day we got hours assigned, and that was that. ”

              I’ve never understood how retail scheduling works. One would think that consistent schedules would be better for everyone, especially the scheduler.

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              1. From observation?

                They mostly don’t.

                Was listening to some kids at HyVee talk– they’re actually pretty good for scheduling– and the gal mentioned that they’d called her in for the shut-down shift the night before, when she already had the mid-day shift.

                That’s a system that is GOING TO burn out your good workers.

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                1. Can confirm.

                  I put in my availability as certain hours from the very start, because I quite honestly am no good to anyone past about 6 PM. At least once a month I still have to fight with the person who makes the schedule with, “No, I cannot work those hours”.

                  As it is the fact that you never have the same schedule one week to the next is… well. It burns you out, and it is extremely hard on writing!

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                  1. I haven’t had to fight someone about scheduling since fall 1975. The district manager (subbing for manager who was out) kept scheduling me on Saturdays. I didn’t mind. But the person who was there who did not directly interact with customers, did. I had to interrupt them to serve beer. This is when there still was a “family” and “not family” sides to pizza parlors. I couldn’t set foot on the non-family side. Not 21. Even now bars can’t employ someone under 21, in Oregon. Places that serve alcohol, 18 – 20 year olds can get the alcohol from the bar for patrons ordering it, but they can’t stay in the bar area or be behind it. The district manager took exception I refused to break the law. I found another job, and quit, with prejudice.

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                    1. Yep. That’s the biggest issue. Kids would work three or four jobs, except if they’re called to the first, and they can’t go in, they get quiet laid off.
                      I have friends caught in this trap. And they’re closer to my age than kiddies.
                      Used to be if you were minimally competent, you’d start in retail, make management, move around, have a career.
                      NOW? not a chance. There are fewer companies, they’re all massive and being run by MBAs who don’t understand humans. The kids are getting pulverized.
                      The continuous pleas for workers are not for lack of workforce, but because they make quitting and living on welfare attractive.
                      First thing we do, we have to stop maleducated managers destroying everything. I remember what they did to the book industry. Or better, we find ways to go around and start new things.

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                    2. Oooh, I wonder how this is going to interact with the labor laws and underage folks working… because you can’t “oopsey” around those laws, folks will report it, and that’s on the employer’s head.

                      But labor is tight enough they’re having to actually hire under “has graduated.”

                      Liked by 2 people

                    3. OT: check your email, regarding Lauren’s request for T-shirt graphic. Yeah, I’ll need to put them up, but meanwhile, if you can do the thing and get them to show up? Thank you.

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                  3. I’m half-convinced that the reason I could never get a part time fast food or retail job in high school is that I was honest about my availability… which would have been the exact same availability every other high-schooler in town would have.

                    Kind of spoils the employers for choice.

                    At least with temp help work for the university, they let me work around my class schedule…

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                2. BTDT, though it was more a matter of “needs must when the Devil drives” than a deliberate scheduling plan. For a while the pizza place I delivered for had trouble keeping decent drivers, so I was doing open and close four days a week, with maybe a few hours somewhere in the early afternoon that I was totally off the clock if I was lucky.

                  Sometimes it sucks being a responsible person…

                  (Thought about quitting mor than once, but the money was good [and not entirely taxed… [cough]], and the hiring options locally were kinda skimpy sans college.)

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              2. The concept of switching hours around is old enough that when I went to work a retail job in 2001 (books, yay!), one of the things they told me is that my schedule would be consistent week to week, if a little wonky day to day. The only difference now is the time factor; used to be that they’d tell you the schedule the week before. Now it’s an hour before they want you to start, if that.

                Definite JIT crap scheduling.

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          2. My favorite cousin says that me being conservative makes me something of a unicorn since by all statistical measures, I should be raging leftie.

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            2. How do we know what we ‘know’?

              There seems to be a lot of broken, invalid, or simply untrue thinking around statistics, or at least around some statistics.

              On paper, there are reasons to suspect or infer that I am a lefty.

              Sometimes that assumption might simply be poor quality thinking.

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    3. I have literally seen a Marxist solemnly explain to another Marxist distressed by charges of atrocity, that whenever someone talked about how their family suffered in the USSR, she had always dug and found they were of the wrong class.

      That they therefore deserved to suffer because a foolish man said so was implicit. (And that’s not even getting into that, if she were telling the truth, she was getting some significant non-random selections.)

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      1. Oh, I once came across someone (online only) who insisted that all the refugees from Vietnam when Saigon fell were just upset that they couldn’t be on top anymore. I very very carefully did NOT share this guy’s rant with the Vietnamese refugee I knew who crossed the Pacific at the age of five in a fishing boat with his family, most of whom made it. (His grandmother starved herself so that the rest would have food.)

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  5. There might, might, be another regional bank run underway. NY Community Bank. Commercial RE and lots of uninsured brokered deposits

    They issued a denial so you know it’s serious

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      1. There was a post last night that Brussels was dropping some of its demands. The post was talking about pesticide reduction and I thought it was fertilizreduction so it may not be accurate but apparently having the city surrounded by tractors as far as the eye can see was…upsetting people.

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        1. Ah but His confidence is NOT misplaced.

          You only need to do the task set before you, the results will be His doing.

          May I say I feel much comfort knowing that you also have been vouchsafed.

          I thought perhaps I was becoming unhinged in some way. Woo woo stuff gives me the creeping horrors generally.

          However, I cannot deny my experience and the complete calm about what the future is about to bring that has come over me since. I don’t know what my task will be yet. It may turn out to be something like, be a steadfast witness in the face of death, or something much lest dramatic like just living a simple life as an example to others. But, as you say, it is an honor to be able to fight against evil, whatever the task.

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          1. “I thought perhaps I was becoming unhinged in some way. Woo woo stuff gives me the creeping horrors generally.”
            ME TOO. And it wasn’t a vision or anything clear, just a certainty. If I reach into it, I am calm. But I worry, because I know the price will be high.

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            1. “If I reach into it, I am calm.” This is the primary sign that you have received a genuine message from God, according to Ignatian spiritual discernment. Unfortunately what we’re given is usually all that we’re given, and all the other questions like “When? How much? For how long? And how bad is it gonna hurt?” get answered only on the other side. But, you know, you’re not crazy or woo-woo. Far from it.

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              1. Ignatian spirituality exactly! Rules of discernment 101, so to speak.

                I too had no “vision” just an absolute certainty that has been unshakable since.

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            2. Still kinda nice to say to yourself, “No, I was it would be okay.” Like finances were getting dicey; kid got extra scholarship money; turned to self and go “Told you.”

              really meaning “it was imparted to me” in this case.

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              1. Oops can’t use those marks (less than & greater than) as they are html marks.

                The word “told” is missing twice in the above. Ironic.

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              2. I was also told — in this case by several praying friends — in 2018 to just write the blog, write the books, and I’d be taken care of.
                I didn’t believe them. I was wrong.

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                1. My most common answer when I ask for His guidance is “Just keep moving.” And while I would dearly like more information, the answer has always been sufficient.

                  If there is one lesson I have learned in the last few years, it’s that sometimes you have to step into the dark before you see the light.

                  But man, once in a while I’d like to know where my foot is going to land!

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                2. It’s not just you who your works have taken care of.

                  There are a number of us who owe you a great deal and are profoundly grateful.

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              3. We ran into similar (granted almost 20 years ago now) with son’s schooling. We had 509 funds (IRA education only fund), and some savings, ours and son’s, but not enough without a loan, or so we thought. Because we only qualified for Parents+ loans (OMG, Hell No) we delayed, and delayed. Son got one small scholarship that stretched out our funds. Then as it looked like we were going to be “short” one quarter, son earned a small stipend (“oh look, books can be paid for”). Then the next time it happened, again another small stipend. In the end, while we 3 were coming up with the funds for the next quarter, the quarter before, after exhausting all education funds, and savings, but without touching IRA type funds, in the end, no loans.

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          1. Strictly speaking, he was always both Saul and Paul, as best we can tell. It’s which aspect he focused on.

            It’s like how Bobby Jindal is both Piyush and Bobby, and goes by what is easiest for the group he’s dealing with.

            In Saint Paul’s case, his Jewish name also sounds like the word that’s the root for “salacious,” which wasn’t a big deal when he was a Pharisee (focused on Jewish folks) but WAS a big deal when he became “the apostle to the Gentiles…who speak that language and no, did you read shake your money maker isn’t the recruitment theme you wanna go with.” :grin:

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        3. I was looking forward to a retirement of walking dogs, building radios, mentoring geeks and chasing tornadoes. But then God said, “I need you.”

          Me?

          At least I’m not like the neighbor who’s praying for Rapture before times get really tough…

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          3. I was looking forward to keeping on working at my dream job as long as my health holds up.

            I was told, “Yes I gave you that dream job because I knew how happy it would make you. But now I have something I need you to do for Me. So plan to retire at the end of next school year and I will fill you in on your next adventure.”

            And you can see that Himself knows how curious I am. But I have to finish up here to find out what’s next. So FINE, I’ll finish up here so I can get to the next installment of “The Perils of a Middle School Librarian “.

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          5. Meanwhile, my whole life has been a series of roadblocks along the ‘normal’ life path, until finally in extreme frustration I asked about it, and the Lord said, “Well, I have different plans for you. Don’t worry, you’ll be cared for, but here’s some things to study in the meantime. Oh, and plant a garden.”
            I’m still not sure what that’s all about, but I have indeed been cared for, so I guess I’d better learn to trust that He knows His business best, and quick.

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        4. Sarah, you know this one and it fits absolutely perfectly our situation today.

          “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
          “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

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          1. Yeah, I know. but I can’t run away. The Lieutenant wouldn’t like that. And when I meet him, in the great convention bar in the hereafter, I will not have him tell me I deserted a post of honor.
            Rather recreate The Long Watch than that.

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            1. A woman who quotes Heinlein’s Sergeant Jelal in response to Tolkien. Ma’am, your husband is an extraordinarily lucky man. Thank you, Sarah, for all the wonderful moments you have given us!

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      3. Yeah, Whatifalthist put up a thing on the coming China crash last night.

        One of the things he brought up that was especially striking is part of the problem will be the rapidly aging population crushing the younger generation for support, and how, given the culture still has a very strong ancestor worship tradition, a young vs old conflict is going to be extra traumatic.

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          1. That’s another thing, I’m hearing China hasn’t reported their death rate since before Covid hit.

            And their reported birth rate has fallen off a cliff. As in, the numbers they lie about to show how stable they supposedly are…

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      4. Just read Edward Jones’ weekly report and I want to know what planet they’re living on. What they’re smoking. Etc. The labor market is strong, the Fed will lower rates around June, and it’s all, “We’re fine, we’re all fine here, how are you?”

        Liked by 1 person

    3. The problem is that the bank got the crap CRE loans left over from Signature Bank. Having to crank up the provision for loan loss hurts it capitalization. Bad mistake.

      As far as uninsured deposits go it’s not currently at the crazy extremes of the either Silicon Valley Bank or Signature Bank were last year. But now it’s stock is junk.

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      1. They were quite capable of booking crap on their own, the concentration goes back well before signature, and they’re among the worst in non core, brokered deposits. Not the worst but pretty bad. I have my eye on another one that’s probably worse but day job considerations apply

        It certainly smells like 2007, we’ll see if
        It becomes 2008/9. I hope not

        Liked by 1 person

        1. True, probably why they were the only ones dumb enough to pickup the remains of Signature. And why their Chief Risk Officer read the writing on the wall and quit recently.

          The short sellers aren’t the only ones analyzing the news and quarterly reports. Reading between the lines of corporate financials should be considered an advanced survival trait or at least a merit badge.

          I plan like the banks and markets have already crashed. Only a large major loss or retreat by Blue Idiots would restore any confidence in the overall system. Unfortunately they seem to want to ride the bomb down to the target except for the few that have already disguised themselves and fled overseas.

          Liked by 1 person

        2. If it does become 2008, hopefully it becomes clear that it’s happening before the election. It would provide a nice solid boost against Biden. And if it happened after the election and Trump won, they’d try and tar him with it.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Arguably, the current market “up” is due to a majority of investors deciding that Trump will win. If that belief changes, they will bail out to safer things besides equities.

            Liked by 1 person

        3. Given that the regime’s first nominee for Comptroller of the Currency was an outright commie who wanted the Federal Reserve to be the sole bank in the USA, holding all deposits and making all loans, it appears that the current regime would view a 2008/2009 situation as a feature rather than a bug.

          They are looking for a pretext to consolidate/nationalize the banking system, just as they are seeking to do with everything else. They are willing to use fascist economic structures to achieve their communist goals when they can do outright communism.

