We Are Not Alike

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

This is a post I should not have to write. Mostly because it’s self-obvious. But it took ME a while to figure it out, so– Here it is.

First let’s dismiss the entire “it’s an hoax” because that’s just the left (broadly defined as to the left of Lenin) being their usual lunatic selves. I’m not even going to respond to the self-proclaimed surgeons or the self-proclaimed ballistics experts on twitter. I’m going to say that if they had even minimal contact with reality they’d realize that even fragmenting ammo does not fragment in contact with ear cartilage (not enough resistance) and no, having a bullet graze you doesn’t mean your head explodes. I don’t actually know whether to advise them to put down the crack pipe or stop watching Merry Melodies. I feel like someone should tell them safes don’t randomly fall out of the sky, nor pianos from upper-story windows, but from the ones I’ve seen on twitter they’d fight us tooth and nail on that too.

There is a much easier way to put their bizarre fantasies to rest: For the whole thing to be a carefully orchestrated false flag, you have to believe that Donald Trump — DONALD TRUMP — is as carefully self-controlled and obedient to choreography as a trained dancer.

I’ll wait till you stop laughing and then give you the graphic again, about how closely, and by a random turn of the head, America escaped a bloody civil war last Saturday.

But sure, cooly-oh, if you believe Donald effing Trump timed the turning of his head precisely, after the bullet had already been fired by an untrained 20 year old sniper…. Oh wait, if you believe that you’re probably jonesing to vote for socialists, so it fits.

As for “all an hoax” you’re requiring that everyone there, including the secret service which is not only controlled and assigned by the present administration, but who also are being dragged through the mud for malice and incompetence, be complicit on this. This includes the family of the man who died. If you really believe that, get out of here. You’re not serious and not only are you a f*cking infant, you’re a moronic f*cking infant. Shut up, child, the adults are talking.

Then there is the outrage and certainty that he should not have got up and pumped his fist, because “ree” he’s keeping his secret service in danger to grandstand. First, if the secret service can’t drag a 79 year old man (and themselves) out of danger (and remember their JOB is danger, their concern is supposed to be their detail) they need to find another job. Yesterday. Second… I realize that none of you EVER were responsible for keeping any group that was in anyway connected to you from doing the inadvisable. BUT–

If Trump hadn’t immediately got up and done that, we’d already be in a civil war. Before news that he was all right could have gone out, people would have gone hot. And listen, you have no idea. You really have no idea.

And no, it’s not a Trump cult. It’s a “if they could get him, they’re coming for me next” “Nothing to lose.” “I have plans in place for this circumstance.” Do I know anyone in the group that would do that. Not explicitly. But I have guesses about a rough three to four dozen of my acquaintance. And I know the psychology.

Look, even after he got up and pumped his fist, I found myself — I was cleaning the house and away from the computer. I have already promised never to do that again — calming people on texts with “No, from the video he’s not in danger. Stop worrying” until I gave up (my kitchen is still a mess) and got on the keyboard.

But speaking of psychology, we get to the important part of this post.

There is very little my colleagues in Science Fiction and Fantasy do that shocks me. Even the politics from the left side of Judas’s ass does not shock me. I’ve read (or at least skimmed) their books, and the flaws are right there, in the worldbuilding that behaves like no real world would behave ever, unless it were utterly contained inside the broken clockwork mind of Marx.

But there was a take that propagated like lightening through the left side of science fiction, echoed by some people who probably once had functional brain cells of a sort, that made me kind of rock back on my heels. This was based on the would be assassin’s registration (voter registration isn’t politics. My husband and I have different ones, and yet we’re about the same.) And it was…. ahem “Why should I care if Trump was shot at by a right winger?”

This was completely puzzling to me because, well… I can’t picture a scenario in which anyone who is broadly to the right of Lenin would try to shoot the candidate of the party opposing the Junta. Not vote for him, maybe. Shoot him? That requires a completely different level of passion and animus. Unless these people were completely insane, I couldn’t figure out why people otherwise capable of writing three coherent paragraphs would even say that.

But then I flipped it.

Look, is it believable that say, advocates for “Palestine” would shoot Joe Biden, for being insufficiently anti-Israel? Well, sure. Is it possible trans advocates would shoot Joe Biden because in their eyes he was insufficiently pro-trans? Or radical communists who think he’s a right winger? Sure. Of course.

But here’s the thing. We’re not the same.

Sure, the right has a broad tent. But it’s a tent. Meaning, there’s a ton of space, people move erratically within in — and sometimes get in hair-pulling arguments — but we’re not cohesive groups in close contest.

Why?

Well, because mostly the right in America wants to be left alone to live their own lives. With a few exceptions, what we want the government to do about our cause is “Leave us alone, and stop forcing me to act in ways that go against my perceived self-interest.” That’s it.

This means that while I think some of you people might be a little loonie on your hobby horses, it’s no skin off my nose. If you really want national currency to be gold-based, well, fine. Can’t be worse than what we have right now, though I think you’ll find it has similar flaws in the end. Or if your hobby horse is that you want to get rid of national parks… Whatever. If I were an avid camper and hiker, I’d already have groups ready to buy and maintain what I consider essential parts of them, should that ball drop.

And that’s leaving aside that I agree with many of your hobby horses. They’re not mine, but I’d go “Heck yeah”: like get rid of the department of education schools and turn education control over to the closest local level or stop dictating minimum wage at a federal level. Or “reduce bureaucracy” or…. anyway. Ahem. I don’t really have a hobby horse, per-se I have a stable, and it’s summed in Viva La Libertad, Carajo!

What I mean is reducing the federal government is not an endeavor that causes us to have MURDEROUSLY strong feelings about our leaders.

Strong feelings? Sure. That’s why our primaries are so disputed and why the left thinks we’re so scary. But frankly, we’re the people who eschewed the indoctrination of the schools, media, entertainment, to make up our own minds. We have strong feelings about breakfast cereal, let alone presidential candidates.

They’re just not the kind of strong feelings that leads to shoot them. (Presidential candidates, or breakfast cereal. The only thing I own I’ve ever considered taking to the range and shooting to pieces is my printer.)

Meanwhile, the left?

Oooh, boy. While they encompass many single-issue groups, their side is not a tent.

You see, what they’re competing from, because of their conceit of a central, and centralized government who can be all things to all people, is a finite budget and government-granted primacy. Money and power given to feminists doesn’t go to trans, doesn’t go to terrorism supporters, doesn’t go to terrorism importers, doesn’t go to parks, doesn’t go–

On top of which they believe in Marxism, which is to say, they believe in finite pie economics. Wealth can’t be created, just endlessly redistributed. And this leaks over to everything. So you know, you can’t have equal rights for women without taking some from men, otherwise women are insufficiently “equal” (no joke, when my kids were in college, email from the university. They’d achieved 65% female graduates in Chemistry. More work needed to be done to assure that females had “equality” in chemistry. And no they weren’t suggesting cutting that down to 50%. Equality for them apparently meant 100%.)

The left side of the isle is not so much a broad coalition of groups all going the same general way. No. They’re groups that resemble nothing so much as rabid weasels tied together by the tail presenting teeth and claws outward, but ready to turn them on each other at the slightest provocation. (Or imagined provocation.)

So, their candidate being shot by their own side? Absolutely believable.

What they don’t understand: We’re not alike.

On the right side, Trump being shot by a “right winger” or “republican”? is jaw-droppingly bizarre and unbelievable.

I mean, okay, there’s the never Trumpers. So, some young man was so inflamed by the immortal rhetoric of the Bulwark that he…. No. Some young man loved Ron De Santis so much that he– Barely plausible, except any Ron De Santis fan knows that’s not who would replace Trump, because the right doesn’t work that way. And Ron to his eternal credit has in no way stoked that kind of flame or demanded that kind of follower.

So, what? Are we to believe that the leaders who are genuinely snippy at Trump have that kind of following amid the youth?

Advance the Pierre Delecto Brigades, with their perfectly coiffed hair, wielding their combat roladex! Forward march.

Or perhaps: Up the Mitch McConnell volunteers, in their turtle armour….

It won’t wash. It won’t pass the giggle test.

We’re back again to “The left isn’t insane, but what they think they see on the right is just a mirror, reflecting them endlessly.”

Which sometimes requires more effort on our part to understand their “thought” than they put into those opinions to begin with.

222 thoughts on “We Are Not Alike”

    1. And they never, ever see that they are the only ones around who could accurately be called fascists or NAZIs; they check all the boxes, even including, now, “Death to the Jews!”. :-x

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      1. And it’s modeled after what Hollywood thinks “militia/white supremacist/similar nonsense they’ve portrayed conservatives as over the years” looks like. Which has no relation to reality.

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      2. They remind me of this group from the anime Legend of Galactic Heroes who have similar fake origins, basically the thugs a politician uses for his own ends… pity we don’t have automated fire hydrants for the “Patriot” Front.

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      3. And, why CBS thought hiring Stephen Colbert was a good idea (and Colbert thought he was talented).