          Liked by 1 person

  6. It’s actually worse than that article makes it out to be. Lots of commercial RE. Lots of short term funding. Could be something could be nothing.

    Management is throwing BS at the wall to see if it sticks Feds dont want this so read the WSJ etc., with that in mind. State media and all

    Regional banks have lots of issues.

    Liked by 1 person

        2. Nothing was ever settled from that crisis, they bailed out WS and the banks thusly kicking the can down the road a generation like they always do…

          TANJ!

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          1. Hell, they not only bailed out Wall Street (Too Big To Fail!!) they rewarded the shitheads that caused the ‘crisis’. Anybody else remember them using the ‘bailout bucks’ to give themselves huge bonuses?
            ———————————
            There are forms of stupidity that businesses can’t indulge in. There are no such limitations on the stupidity of government.

            Liked by 1 person

  7. Meanwhile, the guy my beloved follows for news out of Ukraine has bought the Democratic Party line: Trump’s followers are betraying Ukraine by not passing the border bill. Trump is obviouworki g with the Russians. Look, he sent his ambassador Tucker Carlson to Moscow, that proves it!
    This guy admits there is corruption (and does not seem to approve of it). But he takes American wealth, invulnerability and immortality for granted, as so many people do. And he shows how pervasive mainstream media influence remains.
    In related news, one reason to watch Ukraine is they, the Russians and the Iranians who are supplying the Russians are working out the first level of drone warfare doctrine and I hope to Heaven someone on our side is paying attention.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I wonder what group of “specialists” Victoria Nuland and crew will call into solve their Tucker Carlson “problem”.

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    2. Tucker Carlson is not Trump’s ambassador. Putin is a KGB horror. And yet we’re not obliged to open our borders wide just because Ukraine needs help.
      The dems can kiss my derriere.

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      1. Tucker Carlson is doing exactly what William Shirer did. I’ll wait for the interview to evaluate him.

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      2. Agreed on all three, but feel sorry for the guy even though annoyed with him. He seems to be pretty solid on war data and certainly brings things up you don’t get from mainstream sites.

        Liked by 1 person

    4. I do love how “Trump is working with the Russians” types never have a response to “Then why was he beating them like a rented mule while he was president?”

      Liked by 1 person

      1. In this case, he is simply accepting what the media says at face value. Surely the American media would know these things?
        Mind you, given he grew up in Eastern Europe he ought to be more skeptical but again, he simply can’t believe the US does not have infinite resources. More ingrained Marxism: it can’t be honest disagreement with something so obviously necessary, it must be due to evil forces!

        Liked by 1 person

  8. Tangential, something weird changed in the Mad Genius Club commenting section today, and now I can’t get a text box to come up that I can comment in. I’ve seen the same thing happen in Stormbirds (another Word press blog I follow), so I think it’s something related to the webpage format, but I’m not really sure what.

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  10. have always thought of most Americans as “leave me alone people” or at least the ones that made and make America work … we never wanted to be the world policeman (thats an elite fetish) … but I am also reminded that when pushed too hard America can be ruthless … Pearl Harbor killed less than 3,000 Americans … and at the end of the war, with Japan beaten down to their knees we dropped not 1 but 2 nukes on civilian targets … apparently the world seems to have forgotten the lesson of “Don’t start nothin, won’t be nothin” …

    of course the US becoming the worlds policeman has flipped that around to the US starting lots of things and acting like there is no come backs …

    The truly bizarre thing for me is the fact that the Blues hate America … BUT not for being the worlds policeman (they are the ones that pushed/push that nonsense) … it seems to me that they hate America because we disprove their Marxist world view on a daily basis …

    and in recent years it feels like the walls are closing in on the Blues … all of their attempts to control have been a dud … the global warming scare, the BLM nonsense, the covid nonsense, the DEI and ESG nonsense … all losing ground fast … they must feel cornered and seem to have turned the amp up to 11 … and like any wounded, cornered animal they are very dangerous …

    up until now most Americans have put up with their nonsense with rolled eyes … but I think Americans can now see how dangerous they have become … if something breaks I’m not 100% sure that the response won’t be to simply put those wounded animals down and be done with their nonsense …

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Neither city was a totally civilian target as much of the work support work happened in and about the ‘residential’ areas. Japan is still often like that, industry on a smaller scale happens under, or in front of the housing of the people doing the work. ( I just watched an NHKworld show about that, a few months ago)

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      1. Also, if I recall correctly, Hiroshima was the base for an entire infantry division. When Little Boy dropped, much of that division was outdoors doing its morning calisthenics … stripped to the waist.

        Even for (at the time) a mortal enemy, one must shiver to picture that moment.

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    2. Dorsai123 the Elites/Brahmandarins/call them what you will hate the United States of America for one reason and one reason only. That reason is that it proves their model doesn’t work. There is no 5-year plan and yet the invisible hand of Adam Smith means that what is needed gets done and with a relatively small amount of waste. The “elites” would argue that it could have been done without waste. However, modern microeconomics and game theory have made it clear that control and information have a sort of inverse relationship. For perfect control you must have infinite knowledge/information. Unless you have the hubris to think you can have infinite information and can rival the Author himself in omniscience (and sadly many of these idiots do have that level of hubris) any planning will be hard-pressed to match the negative feedback effect of capitalism as a control system. Your username points to the part of the issue here. In the Dorsai novels, Dickinson separated the societies into two basic types, those that held their citizens’ contracts tightly and those that let their citizens control their own actions. The brahamandarins are of the former type ostensibly doing that for the “good” of “their” citizens. In reality, what they want is a return to serfs and indentured servants with themselves as the landed gentry. Unfortunately, they have no self-control so what we would get is somewhere on the spectrum between Ming the Merciless and Caligula.

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      1. And they keep overlooking or fail to see (or is it “Carefully ‘fail’ to see”?) that the Free Market’s failure mode is surplus rather than shortage. It’s a lot easier to cope with surplus: You can’t sell off the stuff that ain’t there in a shortage.

        Liked by 1 person

    3. They view America as a sort of charitable organization. We’re only allowed to go to war if we have nothing to gain. And we’re only allowed to let immigrants in if they’re welfare cases.
      They need a comupance. And I think it’s near.
      May He have mercy.

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    4. Perhaps only vaguely related, or perhaps not. February, being claimed/touted as “Black History Month” (Does every skin color, other than “white” of course, get a Month?) one store, a regional chain, has a bit on the PA about Black-owned or Black-founded businesses… but curiously, I don’t see any actual signage about such. And while I realize these are not the store’s/chain’s doing, I ask, “You mean like Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben?”

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      2. This year, they give them an extra day, just because it’s Presidential election year and they want to keep them on LBJ’s plantation…

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    5. and at the end of the war, with Japan beaten down to their knees we dropped not 1 but 2 nukes on civilian targets

      No.

      Japan was not beaten down to their knees. They were in bad shape, yes, as was pretty much everybody. They were going to fight to the death.

      If not for something as impressive as dropping the sun on them, twice, they wouldn’t have surrendered.

      Those were also, explicitly, not civilian targets. When you announce everyone is in on the war effort, then can and will execute those who leave the area, it’s not civilians.

      Please do not disrespect such a horrifyingly impressive enemy, even if they were defeated and have grown past it.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. People “forget” that even after the second atomic bomb, the vote in their military council whether or not to surrender was tied. Half of the council was still willing to keep fighting. It took the Emperor stepping in to get them to actually surrender.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. And afterwards, there was an attempted coup to prevent the surrender announcement tape from being broadcast so that the fight could continue. Ironically, the tape was hidden so as to help thwart the coup by a descendant of the last ruling Shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

          After the first bomb was dropped, the Japanese army distributed white clothing to their soldiers telling them that those wearing white were harmed less by the bomb.

          We also firebombed Tokyo, again, after the Nagasaki bomb was dropped.

          There never would have been a surrender without both bombs being dropped, and the death toll of both Allied forces and Japanese, would have been in the millions. The use of the atomic bombs therefore saved millions of lives.

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          1. It was even crazier than that.

            After Hiroshima, Hirohito’s scientists had (correctly!) estimated that it would take months to produce enough HEU for another Little Boy, making the Bomb less of a problem than the firebombings. A second Bomb in less than a week, with traces of plutonium (much more readily produced, but thought to be impossible to make a Bomb with), convinced him that the run-of-the-mill propaganda the US had been pushing–that there were literally hundreds of Bombs, ready to go–was actually true (there weren’t; a third one was nearing completion, after which one would be produced roughly every 10 days).

            And that was a problem. The Japanese plan at that point was to hold out until the US invaded (they correctly deduced the actual beaches and roughly guessed at the forces and timelines), at which point they would kill a million GIs (wounding millions more), after which the American public would lose stomach for the fight and demand peace talks. At the talks, Japan would then get most of what it wanted by simply threatening to continue the war. Based on every lengthy conflict from Korea onwards, were they wrong?

            And the IJA estimated that this could be accomplished at the low, low cost of 20 million Japanese, mostly civilians pressed into suicidal attacks. 25% of the population, and they didn’t bat an eye. In fact, the only concern was reporting from the internal police which suggested that if losses exceeded 40 million (half the population), there was a non-zero chance that the remaining half would rebel and possibly overthrow the dynasty.

            Hundreds of Bombs meant no need for an invasion; the US could destroy every city at a far faster rate than the firebombings, exceeding the 40 million deaths before the first GI waded ashore. Hirohito essentially bluffed himself into thinking that Japan’s final strategy for victory was non-viable, and took his secret golden parachute (that the dynasty would be spared–because only he could issue an order to surrender and expect all forces to obey it) and bailed out on the generals who wanted to keep fighting.

            And he almost got coup’d as a result–it probably never had a chance, but in an ironic twist, it was partially stopped by a B-32 raid nearby that had put guards on full alert. History is weirder than any fiction, at times.

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            1. The B-29 raid knocked out power in the coup area, hindering it. As it turns out, it was the last bombing mission of the war.

              There was a third option, besides surprise plan C “nuke them to glass” and Plan A “invade in all its bloody horror.

              Plan B = Depopulate Japan.

              in 1944-45, we produced -vast- quantities of defoliants and chemical weapons. The “plan B” instead of invasion was to maximize the blockade of the home islands, primarily via submarine which the Japanese could no longer counter at all, and attack all remaining crops and food distribution infrastructure, with defoliants, then if that didnt do it, nerve gas the “militarily useful” population.

              We were setting up to do exactly that. If you think we are daintily re-arguing the moraility bombing of two cities with nukes, can you imagine what we would be saying today if we ahd gone with plan B? The Japanese would have dutifully held out to dang near extinction. Tens of millions would have starved. Tens of millions more would have been gassed or firebombed.

              The nukes convinced -one- man to surrender, Emporer Hirohito. He had the awe and respect of his people, so they (mostly) obeyed him. And we had a Shogun-wannabee in Douglas MacArthur, whcih weirdly was probably the -only- US Genral who could ahve made post-war Japan actually workable, thus surviveable. “Oh, OK, its a funny-looking Shogun. We comprehend Shogun. Day ending in Y, other than the big nose and tall.” (or somehting enough like that to make it work.)

              If we ahd gone with the widespread horror of Plan B, we probably would have killed the Emperor, assumign he didnt Seppuku via blade or going to a farm and waiting.

              We used a pile of those defoliants in Vietnam, by the way. They still worked 20 years later, side effects and all. And we only recently finished disposal of the chemical weapons pile originally designated for Japan.

              The world dodged a major mass-casualty horrorshow when we nuked Japan and they quit. Be thankful Truman decided against A or B. Nukes gave us all an excuse to stop having world wars. Becasue we otherwise woudl probably be still fighting WW2 phase 7 or whatever, those few who remained to throw rocks at each other.

              Disbelieve? Go look up the tonnages of hellstuff. Then tell me that doesn’t add up to 100M KIA. We were and are the greatest industrial power ever. We built ~106 aircraft carriers in 4.5 years. We were just ramping up to about 40% of industrial capacity in August of 1945. We never hit anywhere near 50%.

              Yeah. Earth dodged a major, major, hellscape becasue we got atomics first and the will to use them first. Dont ever forget that.

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      2. Yep, Japan was going to fight to the bitter end. 11 year old girls were being trained to fight the U.S. Marines with bamboo spears.

        Then two major cities were all but obliterated by one bomber and one bomb each. After August 9th it looked like we would go on nuking a city every few days until there was nothing left. Under such conditions, there was no shame in surrender.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. I’d have to go through my books, but I thought there weren’t any more bombs available at Tinian, and wouldn’t be there for a while (several weeks, perhaps?).

          OTOH, Truman and company weren’t about to tell the Japanese just what we had in mind and on hand, unlike another administration…

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          1. You’re right, we didn’t. In the summer of 1945 we had 3 bombs, set one off in the Nevada desert to make sure it worked and dropped the other two on Japan. Took months before we had enough material to build another bomb.

            The Japanese didn’t know any of that. We gave the impression that we would keep at it forever, and they believed it. Hell, they watched us build 106 aircraft carriers in 3 1/2 years, of course we would mass-produce atomic bombs.

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          2. By 1946, we were cranking out shocking amounts of fissile material.

            General LeMay would have made do with incindieries until more nukes were available. We had enough of them to incinerate the intersting parts of Honshu.

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  11. Hmm. Haven’t been around here for some time, I was hooted out as a conspiracy nut tying together 9/11 and a few other “niceties” of the recent past to, which at the time, was the current atrocity which was the coof then the vaxx, then all the rest. The scum at the top of all this world grief have been in place a very long time, and very busy for ages.
    Sarah, you were never very far off, just missing a few breadcrumbs, so very nice to see your eyes wide open.

    As bad as this is, and will get, you are 100% correct humanity wins in the end. The motherWEFers are mos def on the way out, their Matrix banking system, sucking us all dry, is failing and world domination is pretty hard to maintain when you can’t pay your soldiers and henchmen.
    but it will continue to be ugly as homemade soap for some time, the dying throes of the Beast taking quite a few sideboys ( don’t be one- head on a swivel ), but such is war and this is like the showdown with the Big Boss in vid games. Which means we have already cleared every other stage but the last one- winning.
    Be of good cheer is a perfect rallying cry- cuz fuck you, you will not kill me, assimilate me, or sway me in any way.

    Oh, and one prediction for the future- prepare to have your minds blown by humanity’s true past, hidden and corrupted from us, our place in the universe ( with others!! ), off world technology already being employed in the here and now, etc. OK cool- now you can laugh me out of here again.

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          1. Perfect. I used to forge knives, so this sor of discussion was my usual counterpunch to nincompoops. And the forge where i worked was propane, with a fraction of the energy of Jet-A fuel.

            A typical housefire can easily hit 1800-2000 F. The WTC were self-ventilating chimneys, so they went hot -fast-.

            Liked by 1 person

        2. It’s… when people hear “melt” they think “liquefy”.

          People don’t realize, or they’ve never learned, or they don’t care, that steel looses its structural integrity long before it liquefies.

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          1. Or that both steel and concrete expand when heated, and that concrete basically crumbles when subjected to those temperatures. On the other hand, while they might know that making concrete produces greenhouse gases, they probably have no idea that it’s by roasting limestone, which aids in turning it into a powder.

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  14. America is blessed with several advantages. 1) An individual spirit 2) A history, with foundational documents, of individual liberty. 3) Bountiful natural resources. 4) State governments across much of the country that aren’t completely boneheaded.

    These factors should allow the country to make it through the upcoming tribulations well

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Re: the Red/Blue thing… why do we cooperate with this? It was a stupid map printed by a stupid TV network run by imbecile Leftists. It’s THEIR propaganda.

    Also, the Left/Right thing. It’s French. From the French Revolution, a stupid time created by STUPID people with stupid ideas. Like Metric. Two sides of the same Big Government utopian socialism.

    The real continuum is the Individual Freedom scale. Are you a free and sovereign individual, or not?

    In Canada, you’re not. They don’t even pretend anymore. In the USA, it depends where you live. But, in the things that matter like food, housing, cars, education, doctors, even in Deepest, Darkest, Donkey Territory, New York State, you are -more- free than you are in Canada. Ask me how I know.

    I propose a new delineation for the USA. Gadsden Flag Territory, vs. Homeless Donk Druggie Territory. The HDDT flag is the poo emoji, because that’s what you find on the sidewalks.

    As for Canada, it is starting to look like our conservative flag is going to be a Canada goose going HONK HONK!!! or the now-famous “F*** Trudeau!” flag, and the Liberal scumbag flag is the plain old current Maple Leaf. Lester B. Pearson’s re-brand, replace tradition with a fricking logo.

    The conservative flag used to be the Red Ensign, but since the Queen died nobody seems to give much of a schlitz for the monarchy. Bunch of inbred woman molesters. Canada goose for the win.

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      1. Also in traditional wargame exercises the Blue Force is YOURS the opposing forces are referred to as Red Force. I think the Media may have picked this habit up from their limited interaction with military forces and have committed a Freudian slip.

        Liked by 1 person

          1. And blue is the color of serenity and spiritual peace, so obviously it applies to the anointed. (Sarcasm off. Started, “The Vision of the Anointed,” but get depressed about once every three pages).

            Liked by 1 person

        3. Freudian slip? I think someone did it deliberately, and thought he was terribly clever to do it, with a side of “The rubes will never notice.”

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          1. Yes/and, since “red” was “out of power”/”challenger” from the Florida recount, which seems to be where it got popularized.

            So, the “red team” is always out of power, and always an invader, the enemy- makes sense.

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      2. Reclaiming the colour from the Commies does have a certain appeal. >:D

        Speaking of re-brands, did you know that Diagolon is listed as an official reason for declaring the Emergencies Act during the Freedom Rally in 2022?

        https://www.sasktoday.ca/crime-cops-court/diagolon-leader-feels-short-changed-by-justice-system-heres-why-7752336

        Diagolon is the meme country that stretches from Alaska through the Canadian West, down through Middle America and ending up in Florida. Jeremy MacKenzie made it up on his phone, as a joke. We’ve been treated to video of Liberal cabinet ministers standing up in Parliament saying that Diagolon is a dangerous Right Wing Militia of armed insurrectionists trying to bring down the government by force.

        Liked by 1 person

        3. “Reclaiming the colour from the Commies does have a certain appeal. >:D”

          “The gods favor you, red is the gods’ color.”-Gladiator

          Liked by 2 people

    2. As a flag for the Canadian conservatives may I suggest
      A Canada goose in sable and argent on a field gules, rampant facing gauche with the words Honk! Honk! above in Or, Motto “Noli Me Tangere!” in a banner Or with letters in Sable below.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. That sounds good. But I’m feeling fairly salty today, so I think the goose should be breathing fire and we should find a way to work FAFO into it somewhere.

        Deal Latin scholars, what’s FAFO in Latin?

        Liked by 2 people

          1. Gurgle Translate says it’s “irrumabo circuitu et quæramus”. I suspect that’s a direct (sort of) word-for-word translation, never the best way to translate anything; it usually fails to capture the essence…

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            1. Yeah, that really isn’t even close. It means literally “I will go around and search.” Sometimes Google takes a swing and a miss.

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            2. An irrumator is a man who inserts his penis into someone else’s mouth. Not quite appropriate. Latin is a very precise language: It has at least seven sexual verbs. I would use the verb futuo, as Ms. Johnnie does above, as I understand it to mean vaginal penetration, which is the baseline meaning of the English verb.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. It is, but FA doesn’t really have anything to do with the literal meaning of either word, which is, I suspect, why Gurgle couldn’t handle it.

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          2. If anyone cleans that up (or agrees that is just about perfect), please comment below me because I am collecting random Latin phrases.

            I don’t speak Latin, but I am finding joy in collecting curses, cursing, and general silliness in a dead language.

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            2. My sister used to collect silly phrases in foreign languages. In Thai she could say ‘The pineapple cannot dance’. In French she could say ‘I am the lizard queen,’ and ‘I like to lick chickens.’

              I had a college friend who once translated a bumper sticker of mine into Latin: Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

              Sadly, I have misplaced it.

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    3. I’ve had to stop commenting on Time Ghost vids because Sparty gets all stompy-footed when I say Nazi and Fascists are LEFT wing and certainly left of me [evil grin] and his arguement comes down the the standard far left EU trope of them being ‘rightwing” because they were not trying for Full Communism, and ignores they were attempts at making Rousseau/Marx State Knows Best Work in reality, especially economically (Fascism by booting as much of Marx from things as Bennie could, yes)

      And please come to Marinette/Menominee and collect your Canuckistani Cobra Chickens! Tired of them poopin’ on my walk and lawn. We’ve got two groups that do not migrate.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Here in the Peeples Republik of Canuckistan the Grand River has several large groups of geese that didn’t bother migrating this year. Because my lawn looks like April, not February. I used the tractor to move snow one (1) time this winter so far, and even then it was more boredom than anything else. ~:D

        Of interest, up north of Geraldton Ont, past the north shore of Lake Superior, there’s no snow and its warm. Unheard of, really. February north of Highway 11 and you can’t run a snowmobile? Ridiculous!

        Liked by 1 person

        1. So far, I’ve had one weekend of heavy snowblower use (3 times and much drifting), one mild one, and someone got the walk before I got home so that storm was less than usual. and a few cnows that I just pushed the snow with a shovel. But Feb. is often our snowiest month. (Feb 22nd . . . It wasn’t Grandma’s birthday without a snow or ice storm either the day or leading up to it.)
          I was wondering if the International 500 is going to run in Sault St. Marie this past weekend (iirc wanders off to look) as we have little snow again and it’s now been rather warm and raining on this end of the U.P. But a look shows snow enough the race went on.
          Won by a massive (compared to last year’s photo-finish) 2.9 seconds.
          Our two flocks consolidate for winter, and they’ve never migrated since I’ve been here . . . part of the river stays open, and there are a pair or two of Mallards too that stick around.

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          1. Yellowstone and Tetons are desperate for snow. They’ve gotten some. Not enough to sustain through the normal slow melt in the high countries through July. Rain is not good enough. Don’t know how it is going further north in Glacier/Waterton, Banff, and Jasper. Parks are further north, but except for the Ice Parkway, are at Tetons lower elevation. (Eastern Oregon, Baker area, and Yosemite/Sequoia, etc., are getting plenty of snow. Which is good.)

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    4. I have read that in the 19th century, the French actually had a threefold color symbolism. Red was labor, which meant more or less what “red” meant all through the 20th. White was European conservatism: the king, the landed aristocracy, the army, and the established church. Blue was freedom of speech and religion and pro-market views.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Naw, we make the left gray. The color of grime, and dust, and dreary concrete stack-a-prole tenements. The color of worn-out clothes that have been washed 1,000 times in a ‘water saving’ machine with ‘sustainable’ detergent.

          Liked by 1 person

        3. A red flag, inthe 19th century, signified “No Quarter”. Santa Anna used one during the Texas fighting, notably.

          The Communists adopted as their symbol the “No Quarter” flag. They meant it then,and still do. “Black Flag” was originaly “Quarter given for -prompt- surrender”, thus use by Pirates, who wanted loot cheaply, not a bloody expensive battle. Black Flag later became associated with “No Quarter” without the details, but soem still understnd the older meaning, so guess who started using black flags, and red flags, and “well why decide when we can use both”.

          I, for one, do not mind that we have hijacked their damn red color. Joke em if they cant take a (grin)

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Right, the oriflamme. “Kill them all! No surrender!” I think it goes back well before the 19th century, though.

            Backfired a few times, when troops who would have surrendered fought to the bitter end knowing they had nothing to lose, and won.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. which a lot of people on our side are doing.
              The left meanwhile think we’re them, so they’re fighting to the bitter end anyway.
              Play deguello boys. This one is going to get fuuuuuun.

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      2. The Soviets and Chinese latched onto red because 1) it was already in use and 2) it is a color associated with good fortune in both Eastern Slavic and Chinese culture. Or was …

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    5. The red state/blue state thing didn’t become fixed in the public consciousness until the 2000 Bush vs. Gore election. For decades TV networks had no set pattern for the colors they used. If you watch clips from the elections of ’72, ’76, ’80 and ’84 you will see blue for Republican and red for Democrat or other color combinations. During the Reagan landslide of 1980 one of the Big Three network anchors — think it was Dan Rather — said the map “looked like a suburban swimming pool” because it was all BLUE for Reagan.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Except for Mondale’s home state.

        He lost that state in a subsequent Senate election, giving him the dubious honor of being the only person who has lost in all 50 states.

        :P

        Like

  16. In March, Sam’s Club is discontinuing cafe Deluxe pizzas, probably because all the veggies are expensive now. Also churros.

    The stated reason is to make cafes more efficient in cooking and serving, which is probably also true. The cafes have more business than they can handle, and most cafes are as understaffed as any other department. Churros and deluxes are both fiddly. Good sellers, though.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “because all the veggies are expensive now. ”

      So are all the other ingredients….. makes no sense.