        Seriously, the Colbert Report was popular NOT because it was “Liberals laughing at the stupid Conservative parody” – it was because “Conservatives were watching it and laughing at how utterly WRONG the progressives are at understanding what we actually believe”.

        The viewer numbers pretty much show that. They all missed that the reason that people laughed at Colbert on CC was the same sort of reason that Appalachians and Marines laughed at “Gomer Pyle”, or cops at “Police Squad”. When he chucked the facade to replace the similarly unfunny Letterman, his numbers tanked.

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      4. And, why CBS thought hiring Stephen Colbert was a good idea (and Colbert thought he was talented).

        Seriously, the Colbert Report was popular NOT because it was “Liberals laughing at the stupid Conservative parody” – it was because “Conservatives were watching it and laughing at how utterly WRONG the progressives are at understanding what we actually believe”.

        The viewer numbers pretty much show that. They all missed that the reason that people laughed at Colbert on CC was the same sort of reason that Appalachians and Marines laughed at “Gomer Pyle”, or cops at “Police Squad”. When he chucked the facade to replace the similarly unfunny Letterman, his numbers tanked.

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  2. I think the conventions will be revealing. The Republican convention seems to be attended by a modest number of leftist protestors opposed to Trump and the party, plus a smaller number of rightist counterprotestors speaking out against them. In the meantime, it appears that the Democratic convention might give us the kind of spectacle we had in 1968, with masses of leftist protestors condemning Biden for not being 110% in favor of their particular causes, and demanding that the party bring about total revolutionary transformation of the country and the world. And that seems to be because the Republicans are revolutionaries in the style of the American revolution, and the Democrats are revolutionaries in the style of the French revolution . . .

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      1. I understand the point you’re making, but I would note that the prophecies of St. Karl Marx were essentially French Revolution fanfic (he seems to have largely ignored the American Revolution and even the English Revolution that put Cromwell in power), and the Marxist revolutions were largely imitations. The French revolutionaries hardly fell short of the later ones as far as devouring each other is concerned.

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        1. All valid points (especially the last); my intent was just to note the “crab bucket” similarities of all three, which the American Revolution aftermath managed to largely avoid. I’m not familiar enough with the details of the Glorious Revolution to comment about that aspect of it, but I believe (I could be mistaken) that it wasn’t nearly as bloody as the three mentioned.

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          1. Please note that the Glorious Revolution was not the one that put Cromwell into the role of Lord Protector, after the death of Charles I; it was the one that put William and Mary on the throne, after the expulsion of James II. Cromwell was in the first and second English Civil Wars.

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            1. I stand corrected, but I distinctly remember reading something which linked Cromwell to the Glorious Revolution. Of course, the operative phrase there is “I distinctly remember”, which at my age isn’t exactly a reliable test… 😜

              [Checks: Yep, Cromwell died 30 years previously. Oh, well…]

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        2. The American Revolution was basically done by the time the shooting started. They had created a shadow government capable of running the country, with the effect that the British troops controlled nothing past their picket lines.

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      2. I vote for Bob’s revolution description over William’s. I don’t consider the French Revolution as socialism-based; which anything the Democrat mob comes up with will be.

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        1. Yes, but I’m not talking about their ideology, which is not directly descriptive of their behavior. I’m talking about the revolution turning into Saturn and devouring its children, which certainly happened big time in France.

          And I don’t think you can completely understand socialism without knowing that the French Revolution was Karl Marx’s great heroic myth, the model for his whole concept of revolution. Before Marx, socialism was more like the kibbutz movement in Israel, and much less malignant. Still wrong, but localized.

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        2. The early stages of the French Revolution were strictly bourgeois, and business (what there was of it) was generally supportive. Once the Jacobins and sansculottes seized power, they did pretty much everything Marx could have asked of them.

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    2. Comment on Twitter that as of that time there was *one* protester. Female, with bullhorn.

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  3. Wish I had thought to take my HP printer out to my range as a target- would have been much more satisfying than just putting it out for the garbage man.

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    1. Friend of a friend who flew A-10s got the COs permission at the end of his conversion training to that plane to take his old VW bug out to the gun range they used and the next day put some brrrrt on it. He was driving it along the highway outside Tucson to put it out in the appropriate piece of desert when it burst into flames, so he pulled off and left it burning next to the road, deployed to his new squadron South Korea, and never got to perforate it with the GAU-8.