      Like

        1. Sources tell me that the grocery warehouses are planning to downsize because nothing is coming in. Right now they are running JIT, where they used to have canned goods for several years and ran FIFO (first in, first out) rotation. Several popular brands were mentioned that are shipping bare minimum or nothing. They can’t fill the orders.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Used to be, for many things, the shelf at the store was full to the back or nearly so. Now, unless it’s a big ad/sale item, there’s just enough to make the shelf look nice in the morning for a little while, maybe. And while it’s not 2020 bad, there are still many places where something is spread out to cover a gap.

            Like

          2. There are all kinds of odd shortages, usually temporary, at our various local grocery outlets. Distribution woes, manufacturer shortages? Don’t know – but it is unsettling to note the empty spaces on the shelves…

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            1. As best I can tell, yes/and.

              Especially since distribution issues hit the manufacturers, too.

              The ADHD med/”Adderall shortage” is still going on, which is to be expected when the companies response to being asked about an increase in supply would be needed was “Nope, we’re good at the current level, nevermind that you’re asking because folks who are prescribed it can’t get the stuff.”

              Like

            2. Still seeing shelf gaps and apologetic notes in the commissary. Outside right now the local groceries don’t have any shredded Parmesan cheese

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            3. Same here, at all three grocery stores in my town. National brands made out of state seem to be most prone to be missing. Local stuff is almost always available.

              I tend to lay out meal plans and buy what is needed; this has often been subject to in-store revision based on what I can actually buy.

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              1. We’re seeing that here; none of the 4 possibilities have it locally, but we can order a case from Food Service Direct.

                Like

    2. Almost all the food joints around here are struggling to have staff to stay open. Even Hardee’s and Burger King often are either “Drive thru only” or “Sorry, we are closing at 7pm due to lack of staff”

      Liked by 1 person

    3. At the end of March, I’ll brave the western side of Oregon for a Costco run. Since my diet is limited, pizza from them isn’t a thing, but I gather the old Chicken Caesar salad is back. OTOH, that warehouse tends to be very conservative, so not all the promised goodies are guaranteed to show up. On the gripping hand, I might hit Abby’s Pizza for one of their gluten free specials. It’s been a long time since I’ve had pizza from a store. (We do a thick crust pizza at home with a rice flour dough. It’s good, but there’s something nice about “I’d like a pizza to go, no anchovies, please.” and getting it a half hour later.

      Note to self: see what Firesign Theater LPs I actually have on hand.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Costco in Eugene seems to have supplies. OTOH – Why are the boxes of freezers Reese Peanut Butter (2 pk) cup missing? (Called “freezers” because 1) we freeze them, and 2) when son couldn’t pronounce Reese.)

        Fred’s (kroger) OTOH have been out of stuff throughout the store especially pet food. Same with Petsmart.

        Like

        1. Kat likes Pedigree canned, which is part of her food. She gets that, then for dinner we give her a mix of Diamond Naturals beef and chicken kibble, with treats mixed in. These are postage stamp sized bits of Beggin’ Strips, and a Blue Dog Softee broken up.

          The canned is easy to get (and cheaper) at Bi-Mart, the treats have to come from Fred’s, and the kibble from either Coastal or Grange Coop farm & ranch stores.

          Coastal has a good selection of non-mass-market canned dog food, especially Diamond Naturals and Wildology. We don’t have any kittehs–cats love $SPOUSE, but her allergies say none in the house.

          Like

          1. Pepper (dog) is on R/D, weight loss prescription. So far that isn’t working. Neither was prescription Metobolic, or cooked raw (through local meat market, which multiple fosters who specialize in overweight fosters, swore by). Veterinarian is now suspecting something is off metabolically (a specific condition named, but I don’t remember). Her annual is March 6, and she is 7, so we are adding a senor panel to her heart worm test which is also due (along with Rabies, etc. It is going to be expensive.)

            Cats, 5 of them. We have one who has a sensitive stomach, so non-prescription sensitive stomach and fur, kibble for all, 24/7. They get canned every morning. For all being strays, especially the last one, they are all picky eaters. Two makes a little more sense, they were 5 weeks old when we brought them in. But the last one we’ve only had 6 months, and he was 3 years old. He was being fed by, well everyone, but not by fancy foods (I know, I bought the stuff hubby fed him). And he competes with nothing. Not even the other cats as he has taken over the family room. Right now only one of the 5 eat the canned I currently have. Excuse me while I go hit my head on a desk or against a wall. That might be more productive. Sigh.

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        2. Has anyone else noticed a lack of Del Monte tomato products on their grocer’s shelves? The Kroger store here still carries their other veggies, but has had no diced/stewed/sauced tomatoes for months now.

          Like

          1. Nothing weird is showing in the search engines. We stopped dealing with DM after Nancy Pelosi got caught jiggering a minimum wage bill to benefit Del Monte’s StarKist tuna operation in American Samoa (which was “curiously” excluded from the minimum wage bill. Apparently fixed after somebody noticed what she had done.). At the time, her hubby had $17 million in Del Monte stock, so that might possibly have had an influence.

            For sauces (and until our bodies said tomato paste was off the menu–citric acid seems to be the culprit), we get the Essential Everyday brand from the independent grocery. Diced tomatoes, we use the Kroger brand.

            We see random spot shortages of various things. Shipping and other supply chain issues have made life interesting.

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            1. We do use some Kroger house brand items, but have learned to read their labels very carefully after discovering certain things, e.g. canned peaches and pears, are from China.

              Alas, checking my shelves just now, so are the DM peaches, which I blithely purchased unread as I trusted the brand.

              I see that I need to apply “Trust but verify” even more widely.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. use some Kroger house brand items, but have learned to read their labels very carefully
                ……………..

                Well, dang. I read pet food to insure not from China (only US or Canada. Interestingly enough both Canada and US border crossing require pet food be certified made in US or Canada.) Now I gotta make sure our food isn’t sourced from China. I’ve cut out everything that is China sourced. Or try to.

                I buy very few things canned, and only one Kroger (red kidney beans), only because the brand name hasn’t been readily available (S&W). Hunts tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce. Soups (Campbell or Progressive). No canned fruits or vegetables.

                Liked by 1 person

                1. What Sarah says. Some of Kroger’s frozen veggies are from China IIRC. You basically now have to read every label on every product – box, can, jar, bag. It is astonishing how products grown in the US can be shipped overseas to be frozen or processed and packaged and shipped back to sell cheaply enough you never suspect.

                  Liked by 1 person

                  2. I know. Eugene used to have canaries essentially downtown. Sisters worked there during summer while in college. I never did. I went to work for the USFS during my summers. Those canaries are decades gone. Even the buildings are torn down.

                    Like

          2. I buy store-brand canned tomatoes, and notice they’re now ‘on sale’ at about ten cents more than use to be the standard price, with standard price ranging from half again to double of the old standard price.

            Might be regionally too expensive?

            Liked by 1 person

        3. In my area, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are only available in “fun size” and “thin.” I haven’t seen regular size ones in years. And some stores now, don’t carry them at all.

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          1. Relatively “new” for us. Granted a box lasts 4 – 6 months or so. Didn’t notice until was on the list as “almost out”, which was Thanksgiving 2023. But definitely available 2023. Exactly when disappeared? Have no idea.

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          2. Here in DFW, Wal-Mart seems to carry all the sizes, up to something called “stuffed”. We don’t buy much chocolate here; it triggers Em’s afib.

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      2. Everything you know is wrong

        “Georgie Tirebiter he’s a spy and girl delighter”
        “There’s hambuger all over the highway in Mystic Conn”

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        1. The soundtrack to my college days. Senior year, the local FM station played several hours of the BBC Goon Show (starring Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, and Harry Secombe). Firesign did a great job a stealing from the best!

          Like

    4. Orange juice. Store brand orange juice used to be $3.00 – $3.50 a gallon when Trump was President, fairly regularly on sale at $2.50 or lower.

      Now it’s $7.00 – $7.50, with infrequent ‘specials’ at $6.50. Yeah, great economy you zombie sock-puppet. Bidenflation bites.

      Like

      1. Tillmook 2# block cheese. Regular price is “who knows”. Normal sale price is $13.99, with regular $10.99 extra bargain, to $6.99 digital/max-5 coupon. I tend to get 5 blocks when the last happens. Cost under Trump? $10.99 regular down to $3.99 digital/max-5 coupon. Bidenflation sucks.

        That isn’t all. Milk at Costco went from $3.29, now at $6.49/2-gallons. Kroger’s $5.29/gallon unless $2.50/gallon digital coupon (once this winter). Costco hamburger $3.29/# to $4.99/# (Kroger, IDK, only buy if on discount shelf at $4.99/#). My grocery bill has gone from < $100 to easily > $200, and often $300 per week at Kroger alone, before discounts and coupons hit (OTOH with 4x fuel points on Friday, we are raking in the $1/per gallon discounts at the pump, two or three times a month). Not counting the 4% kickback on groceries, and fuel, from Verizon Visa (good for $25 – $30/month off the cell phone bill). This isn’t counting the Costco (meat, milk, non-food bulk purchases), or pet store runs. All in all, we should be breaking even net income to normal bills (house, vehicles, static; utility costs, up some) with the SS increases (pensions do not have COLA). Not even close. Are there places we could cut? Duh! Maybe < $150/month (not per trip).

        Liked by 1 person

        1. We get our Tillamook from Coscto, simply because their 2.5# block is under $11, where if you buy the 2# block from anywhere else, it’s the $14 you cite. Note the differences in weight to add to the deal.

          Like

          1. get our Tillamook from Coscto, simply because their 2.5# block is under $11, where if you buy the 2# block from anywhere else, it’s the $14 you cite.
            ……………….

            Well yes. If I’m getting Pepper Jack, or Sharp Cheddar. Our Costco only carries the Medium Cheddar in the 5# block. The 5# block is wasteful (for us). Yes, I get equivalent of 10# blocks when the 2# blocks are on sale (5 limit). But they are individually wrapped at 2#s, and they last (forever) when sealed in original package. I avoid buying the 2.5# Pepper Jack, because that is wasteful too (hubby doesn’t use it fast enough). If I could get a small food sealer, I would. I just don’t use the big ones. (Not enough room to leave it out. Which then, except initially, not used. Wastes storage space.) Clingy clear plastic wrap might work instead (found one that I can “tear” off without making a mess). Baggies do not. I don’t like texture of block cheese after it has been frozen. Oh, I do get the shredded, break it into quart sizes, and freeze.

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  17. The fact that, government is a necessary evil, does not make it any less evil. And those that feel they are better than others and therefore should rule over others’ will always be with us. No matter what name they give their newest ideology they will always be a plague on mankind. But do remember they always couch their lies in it’s for the children, the very same children they wish to enslave.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. “when we stop having the money to say buy trinkets from China, China collapses.” There are articles to the effect that China is already starting to go. I don’t think it’s coincidence.

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      1. I remember reading something about that experiential 1970s Europe/USA difference one time, ages ago. It was about Greece, but I guess Portugal was similar.

        In the USA the 1970s was elephant ear collars, fat ties and platform shoes. In Europe it was vigilante squads with machine guns running around shooting each other, and starvation.

        Liked by 1 person

          1. Yes. You could only buy gas if both the last numeric digit on your license plate and the day of the month were both odd/even.

            And there were always ridiculously long lines.

            Liked by 1 person

              1. Yes horror. Go from $2 gallon of gas to $7 a gallon in under 6 months today. That is about the same as what happened. How good has it been since Biden caused almost that?

                Liked by 1 person

          2. I remember dealing with the horror of Daylight Savings time in January 1974 for Gas Crunch V1.0. Interning at Large Electronics Company. Get to work just as the sun was rising, leave work just as it was setting. Have I mentioned I loathe driving in the dark? I think I remember just why that’s so.

            At that time, gas went from $0.29 to $0.63, and God Help You if you were low on gas when the car in front of you sported a “Last Car” sign at the pump. Sigh.

            Like

          3. There was de facto rationing of a lot of other stuff due to price controls. Guess what Democrats are trying to push through Congress as their “solution” to inflation caused by spending to much….,.,wait…….PRICE CONTROLS.

            Liked by 1 person

        2. In the ’70s we had inflation and insane interest rates.

          There was a short trend for “generic” can goods in black and white, but that didn’t last long.

          Also 8-tracks were the portable music before hi-bias cassette tapes in car and boom boxes…

          Liked by 2 people

          2. The worst was Generic Beer. Yes, it existed. No, I never drank it. My standards weren’t high, but they weren’t that low…

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            2. At the time, the Reader lived in what is now known as the Peoples Republic of MD. We wouldn’t steam crabs in the stuff.

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          4. In the ’70s we had inflation and insane interest rates.
            ……………..

            Amen.

            It is weird B*ing whining about 6% HELC adjustable loans, when we were dealing with 13 – 15% five year adjustable loans, 10 year balloon. Seriously, our ’88 house loan was 13.5% adjustable balloon (for all of 6 months before we got a new one). 2009 locked in at 3.25% 30 year fixed. Reagan was good for a lot of things, and what he did trended down interest rates, but the process was anything but fast (do not remember what the house loan, in ’80, was for the house in Longview. I think 9%, 30 year, fixed.)

            Yes, it was strange not being happy with 6% student loans (part was start paying interest and paying payments immediately, not wait until 6 months after graduation/quitting, but then interest rates were 1% – 2%, late ’00s) which is what what I had. But besides the ’00 adjustable interest rates, mine from ’79 was 6% fixed, on $9000. Hubby’s was 4% fixed, on $5000. Bit difference for a possible 6% to “WTH who knows” on $90,000 possibility.

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            1. Just because “it has been worse” doesn’t make current inflation and high interest rates good. Trust me. Been there. Done that.

              Liked by 1 person

            2. The house I bought in ’86 had a variable mortgage (Cost of Funds), with a 3 month teaser rate of 8.5%, after which it hit 11%, sloooooowwwwwwwyy dropping to something better by the early Aughts. (Might have ended around 6%. Doubt I kept the records.)

              When we moved here, we were quite careful to avoid any mortgage. It meant for a lot of sweat equity and very tight budgeting, but the freedom from debt paid off the liniment bill. Icy-Hot for the win!

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            3. It took Reagan a couple of years to get the interest rates under control. Unfortunately, we had a mini-recession while that was happening.

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              1. Mini recession? Our area had an industry crash that never came back. We had just started, and were scrambling in the ’80s (we were the 20 somethings just starting out, in the ’80s). Not that we didn’t scramble later, but we had a lot better cushion.

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              2. Yeah, it was a mini recession in electronics. HP went to a 4 day workweek, with Fridays an unpaid day off. Until enough people realized that we could get unemployment compensation for that day, leaving HP on the hook. They very quickly went back to a 5 day workweek, though there was a salary cut. As memory serves, the hourly people got some cuts, while the exempt employees got a somewhat greater cut.

                I sort of liked the day off–had enough to do outside of work that I was able to get some necessary and/or fun projects done at home.

                Like

        3. The ’70s was also the height of the domestic terrorism here in the US. That doesn’t mean that there was much of it going on. But the big events that people remembered – the Brinks robbery, Patty Hearst and the SLA, Weatherman, etc… – were largely in the ’70s.

          Liked by 1 person

      1. Best time. Allows them to play the national pride card. They’ve been doing little else for the last couple of years. China stronk and all that

        Liked by 1 person

  19. You can feel the desperation all around, and I suspect that when it breaks, it’s going to break bad.

    My personal…hope, if you can call it this thing, is that there will be an effort to “go to the streets” during the RNC convention and enough people-both in general and in charge-will realize that things have to be dialed back or else they’ll be among the gallows fruit.

    And there are shockwaves coming. Gina Carrano is suing Disney for wrongful termination, with Elon Musk’s help. If they really want to stick it to Disney (and by extension Blackrock Investment), they hold on through discovery and the airing of that dirty laundry is going to be painful.

    2024 is probably going to be a terrible year for the entertainment industry. And the more fiscal pain we can generate, the better.

    Liked by 1 person

        1. Agreed.
          Also, it you own a home and have sticks it may not seem so bad. Though we do both and I sure don’t like it. It’s much worse for our son.

          Liked by 2 people

          1. The reason son still lives with us is the cost of apartments and houses locally. Buying? Houses are way too out of line, cost wise. Renting? He has the bank balance, but his monthly income to rent doesn’t hit the percentage threshold they require without a cosigner. Heck before too long we’ll be to the point where we are living with him (the parental apartment).

            We’ve been talking about what happens to the house that mom and dad built in ’63 when mom goes. Both my sisters want to keep it in the family. Doesn’t make sense unless someone in the family buys it. That means either son, or us. Maybe one niece (would be better than where they are, for reasons). But none of us will want to pay market for it. Almost (pretty sure) all 3 of us sisters are willing to take under market for us, son, or niece, to have it. There is also the fact that it needs some updating. (Not the best location to have animals. But that is what fenced yard, for dog, and caticos, are for.)

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            1. You could see if your family would be willing to do an “owner-carried mortgage” on the house.

              It’s not very common anymore, since most people want a lump sum for the house they’re selling so they can pay a lump sum for the house they’re buying (… more or less), but since this would be an inherited family property, that might be an option that wouldn’t require the involvement of a bank and credit checks.

              Liked by 1 person

            2. Buy out the hosue. Rent to your kids based on their income. When they decide to do better elsewhere, rent it again at market or sell it.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Not renting out the house. Period. I am not getting into rentals, especially with family home. Been there. Done that. No. No. No.

                Not there yet. Anything could happen at anytime. But at this point mom is doing great at 89. Better than her parents were at this point. They were 95 when they passed.

                None of us 3 girls need the money. Don’t expect sisters to give up their share. Don’t expect whichever grandchild buys it gets it for free. But sold at top of market, which would happen to a stranger? No, to keep it in the family. The sister whose child actually buys it, contributes their third to the purchase? Us, yes. One child, he gets everything anyway (at which point he probably could pay cash). The niece? Well she is one of 4, so the inheritance math is more complicated.

                Liked by 1 person

                  1. Yes. No way are we ever renting out mom’s house. Nor will it remain empty if she has to move out. If she has to go into a nursing home, house will sell for top dollar at the time. No choice. The money will be required for the nursing home. If she passes while still living in the house, then the estate has some options. Highly likely if neither son or niece want the house, while it is being sold, son will use it as temporary quarters.

                    Essentially that this is what BIL and his sister did when their mom went into assisted living. She was absolutely sure she was moving back. She did not want the house sold. No way was it happening. But short of declaring her incompetent (would not have been hard), the siblings moved in one of the kids, to keep the house occupied. As that kid moved on, another one was moved in. When their mom died, then the house was put for sell, sold, and the latest kid moved out.

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      3. Even funnier was him awarding “Joe Bribem” points for “No major scandals”. Sure, just like 0.

        Like

        1. Oh, and “this might change if he gets a major foreign policy debacle” — uh. Afghanistan withdrawal. Giving Iran money to attack Israel. Taking us to the bring of WWIII and only missing because other countries are in even worse shape.
          Etc. etc. etc.
          None so blind, etc.

          Like

          2. I’m trying to imagine a greater foreign policy debacle than all the ones the Zombie Sock-Puppet has already brought us aaannnd…I got nuthin’. Hell, a Wet Firecracker War with Russia would just be more of the same.
            ———————————
            Why do so many idiots believe that our problems will be solved by the same shitheads that caused them?

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Easy to verify ours work:

              China and Russia fear our nukes and act it.

              They penetrated our nuke program in the 40s, and it has been their top intl priority evert since, so they know -exactly- what we have, and what it can do, and how reliable they tend to be. Thus they act like we can extinguish them both, simultaneously, in an afternoon. If their intel weasels knew our shit was inoperative, or even semi-inoperable, they would be running amok.

              They are cautious, thus ours work.

              Liked by 1 person

                1. China and Russia have historically had very good HUMIT, blackmail/compromising assets, and “political” intelligence. Lots of traditions of dealing with cut-throat politics back home creates good operatives for that kind of thing.

                  Technical intelligence…not so good. Especially trying to turn complicated pieces of science into working hardware. Lot of stories of people during the START missile reductions examining Soviet missiles and saying that anywhere between a quarter to a third would fail to launch, blow up while launching, or fall apart over the Soviet Union. (It’s also why the Russians invested so heavily in solid-rocket booster technology. Fewer things that can go wrong…)

                  And it’s all being filtered through a propaganda lens. Take a look at the T-19 Armada tank, supposedly the greatest thing since sliced bread and will overwhelm the entire NATO military (according to Russian propogandists and people who are still jerking off to the great Soviet Bear).

                  People that are in the know point out that the US could build the Abrams-X tank and neutralize about 90+% of the advantages of the T-19 in less than two years. And this is just a revision of a nearly fifty-years old platform.

                  The new Challenger III and several other tanks are in the pipeline that are peers to this tank, and they’re early in their development lifecycle. The only reason that they aren’t being built is that the US Army, the British Army, and NATO really don’t need them right now. They’re only putting in funding because the older gear is wearing out and they want to have a replacement ready in the next few years.

                  Nobody believes it, because nobody believes these stories on the Internet. It’s not sexy, it’s not sold with awesome propaganda shots and sexy Russian soldiers charging across fields with their weapons at a very strategic height…

                  Liked by 1 person

                  1. We have around 8000 M-1 tanks on storage, upgradeable to current versions. Whereas our tank making capability is rather small now. So upgrading those marvelous things is probably our next 30 years.

                    Helpfully, they were built to be upgradeable. The originals had the equivalent of 80 inches of “rolled homogeneous armor” (RHA) steel plate in thecfront. Later ones, 600+ inches equivalent. Currently, better still.

                    Obviously, they are not 50 feet thick. (Grin).

                    Sides, back, top, bottom are of course thinner equivalents.

                    What no one can (yet) easily beat is the modern super-heavy DU “long rod” spear at Mach 5+.

                    Or 1960s 30mm DU from an A-10 firing at the tops. Ouch.

                    They can probably build something about the same. They cannot produce -crews- like ours. These are not “draftee levy” tanks.

                    And the best Russian tank currently is a glorified T-64 derivative, or an uprated T-72. So, good for how they fight. Not so good to fight -us-.

                    Liked by 1 person

                    2. English and Canadian, at least understand it if they don’t budget for enough of it, those are the folks I’ve heard of raiding museums for parts.

                      (our Navy does this too, it usually is because the supply system is screwed up and/or some “helpfully” substituted something tehy can’t.)

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                    3. On that note, I have just started using a secondhand bike that was very much loved by its prior owner. As in, it’s roughly 50 years old and all I still need to do is grease the wheels a bit to eliminate the squeak and replace the brake pads and cables (which seem to be original, and still work.)

                      The previous owner’s wife thought that I’d have to “do a lot of work on it”. I told her that changing out tubes and tires is normal and expected, goodness. It’s not like swapping out the hub, which is what the prior bike I was using needed. (It wasn’t my size or preferred type of bike, so I didn’t want to put in the work.)

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                2. Russia has had a world-class Intel system since the 1920s. It is based on Sun Tzu “Art of War.” That book is required reading at every level of Russian intel and military schooling, to include memorization of and testing on key passages.

                  World Class, more like “class of the world”.

                  And China -wrote- the book used for the clases.

                  I was -shocked- as a PFC in 1987 to meet a -Captain- that claimed never to have heard of it. Gah.

                  Admittedly, I discovered Sun Tzu through James Clavell’s novel “Tai Pan”. I have Clavell’s translation of “Art of War”.

                  Folks, if you haven’t read “Art of War” please do so. Vital to understanding and defeating our main foes. (or anyone else needing defeated.)

                  Absolutely -essential- reading.

                  Like

      4. Stupid. A lot of the nice lefties think the economy is great because the stock market is up. Not coincidentally, they’re (in my circles) retirees with state pension plans plus Social Security plus personal retirement investments.

        I’m getting annoyed with them.

        The couple of younger, working lefties I haven’t completely cut off are very, very, quiet about the economy.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. My father is trying very hard to get me to find a job with a city, county, or State organization of some kind so I can get into the CalPERS system.

          …I don’t want to move to Southern California or near Sacramento, both of which I would probably have to do when I jumped jobs to get more money.

          Like

            2. Enough has trickled out via not-quite-mainstream financial news to indicated that CalPers is cruisin’ for a bruisin’. I doubt the Cali general fund can bail out their missteps for long, and I really doubt the Fed can bail out Cali for more than a nanosecond.

              Like

          2. You know calpers is a bankrupt shell, yes? As more rich folks leave the state, it becomes impossible for them to meet obligations, and soon impossible to hide it.

            Bail. Be far away when that cowturd hits the ground

            Liked by 2 people

            1. Dad believes. Lot of history there.
              The only way I can keep domestic harmony as I’m dealing with my current job is to apply for jobs and the jobs that makes Dad happy is jobs with the State, County, and City.
              City job and Mom’s budgeting bought his first house, paid for his second house, and will give him money and medical until he goes.
              State job gives him money to travel, pay for the home renovations, and to buy a car outright.
              I think he knows, but I think he’s also praying for what the rest of us are.
              A miracle.

              Liked by 1 person

        2. The stock market is almost entirely driven by a few huge mega-corporations, like Apple. When Apple has a bad day, the NASDAQ has a bad day.