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      1. That reminds me of the time I almost got Mama Raptor – who I should mention hates guns – to come out to a machine gun shoot. When I was little, we owned a Ford Taurus wagon that was a total POS. Was constantly in the shop for maintenance, always had problems, and it was Mama Raptor’s daily driver for about a decade I think until we finally got rid of it. First and last American car my family ever owned, but I digress.

        Many many years later, I was at a machine gun shoot about an hour away from our house. The venue was little more than a small field at the base of a very very very tall hill. Amongst the targets set up for our destructive pleasure was a Ford Taurus sedan of the same basic vintage as our thankfully-departed wagon.

        I called Mama Raptor up, told her what one of the targets was, and jokingly asked if she was sure she didn’t want to come down and shoot it.

        There was a loooooooooooong pause, and then Mama Raptor asked how far away the shoot was. She told me she couldn’t make it because she was meeting someone for lunch in less than two hours, but she sounded legitimately disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to dump a magazine or three into that car.

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        1. In college I had an nth-hand Honda 350. A couple of months into my ownership, the timing chain broke, which required a full teardown. (Bought it from a friend, and he really helped. That was the second timing chain…)

          We got it together, but every year or two, something would block the oil line to the camshaft, requiring (if lucky) careful cleaning and cheap-ish parts, or rather worse. Sold the bike to a friend, and it did it’s thing. Again.

          Bought it back, gave a good hard look at the situation and dismounted the engine. (If I had paid more attention while rebuilding, would have been OK. Didn’t and it wasn’t. The last fail needed the full teardown due to ground-camshaft and associated pieces. Life was too busy for remedial motorcycle repair…) One 10 pound sledge later, the engine and the rest of the motorcycle joined the trash from the ongoing house renovation.

          Most fun I had with a sledgehammer.

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      2. Fort Stewart (Georgia) gunnery ranges were well stocked with derelict vehicles forfeited to the MP’s impound lot. A TOW will put a hurtin on a Chevvy.

        Of course, there was that one time that they loaded a pair of “hold” vehicles on the hauler, versus “dispose”.

        Oops.

        Liked by 2 people

    2. “It’s not time for the penguin on top of your set to explode” Announcer.
      Penguin explodes.
      “How did he know that?’ Woman asks.
      “He’s with the BBC they know everything” other woman exclaims.

      And that is how people thought of the news at that time, they no longer believe the news.

      Liked by 4 people

      1. I just destroy the platters with a 2-1/2 lb singlejack hammer. But I also remove the magnets; they’re really strong, and last forever.

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  4. Considering the people that the left has tried to excuse over the years (Marian Zimmer Bradley is the first that comes to mind) and some of their most insane worldbuilding ideas…

    No, I’m not surprised that they’re willing to scream the idea that this is a false flag operation, or a hoax, or anything like that.

    Because that is what they would do if they could have done it. They’re the victim, they’re always the victim, and anything they do because they’re a victim is righteous.

    They also believe that they can control violence once it starts. And they’re surprised when they can’t.

    Morons and fools.,

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    1. Sad to say, one of the people who endeavored to excuse MZB and her spouse was Robert Heinlein, not usually thought of as “left.” I hope that he simply lacked enough insight to grok wrongness in them, rather than excusing or even approving of their behavior.

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      2. i believe he passed before evidence surfaced on Breen and was dead two decades plus before it surfaced on MZB herself. Plus, that is something the latter hid well and that people don’t want to see (look at Dianna Paxton’s reaction).

        I see RAH and plenty of others falling into extraordinary claims demanding extraordinary evidence.

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        1. I had the impression that Breen had already published his pamphlet about man-boy love back in the 1950s, but apparently not; the Wikipedia article says it came out in 1964, roughly contemporaneously with the big fannish controversy about him.

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    2. Re: Author in Charge; because it is what THEY would do. This is EXACTLY what I was thinking in the shower last night. But PC was down for the night, not worth bringing it back up to post that, so….. Thanks for getting to it FOR me!!

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  5. Can’t disagree. With this, however, a shoe dropped for me. I’m waiting to see what the next shoe will be as these crazy clowns are not done yet and are terrified of Trump.

    My personal theory (no need to buy in) is that there are various factions within the Democrat / Media / deep state groups that truly are disconnected from reality. The, the, uh I don’t know what to label them as – but they are ‘reporters’ on MSNBC (or MSDNC – gotta love that) are an example of those that live in a fantasy world and whishing and reporting lies hard enough makes you “correct” and your dreams will magically come to be.