          Almost all of Apple’s products are made in China, so Apple’s stock price is not a good indicator of the U.S. economy. Hell, it’s not even a good indicator of China’s economy.

          The huge mega-corps primarily benefit the elitists. Outside of the mega-corps, the economy sucks. It’s been sucky for…lemme see…a little over 3 years. Whaddya know about that?
          ———————————
          If you laid all the economists in the world end to end, they would all point in different directions.

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          1. And Apple’s new shiny toy…

            … is priced out of the consumer market. I know that’s apparently intentional. Apple apparently sees the new VR headset as primarily a tool for businesses right now. But businesses probably aren’t going to put down $3500 (plus tax) per headset just for VR meetings.

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            1. Speaking of shiny toys, I saw the writeup for Kodak’s new Super-8 movie camera. Looks pretty cool, but at $5995.00, I fail to see a use for a 3-5 minute movie camera (time limited by the amount of film it carries), in Super-freakin’-8.

              AFAICT, it’s a beautiful solution in search of a problem that doesn’t exist. (Recalls glancing at an audio-philiac magazine going at length over the superiority of silver speaker wire vs copper. There wasn’t a headable desk handy, so I just groaned.)

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              1. WTF, O??

                I remember 8mm movie film. It was crap. Back in the 70s, it was better than nothing.

                Today, a $200 smartphone has much better picture quality, vastly better low-light performance, with sound, and hours to days of recording time. Plus, of course, you can copy the digital data to other devices.

                On the other hand, silver is more conductive than copper and with the price copper is getting to be, it’s not even that much more expensive. I just doubt you’d hear any difference in the sound.

                Back in 1943, what with copper being a restricted war resource, the Manhattan Project borrowed several hundred tons of silver from the U.S. Mint to make wire to wind the big electromagnets for the Oak Ridge Calutrons.

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                1. If memory serves, silver hookup cables were more “mainstream” by the standards of those who claimed to be able to hear the difference. I’d still roll my eyes, even back when I had unimpeded hearing. (Nerve damage and procedures for prosthetic stapes have ruled that out for a few decades.)

                  Got the price off somewhat. Merely $5495. My eyes are still rolling.
                  The reviews of the camera are amusing, some intentionally. Here’s one by dpreview. The snark is strong with this one:

                  https://www.dpreview.com/articles/3383990532/eight-years-after-being-announced-kodak-super-8-movie-camera-will-finally-ship

                  The money quote for me: (There’s a link buried in there; I don’t know what show they’re referring do. Don’t want to watch it…)

                  Super 8mm is going to deliver the ’60’s home movie’ look that you might need if you want to make the title sequence of a TV show about wealthy, dysfunctional families.

                  FWIW, it does have sound, though recorded on a separate card. Somethings handles synchronization. As the review mentioned, the original price point ($700) might have made sense for the average(?) shiny thing collector, but This. Is. Bonkers.

                  Like

      5. It’s the line. We have the local (unaffiliated) news channel here running all day long while I’m at work. The economic guy they have on once or twice a week keeps talking about how great the economy is.

        Of course, he’s relying on the official numbers, which will quietly be “corrected” a couple of months from now.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Look, we’re “okay-ish” because our kids have moved out and are self-and-wife supporting (with a little help from the wives.) If we still had the boys in the house, we’d be drowning.
          As is we had to scramble on house repairs this month, which will limit the help we can give the boys, who yes, need some. And will need more if ever there are kids. Because young and scrambling, even though “JUST” making it for now. Which I estimate puts them ahead of 90% of their peers.

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          1. I just ran the numbers from the January power bill. Partly because Renewable [spit] and Evuuuul Dam Removal Project [hurl, spit], year over year power is up 20% per kilowatt hour, and that’s with only 3 weeks of the month at the new rate. Looks like it will go up another 3-5% for next month.

            It doesn’t help that Warren Buffet [same reaction] owns the power company, and they went along with the removal project because then they could skip the cost of fish ladders, and put the rate payers on the hook for removal costs.

            Also saw the numbers; the 36 MWe of Solar Electric are supposed to replace about 150 MWe of hydro power. OTOH, grid tie systems for ranchers is a thing, and a lot of those are located where the crops don’t grow that well. I still get really annoyed at seeing acres and acres of what used to be good farmland turned into a solar panel ghetto. At least wind power isn’t a thing over here.

            Liked by 1 person

      6. They all use the same jobs number ignoring all the other numbers. Even that number isn’t great. They only say it’s great. Then they talk about high real incomes which, properly calculated, have been flat to declining during the current regime after growing sharply under Trump. Bah!

        The numbers are there for those who will look for them. Takes 5 minutes

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Musk may be angling to buy DEIsney. Look how he slammed Twitter before the buyout.

      And wouldnt “Mickey Musk” be a thing….

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I’m thinking that Musk wouldn’t buy Disney (directly) if he does it. He’ll support the Nelson Peltz boardroom coup and a lot of the news and his support of the Gina Carrano lawsuit is designed to get someone in charge that is an ally.
        I think after he bought Twitter, he’s going to be careful about dipping into those kinds of waters any time soon.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. What if…

          Musk realizes that Tesla is an economic dead end?

          Disney was a mega-money-printing machine. DEIsney is a basket case. One decent CEO can turn that back around with a few “old school” re-reboots. “Star Wars: Extended Universe! The Force is With US!” picking up after “return” as if the prequel/sequel trilogies were bad dreams from smoking bantha poo. (And saying as much in the fan channels)

          Liked by 1 person

          1. I think that Tesla will remain working as long as it remains a bespoke/luxury car brand with the occasional experimental dips into the “wider car market,” especially if idiots in the Blue states start actually trying to get rid of ICE cars (even hybrids).

            And I think Star Wars is a dead brand for the next decade or so-it was hopes that Dave Filoni and “Asoka” would have been that renewal, but it turned out to be yet another KK effort to put a chick in it and make her gay. That they’re trying to rush “The Mandolroian” movie into production suggests that they know how deep the hole is, but between Disney Star Wars toys collecting dust at discount outlets and D+ subscrption numbers taking a nose dive…I’d step away from the franchise for a while, give the worst memories time to fade, maybe do a Season 4 of the Mandolorian and get back on the original plan, and otherwise let the wounds heal while you get rid of the idiots that would wreck things.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. I don’t know. Musk is a hustler. If he beats the drum, he can bring it back. there are enough people who love it — not me — or what it originally was. people will go back out of curiosity, and if it’s good….

              Liked by 1 person

              1. I agree, but I think pure electric vehicles are not anywhere near Prime Time as certain people want to think they are. Tesla is making strides, but I still can’t see a pure electric vehicle as anything other than a secondary/around town car or used in places where charging is easy anywhere along the line.

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                1. What we need is the opposite of a hybrid — an electric car with an APU for when charging the batteries is impractical or inconvenient.

                  A small turbine engine would work great. Turbine engines are far simpler than piston engines, and are much more efficient IF operated under constant speed and load conditions. They can also run on a wide variety of fuels. There is essentially one moving part, rather than the 100 or more in a piston engine. No valves, no camshaft, no connecting rods, no radiator to boil over, a hundred things that just aren’t there to go wrong. If the engine did break down, it would be so small that swapping it out for a rebuilt engine would take an hour or less.

                  Without requiring any engineering breakthroughs, it would be possible to build turbine-electric cars today. Imagine a car that can go 100+ miles on battery power, but also has an engine that gets 80-100 miles per gallon of gasoline, and equivalent mileage when running on diesel fuel, kerosene, alcohol or vegetable oil. With a modest-sized fuel tank it would have a range of 1,000 miles or more.

                  Such cars might not be Perfect, but they’d be better than anything we’ve got now. They would provide all the advantages of piston-engine cars while using 60-70% less fuel. People would want to buy them.

                  Which is why the Climate Alarmists and Environmental Extremists would oppose them fanatically. They’d be too big an improvement, do too much to solve the Crisis! and take too much attention away from the Activist Class.
                  ———————————
                  “The Science Is Settled!!” we are told, again and again — but then ‘The Science!’ changes every week, and somehow it’s always exactly what the Activists need it to be.

                  Liked by 1 person

                2. Plug-in hybrids are the electric future, for those who live such that they work for them. Best of both worlds, take advantage of cheaper electricity, but functional anywhere you can get gas or a charge.

                  Toyota made that bet, and is raking in the money. Tesla is -done- the minute someone yanks the huge subsidies, or puts gas-tax level taxes on electricity.

                  The taxes are a certainty, no more than 10 years, either on juice or direct odometer/GPS reads. Has to happen if use expands and gasburners decline. Maybe as little as 5 years.

                  Liked by 1 person

                  1. The taxes are a certainty, no more than 10 years, either on juice or direct odometer/GPS reads. Has to happen if use expands and gasburners decline. Maybe as little as 5 years.
                    ………………….

                    Already happening in Oregon. There is an extra registration fee for vehicles rated 40 MPG, or more, or electric. Two options. Either fixed fee, or opt in for per mileage monitoring. Not sure how mileage monitoring works when the vehicle is driven out of state. Don’t have vehicle affected. Guessing works different in states where there is not gas added tax, or minimal, because tolls are used instead. Tolls were a shock when we were in Florida. Luckily we carried cash and change back then.

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                    1. “Luckily we carried cash and change back then.”

                      Now here in TX and elsewhere, they have license plate readers and send you the bill.

                      Like

                    2. We were in Florida in ’97, had a rental.

                      Now here in TX and elsewhere, they have license plate readers and send you the bill.
                      ………………

                      Not surprised. How does it work with rentals? How does it work if you are driving your own vehicle from a state like Oregon? Could ask my sister & BIL. They did exactly that.

                      Drove from Eugene to Niagara Falls: through W. Yellowstone -> YNP -> Cody -> back highways, down to NYC, Washington DC, southwest via Route 66, then northwest touching N. Grand Canyon, and northwest rest way home. Also did a trip Eugene, YNP, Tetons, Rocky Mtns NP, south into Texas, then east to N. Orleans (don’t know the route they came home). Had to have hit a few tolls. BIL avoided tickets on the latter trip, didn’t on the first trip listed (most recent). Scored two speeding tickets, one in person, the other camera trap.

                      FYI, we have more than a few freeways that are marked speed limit 80 MPH. Even I-5, and I-84, in Oregon, speed limits posted 70 MPH, traffic is traveling easily 80 MPH. Even the main mountain highways people travel 70+ MPH (idiots, but they do, ask RCPete if that is smart) if bigger (RV’s, big rigs) traffic isn’t slowing them down.

                      I could go with automatic scanning tolls, eliminating the gas taxes. The technology obviously exists.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    3. “How does it work with rentals? How does it work if you are driving your own vehicle from a state like Oregon? ”

                      Rentals are easy: the tag is issued to the rental car company, rental car company gets bill, rental car company adds it to your bill. Before plate readers became common, rental cars had toll tag RFID in the windshield.

                      Out of state? They read the tag, use the same plate query the cops do, find the address the vehicle is registered at, send bill. There they lose a few.

                      Like

                    4. The Reader observes a minor detail. At least in Florida and around Chicago, the rental car companies add something like 500% to your bill for ‘processing’.

                      Like

                    5. I was just curious. We aren’t getting a rental car while on vacation, again, anytime soon, or ever.

                      Have noticed a lot of FB conversations on cost of rentals for those coming to Yellowstone/Tetons/Glacier (fly into Salt Lake is common), over the last 3 years. Reported rental agencies sold (technically dumped, but is it dumping if they got premium prices for them?) their fleet inventory over Covid because not using and had to pay inventory asset taxes on them (logical from that view point). Then couldn’t replace them (oops) thus inventory low, driving rental costs up to “OMG!” Note, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, roads do not have tolls (exempting getting into the national parks themselves, which are entrance fees, not toll roads, despite what google maps displays).

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          1. Entirely possible-how I’d do it would be to do a big stock buy and give Peltz my proxy, with the back-channel warning that “you can either let Peltz take over, or I’ll keep buying more stock and just put Peltz on the board. Your move.”

            Liked by 1 person

  20. Since the Bruen decision, laws about guns are required to obey the text of the 2nd Amendment, with traditions and history supporting them. This isn’t actually a change in the Constitution, merely the courts requiring the cities, states, and federal government actually follow it.

    The Antis/Progressives/Liberals are realizing that an armed Citizenry aren’t going to meekly climb into the railroad cars… and that our rights to self-defense and personal security are being restored after a century of infringements.

    They have been throwing everything they can think of into legislation in some sort of attempt to get past that decision and disarm Citizens…

    It’s crazy seeing one state after another put up the same proposed laws knowing that several states before them failed to implement them.

    Magically, even judges put on the federal bench by some of the most anti-gun presidents are toeing the line and making constitutional decisions based on the actual text of the 2A

    Liked by 1 person

    2. They are doing it so that they can have cases in the pipeline in the event they are able to change the makeup of the Supreme Court so that it will overturn Bruen and Heller and allow the government to effectively ban private gun possession. While the politicians may be idiots, they do have some sharp, if sleazy, activist lawyers.

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      1. Well, all it takes to expand the number of Justices on SCOTUS is a majority vote in both houses. After the Mayorkas impeachment betrayal, it’s obvious the UniParty can get the votes. The proximate excuse will be if Justice Thomas doesn’t recuse from the cases involving Trump or J6.

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      2. Hawaii’s Supreme Court just announced SCOTUS got it wrong and there is no individual right to own guns. So they ruled in a case accordingly.

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        1. If Hawaii isn’t going to play by the rules in the “game of United States”, they shouldn’t be playing at all.

          They can go back to being their own country and see how long that lasts when someone else decides that they are strategic location.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. These folks WANT that.

            They don’t have the support of most of the folks there, but they think if they break enough stuff, and throw enough fits, they’ll get HANDED everything.

            Same gameplan as California.

            Liked by 1 person

          2. On the other side of the oncoming unpleasantness, several current states will have to be reverted to territorial status until they demonstrate they are ready for self rule again. Hawaii is on that list.

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          3. The Enemy want us broken up and squabbling. Fuck no we wont.

            No surrender of even one square American inch or one American soul to tyrrany. Fuck no. The Constitution applies to -all- of us and no one can take anyone out from under its protection. Those opposed are free to -leave-. They cannot take anyone or anwhere -out-.

            No retreat. No surrender. No secession. No compromise. No quitting.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Hawaiian native religious culture had some bright spots, but it also had “human sacrifice because of X, Y, Z, and the tapu we didn’t tell you about.” And “you commoners can’t eat X, Y, and Z except on a couple of religious holidays.”

              Heck, it was not all that great for some of the lords and priests, because they also had strict rules fencing in their lives.

              Nobody with any sense wants to go back to that.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Oh yeah. I got an earful from a Hawaiian (OK, half) about his response to someone who gushed, “Don’t you want to go back to your wonderful traditional culture?”

                It started with, “Have you ever eaten poi?” and went downhill from there. (His ancestors were among the ones on the lower rung of the tribal ladder.)

                Liked by 1 person

    3. Hawaii high Court just told SCOTUS to go pound sand, explicitly saying SCOTUS erred and Hawaii ain’t going along with Bruen or Heller. The only thing they left out is “F U”.

      If SCOTUS ignores it, the 14th amendment “incorporation” of the BoR to the states is dead, as is the BoR in blue states.

      Dead letter.

      There is the Boog. And the Donks, again, lit the fucking fuse. Because SCOTUS -has- to sanction them, or they are gelded and moot.

      Please let me be wrong and sanity prevail. Please.

      Liked by 1 person

  21. Is the reason we like science fiction and books in general, is because the worlds created in the fevered minds of the authors are much saner than reality?

    Like

  22. J.B.S.Haldane, a British biologist who was a staunch Leninist, wrote an essay titled “On Being the Right Size,” based on his work on the role of scale in physiology. He said that he could imagine running Andorra or Luxemburg as a socialist economy, or even that Denmark could be managed by a committee of its biggest industrialists, but that running Great Britain or the United States by central planning was no more plausible than a hippopotamus jumping a hedge. I have to say I’ve never understood how he managed to remain a Leninist for several decades after that.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Haldane was a over brilliant, insanely lucky, arsehole that thought he was smarter than God. Dude had more lives than a mega-sized cat colony.

      Like

  23. “I have to say I’ve never understood how he managed to remain a Leninist for several decades after that.”

    You will stay in your 15 minutes city and you will be happy, comrade!

    Like

  24. Sooprise, Sooprise.

    “The Biden administration allegedly struck a secret border deal with Mexico to help the president in the upcoming election as illegal immigration dropped by a whopping 50 percent in January.

    Most conservatives see the meeting between Biden’s cabinet members and Mexican officials resulting in a massive drop in illegal immigrants crossing the border as anything but coincidental.”

    ““The article states that the Mexican president hinted to the U.S. delegation that he would reduce migrant crossings into the U.S. if President Joe Biden provided more aid and support to Latin American dictators. Reports from Mexico indicate AMLO wanted increased support for Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua,” Breitbart wrote referring to previous reporting on the subject.”

    https://www.bizpacreview.com/2024/02/07/biden-admin-strikes-secret-deal-with-mexico-while-pushing-border-deal-sees-50-drop-in-traffic-report-1434878

    Liked by 1 person

    2. In other words, the Immigration Bill that McConnell and Schumer had set up was supposed to coincide with the miraculous reduction in migrants and then TA DA! Thank you benevolent Biden and Congress you have SAVED us!

      And it would have worked too if it wasn’t for those meddling kids!

      Liked by 1 person

        1. And would allow them to weld the border open after the fraud. Then the hobbits on twitter went and read the bill in relays.
          Sucks to be the “enlightened ones” don’t it?

          Like

    4. I think it might be too late. I think we’re dangerously close to having anti-“refugee” riots in many of the big cities.

      Amusingly, in the video I mentioned in yesterday’s post (and which our Hostess linked on Instapundit), there’s mention of a center housing refugees in GB (I think London, though I’m not sure)… and a bunch of tents suddenly appeared in the only path into and out of the property. No one could get in or out. So the security guards cut a hole through the hedge that surrounds the place. But no sooner did they do that, then a very large number of people suddenly started congregating right in front of the hole, making it impossible for anyone to use it to get in or out.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I think it might be too late. I think we’re dangerously close to having anti-“refugee” riots in many of the big cities.
        ……………….

        We all can name the cities in the US that will see this. NY is close now. I think the next time NY police are piled on, they’ll be rescued by some NY citizens. The survival of the attackers will be iffy. “They tripped and fell over the officers they were beating on,” on their heads.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. ““They tripped and fell over the officers they were beating on,” on their heads.”

          That sort of action might have worked before the days of ubiquitous cameras. Nowadays? Multiple videos from multiple angles will be available to show what actually happened.. Then the question will be put to each officer, even if just silently, “Wil you arrest the people who saved your buddy’s life?”

          Until they say “No, and no one else will either”, the situation will continue.

          Like

          1. True.

            Kind of implied the normal video takers are the ones who are fed up and piled in to help. So no video.

            OTOH it was the numerous camera angles that save Rittenhouse, ultimately. Sure PTBI(diots) only showed the angles bad for Rittenhouse. But the ones clearly showing what actually happened couldn’t be suppressed.

            Does anyone believe that if citizens had gone into help that the aggressors would have given up before they were unconscious? After all untrained assistants are not trained on the “correct force to apply”. Saving someone who you are in terrified fear of them losing their life is legit use of excessive force. Doesn’t mean free of prosecution (because, heck no). Just means reasonable doubt.

            Reality it gets to this point? People are going to be so pissed off, they won’t care. It will be mob action. Once it starts in these areas, it won’t stop easily in these areas. But I would not expect it to spread outside of these type of areas. Just like the “not riots” didn’t spread anywhere else except in their own enclaves no matter how hard they tried (heck they couldn’t get mostly peaceful riot protest going in Eugene. Worst they did was block traffic at Washington/Jefferson Bridge on 7th, which is SOP traffic. Springfield was even more laughable.)

            Liked by 1 person

            2. It’s like the immigration bill that got shot down. I have a journalist friend terrified the people will believe it was the republicans who welded the gates open.
              I think he’s living in 1999. The poison in that pill is out. Sure the LIVs won’t know, but the real LIVs are shut ins. The others will find out when people laugh at them.

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          2. Steve? They’ll find ways. Oh, they’ll find ways. We’re going to see rebellion and riot done as it never was before.
            One thing Americans are good at is getting around.
            We are chaos. Let chaos be unleashed.

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        2. Helped by New York having the mythology to lean on– remember that scene in Spiderman where Doc Oct is going after him, and the folks on the train start yelling to leave him alone?

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        3. Those same cops routinely arrest good folks who help defend other good folks. And, good folks -know- it. Also known by the citizenry, the Dickehad Attorney will prosecute the heroes while releasing the perps no-bail and no-realistic-prosecution.

          So no. Bystanders are unlikely to help the cops. Could happen, some folks are masochists or ignorant of reality. But not a likely event.

          Now, you get some old fart with skills who “well, life has been good, but near over” and just doesnt give a dang what happens afterwards, you may get some -epic- viral video of a perp with a cane jammed -way- up his wazoo.

          Heh.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Those same cops routinely arrest good folks who help defend other good folks. And, good folks -know- it.

            Check your assumptions.

            If, as you are claiming, this were true– they why would it keep being national news when it happens?

            Is it not more likely that it’s in the same category as “defensive gun use results in dead innocent,” which is a tiny fraction (wrongful) of a tiny fraction (defensive gun use requiring shots fired) of the whole?

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            1. Don’t confuse “National News” with “Conservative News”. IF National News reports it at all, the invariable angle is “white vigilante sees an opportunity to kill a choirboy and takes it.”

              Check YOUR assumptions.

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              2. I do check my assumptions, and what I hear.

                Unfortunately for you, I don’t correct for “Snelson’s biases.” Those have tested out to be pretty consistently inaccurate, predicting 99 of the last three things to go wrong.

                To be worse, I also notice when someone’s response doesn’t actually have much to do with what it is, in theory, responding to; even if your statement was accurate, it would not be relevant to what I actually stated.

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            2. Ask that Marine that subdued a violent loon, quite appropriately, and is now facing felony prison time.

              Crooks go free. Good Samaritans get their nuts whacked in court. Even an acquittal will bankrupt most folks. And folks know it.

              That needs fixed, soonest.

              Like

              1. Ask the guy who shot a dude robbing a taco joint, on video. Heck, did you manage to forget that string of shootings where it popped up for like a week, until someone pointed out all the dead guys were known to police for attempted murder via random assaults? They figured out someone was luring and killing them, solo or close enough.

                Ask the dozens of others we don’t even hear about, because the news doesn’t want to spread around “good guy did good stuff”.

                Why the ever loving HECK would you listen to the same media that vanishes every dang shooting that’s stopped effectively, but screams “White supremacist republican” and hammers falsehoods when policies they pushed manage to get folks killed?

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                1. I am listening to folks I know in non-permissive areas, or where I myself have been, that are dealing with the threat daily. That you ignore this is incomprehensible. Cops and civvies -know-, from direct experience, they will get their nuts whacked if they cross the wrong folks.

                  Easy to play cowboy in Texas. Not so much in Seattle or NYC. Heck, the high (on ditchweed) court of Hawaii just told SCOTUS to F right off about Bruen and Heller.

                  Sure. I can and have delt with orcs without going to jail. So do others. But trying my usual methods of “don’t tread on me, or on those nice folks either” in say, Maryland or DC? Hello slammer.

                  Most defensive stuff, especially kinetic defense, isn’t reported because the defenders aint stupid enough to stick around and interact with the Po-Po or presstitutes.

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                  1. I am listening to folks I know in non-permissive areas, or where I myself have been, that are dealing with the threat daily. That you ignore this is incomprehensible.

                    That you assume I’m ignoring it rather than not being controlled by the few cases the news pushes, which is usually the same thing locals are going off of unless they know first-hand someone who was involved, is your own issue.

                    Not mine.

                    Stop trying to MAKE your choice to listen to the main stream media my problem.

                    You didn’t even notice the second example I offered was from New York City.

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                    3. I can only answer the strawmen you set up; you claimed that the only way to come by our views was via mainstream media; I asked that you define your terms.

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                    4. :points at Snelson setting the standard himself, as linked above:

                      In a conversation where you tried to lay a trumpcard down by inaccurately acting like “conservative media” and “national media” were radically different, rather than both wanting folks’ head on fire because that gets clicks, a third party pointed at national news stories.

                      That’s his evidence. Which I responded to.

                      What the main stream media was pushing.

                      You, rather notoriously, dislike offering your media sources — in general and especially to me– because I will go and look for primary sources.

                      Instead of reading the news story and going “Ah! Yes! Complete knowledge, let’s go demand execution based on this unsourced claim!”

                      Which makes one of us, in this exchange.

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                  2. “Easy to play cowboy in Texas.”

                    You might want to talk to this fellow. Any blue pustule you have no inherent self-defense right, only the whim of the prosecutors. And Abbott still can’t get the TX pardons commission to look at this.

                    https://pjmedia.com/rick-moran/2023/04/09/greg-abbott-vows-to-pardon-army-sergeant-convicted-of-killing-armed-blm-protester-n1685740

                    “Outside the car, Perry could see Garrett Foster carrying a loaded AK-47. Fearing for his life, Perry shot at Foster five times with his .357 revolver — legally owned and with the proper permit to carry it — and killed him.

                    What’s rarely mentioned in connection with this incident was that after Perry fired at Foster, other protesters opened fire on Perry’s car. Four shots rang out with three bullets hitting Perry’s car. No one was ever apprehended for shooting at Perry. “Mostly peaceful,” don’t you know?

                    Perry drove a safe distance away and called the police. After questioning him, the police released him. But Austin’s Soros-backed prosecutor, José Garza, decided to charge Perry with murder and aggravated assault.

                    After two days of deliberations, Perry was found guilty of murder but not guilty of aggravated assault and now faces life in prison.”

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              2. THIS. People seem to have an infinite capacity to ignore what ACTUALLY happens vs what should happen in a functioning system of laws.

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        4. What everyone has said about my original post is correct. Dems have proven they will go after those who defend themselves and others. Providing examples, beyond Rittenhouse who is now under double jeopardy and (last I heard anything) is not on the offensive with civil suits, the other examples provided are still in jeopardy. They are examples.

          That said. Missing my point. Sarah says she feels something is about to break loose. I agree. It is going to happen in the blue enclaves. It is going to blow up worse than the summer of riots peaceful protests under BLM. They are getting fed up with the invaders messing in their turf. They got away with it before. They won’t care about the examples above. They will be that pissed off. Just like with BLM peaceful protests, none of us wants to be there when it happens.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Hasn’t been hitting national news much; all the results that come up off the bat are old and make it an “of course” that he’s going to lose.

            THen there’s stuff like this:

            Attorney For Dead Pedophile’s Estate Dismisses Lawsuit Against Rittenhouse, Multiple Law Enforcement Agencies For Emotional Distress, Wrongful Death

            An extreme-left activist attorney dismissed a lawsuit earlier this month she filed on behalf of the dead pedophile, Joseph Rosenbaum, against Kyle Rittenhouse and multiple law enforcement agencies. Attorney Kimberly Motley, of North Carolina filed a dismissal on January 4, 2024, with a grammatical error, stating in part. “As grounds, Plaintiff Estate has been unavailable to counsel to move this matter forward.” This makes Motley 0 for 5 in terms of lawsuits related to the Rittenhouse shootings and riots.

            Story notes there are two still pending cases, one notable for U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman declaring that someone who has death threats against them was definitely still served based off of he knows about the case even though he’s not publishing where he lives.

            Newsweek has made a national news story out of one (1) twitter troll using a recent court case to demand folks go after Rittenhouse’s mom, apparently unclear of how the court case ended.

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      3. Democrats have a history of genocidal “riots”. Whole communities in the South were extinguished by rampaging Donks, who were outraged at the thought of prospering Free Blacks, and thus extinguished them. Outright massacres.

        Liked by 1 person

  25. I notice that Republican voters in Nevada prefer None-Of-The-Above to Nikki Haley 2-1. (Note, NV Dems did this a few years ago, when all the candidates in a gubernatorial primary were odious.)

    Liked by 1 person

    1. The statistics I just look at make it three-fifths to one-third, which is nine to five, slightly less than two to one. But still humiliating.

      Did Nevada allow Democrats to change registration and vote for Haley? If so, I wonder how much of that one-third came from them.

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      1. According to one of the sites (PJ or Red State), the GOP primary is purely for bragging rights, and a caucus (where Trump is in play) actually sets the delegate selection.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Well, Haley’s gotten negative bragging routes out of it. Sometimes the dogs don’t like the dog food.

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  26. Round up and execute the globalist and Marxists (to the extent there is a difference) in positions of power or authority and most of these problems are simple to resolve.

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  27. Nope, definitely not sleeping well, in spite of being dead tired from work, but that nagging feeling that stuff is not right,

    Off topic ish here, but

    Was trying to read an article about Tucker interviewing V Putin, was on a site that normally has an abundance of controversial articles, never had trouble trying to view anything there, but today, supposedly my internet provider didnt want me to read the article about Tucker interviewing the supposed enemy. Kept interupting my reading with warnings,, had to keep going back to article,
    I thought how commy of the commy IP

    Pretty much sick and tired of sensorship of stuff they dont agree with, but what else would you expect from a buncha donkeys losing control of yhe narrative.

    We need a purge

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    1. The problem with purges is once they start no one knows where and who they will finish with. They tend to rake in a bunch of the innocent along with the guilty. Petty revenge time as well, the girl that refused a date with a guy, she’s a witch, gets burned at the stake, guy has a good looking wife, well he’s a counter revolutionary, his wife will be too once the mob gets through with using her. That’s why trails are some much better, and slower.

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  28. The storm metaphor has been on my mind more and more all the time. Ever since 2020, it’s felt like the way the air gets thick and heavy right before a storm, and you know it’s going to be a big blow.

    Now it’s feeling more and more like the sky is turning that sickly green color, and I’m wondering whether it’s going to be an EF-1 that tosses trailers and yard furniture but sturdy buildings can ride out with some cosmetic damage, or an EF-5 that obliterates everything in its path, even whole high schools.

    A couple of days ago I had to do a survey for my upcoming physical, and one of the questions was about stress levels. I put it as pretty high (can’t recall the exact terms they offered for levels of stress), partly because of my own struggles with never having enough time to get stuff done and family medical issues (husband’s heart procedure went OK, but he’s still having trouble, so we’re wondering what else is going on), but also because of this constant feel of looming disaster, but not knowing how soon or how bad — and the growing concern about whether all my efforts at preparation might be misplaced, that I did all the wrong things and none of the right things, because I completely misapprehended the nature of what’s incoming.

    Part of me wants a little more time to get some more of my major novels finished and out, and part of me is wanting to Just Get It Over With. And the not knowing when, what, or how bad is exactly what is worst with my neurodivergence (I really don’t handle surprises well — I’ve literally refused things I would’ve liked to do, because they were sprung on me and “no” made that deer-in-headlights feeling go away).

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Ever since just after New Year I’ve been … calm. Every day stuff still happens, but my anxiety for the future just went poof after some things at the church where I sing. It was as if a switch flipped. And I got the shove to write a novella and novel in quick succession. Make of it what you will.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “Let not your heart be troubled.”

      That wasn’t a suggestion. (grin)

      Jesus was sleeping in a storm-tossed boat, while his deciples were dreading their seeming doom. Recall what he said when awakend.

      Easier said than done. But storms come and storms go, and we endure.

      Make of it what you will, but I sleep through hurricanes, and that was before I got saved. I sometimes wonder if I had adrenal glands removed, as when things really get wild, I get surreally calm. Mom and Pop were like that too, cold reactors to real crisis.

      But when we sense “fret”, it is essential to remember what we were promsied, and what we cannot change, then deal with the things assigned to -our- hands and not worry about those things assigned the hands of others. “Nie Moj Circ. Nie Moje Malpe.” (Polish: Not my circus. Not my monkeys.)

      And smile in the fracas, as it annoys the crap out of the Enemy.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. You are never a “bore” of any sort. (grin)

          Sometimes one can overcome “nerves” through meditation/prayer. I loath heights, yet had to do climbing/rappelling. That “litany of fear” from Dune can work. Anything you repeat mentally during an episode that is calming, even if it is nonsense from Dr Seuss. And then you repeatedly do the scary thing until you can numb the jangles enough to do the work.

          Yeah, “easier said then done”. There was a point where the top of a 50′ rappelling tower would cause me to dang near freeze and or whiz myself. Eventually, I was able to do an “aussie rappel” which is -face first- running down the wall on a rope. I would still rather go to the dentist for drill work, but I can do rappelling without bladder issues. Just.

          We need to get you to your smug/happy place where the coming storm is interesting, not stressful. You have done more, survived more, and overcome more than most civilians I know. “Change Country and continent” is ballsy. Much respect.

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          1. I need to get to that place so I can write fiction. Something in me whispers my best fiction years are ahead. And if that’s true, that’s needed. But I have this guard post to stand here, too. So–

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  30. I woke up from a horrific zombie invasion nightmare. You know the kind, where you lie there a few minutes in the dark just breathing, just in case….

    Then I realized there hadn’t been a hint of any Relative Drama in the whole mess.

    “I’ll take it….”

    Liked by 2 people

    2. I have some recurring nightmares from decades old unpleasantness, some dating back to childhood. So I decided to try a childish solution. I obtained a reasonably decent toy phaser with sound effects. Got familar with it. Carried it around the home for a while. (Kinda gentle version of Army “familiarizaton”.) Then I put it on my nightstand in easy reach, and go to sleep thinking “…and I will phazer zap those monsters into twinkling clouds of plasma…” (you know the scene: ZREEEEECH! glow-twinkle-fade-gone…..)

      Sure enough, the “chased by horror” hits. In mid dream, I “remember” I am armed with a -frikkin -phaser-, and ZREEEEECH! glow-twinkle-fade-gone….. and wake up with a shout of triumph. (scared the cat half out of her fur… oops)

      It -works-. You -can- lucidly change a recurring dream. And when I got to the stupid “the phaser isnt working!” crap, I recalled I own an -axe-.

      You can -fight- the monsters. It may take years to make it work, but dang it I did it, so can others.

      Yes, this is cheating on a Kobayashi Maru test. So?

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Once you change those dreams they seldom come back. The problem is that you have to realize you’re dreaming on some level, which wakes most people up if they can manage it at all.

        In one dream I turned the monster into a dinosaur balloon. In another I just stopped running. Burn down the building, or go back into the burning building (in which case I learned that the flames were all reflections). Face the horror and it often evaporates.

        Liked by 1 person

  31. Do people have plans for the Sestercentennial? I have this weird idea for a cookbook, like the Bicentennial cookbooks from 1975-1976 churches and other local orgs. But besides recipes, one-page histories, and one-page coping mechanisms and prep. Like a Usaian cookbook and bible.

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  32. Insofar as I am concerned, Sarah is not off the hook for more Rhodes stories, even if we all have to hide our “colors” like the USAians in the DarkShip/GoodMen stories. In fact, with my sense of humor, I will probably be one of the “examples” made by the opposition.

    But I believe we’ll see victory.

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  33. The farmers protest continues particularly in Spain with incidents in Italy and France, outside the EU buildings in Strasburg. Tractors were seen on the streets in Canada overnight. I’d love to see Fidelito’s million dollar cottage covered with muck, but Quebec is still quiet, alas.

    There are also huge farmers protests in India, which is making it difficult to tease out details about Europe. That’s an interesting wild card.

    Liked by 1 person

  34. Sarah, I don’t know if you want to hear this or not. It’s woo woo. But then, I made a fairly serious study of woo woo in my life, so not so surprising to me.

    Anyways, back in about 1987 I had an epiphany. The real kind, where you are touched by – something – something that is not you – and I was shown a vision, a truth: that we, as a species, were going to go through Transformation (as it was called to or shaped by my mind), and that it would be glorious on the other side. But that getting there would involve much turmoil. And I was shown that we would not be allowed to fail, that there were others interested besides humanity. It was a powerful experience, one of the most powerful of my life. I didn’t go looking for it, it just appeared, just happened. FWIW.

    It isn’t clear just what Transformation means or looks like. I’ve since come to see it as getting past what I think of as the “Fermi Inflection Point”: the point where a species gains the technical knowledge to control their own environment, and hence evolution. My theory is that the FIP is the reason behind the Fermi Paradox: most species go extinct, or fall back off the technological ladder, a la the Moties. Nothing in our evolution prepares us to take control of our own evolution. We are not qualified. And that’s what we’re wrestling with.

    But I don’t mean to imply that Transformation is a technical thing; it’s not. It’s a spiritual thing. We’ll learn to love one another, or die trying. It all comes down to what humans do, and why. When we understand that better, we’ll do better. Or so I believe. And who knows? Maybe we’ll have a spiritual rebirth, some new revelations. Maybe they are already here, unread. All the religions we have now are ancient, and creaky; they explained things well enough for ancient peoples in ancient lands. They no longer suffice. Indeed they chafe, and itch, and are rather falling apart. But we’re not going to Rationalist our way out of this: that way lies Communism at best. We need something better than any of that.

    But, woo woo or not, we’re still facing our species’ Fermi Inflection Point and we won’t get through it by hating and killing one another. Not in the long term anyways. Short term, well, sometimes you have to lance a boil.

    So take it for what it’s worth. I’m 69, and nearly gone. But I believe in reincarnation, and I expect to be back pretty soon. So please people, do NOT screw this up. :)

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