    I am thinking that some of the weasels are turning on each other and thus we’ll have a slow down in the crazy until the internal civil war on the progressive side is finished or, if not finished at least at a point where they will again focus just outside and will plan on taking care of the internal problems later. My history may be a bit off but it seems that all the communist / Marxist regimes have cannibalized themselves and were always factions that were trying to be ‘on top’ at the cost of the rest of the regime. It also looks like segments of the democrats/media are throwing Old Joe under the bus.

    One comment I saw elsewhere said, the true progressive leadership has decided they can’t “win” this cycle so will construct the election loss and all problems/issues to blame Joe and his administration. Then they will spend the next four years trying to destroy anything the new administration puts in place and plan for a glorious return to power. YMMV…

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    1. The problem with that is, in the crab bucket, if you’re in charge, everyone wants to pull you down. The factions that are arranging for a tidy defeat and regrouping are looking at OrangeManBad, they’re not looking at the legion of hungry ambitious cunning critters who interpret their defeat as a fall from internal party power as well as external… and just know that the Marxist pie means that power should be coming to them now, internally and externally.

      Occasional Cortex’s statement that the people who were defeatist need to hand power to her wasn’t meant for the Other Party, it was Internal Party Signalling.

      Oft evil does evil mar.

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      1. I do think the “defeatist attitude” might save Brandon’s life this summer though. If it was thought anyone else had a chance at defeating Orange Man Bad, Brandon’s life wouldn’t be worth any more than the needle/pillow/untied shoe required to make him carbon neutral.

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      2. The Reader saw some hints that Gavin Hairgel thought he was that person. He actually blocked some of the craziest stuff the CA legislature served up. Apparently he’s decided not though because he just drove Musk to move the headquarters of both SpaceX and X (Twitter for all us old folks) from CA to TX. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/elon-musk-says-he-will-move-x-and-spacex-headquarters-out-of-california-dbfe0789?st=2okbj0w51mjqocm&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

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            1. I don’t have X, so unless someone posts it somewhere else, usually here. Heard it on news first.

              Whatever. Has to give Democrats heart burn at the very thought.

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              1. Everything I’ve seen is some form of “sources say”. Elon hasn’t confirmed it, but he DID endorse Donald Trump 100%.

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                1. Oh. The heartburn that the Democrats have to have! May Elon’s Trump support, rumored or not, affect down votes too.

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    2. If at the Donk Convention someone farts loudly outside, it may devolve into a bloodbath.

      Hypergolic mixture.

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      1. I was in the Chicago suburbs for the ’68 fun and games. Teen RCPete didn’t want to see the excitement first hand, but the local and nat’l news was fascinating. Felt like living 20 miles from Hiroshima in August 1945…

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        1. The Reader has a nephew a lot closer to next month’s fun and games than the suburbs. I’ve quietly suggested to him a couple of times that he find his way out of Chicago. No luck yet and my sister doesn’t understand the concern.

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          1. I still have family living in the area, either in the sort-of distant ‘burbs, or the satellite cities. I don’t worry about most of them, and am not in a position to influence the ones who warrant worry. Keeping half a country away and with limited contact from the rest of my relatives is better for my peace of mind. Usually.

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      1. The Reader’s son is in your camp. The Reader believes Biden will pass quietly in his sleep and the state funeral will leave Wellstone’s to shame.

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        1. The Reader believes Biden will pass quietly in his sleep

          So do I. The “ultra-MAGA” treatment will be for Kamala, as a way to scare back minorities. After the disgraceful display put on by the Secret Service this past weekend, and the FBI’s for more than a decade, though, that fig leaf won’t provide much cover.

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  6. Hard as it is for normal folks to understand a bunch of lunatics, the task becomes impossible when the lunatics take it as an article of faith that they are the normal ones.

    They have not only taken over the asylum, they pretend that the world outside their crazy walls is the asylum.

    ——————————

    When reality fails to conform to your theories, it’s not the universe that’s wrong.

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    1. Pretty much all lunatics think they’re the sane ones. It’s one of the most tragic aspects of working with them.

      And on the plus side, if you ever wonder if you’re crazy, there’s at least part of your brain that is sane enough to ask the question.

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  7. THIS is what they (the left) hate the most: “we’re the people who eschewed the indoctrination of the schools, media, entertainment, to make up our own minds”.

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    1. And the only explanation they can imagine is that we’re all programmed by some sinister propaganda machine that they cannot even see.

      The notion of observing reality for yourself and drawing reasoned conclusions does not even enter their heads. There is no space there fit to receive it.

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  8. I detect a high likelihood of shoot your printer at the range memes descending upon us shortly. As well as links to videos of same.

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        1. Our 10 year old one is starting to use more Jet-Dry. I pat it gently and wish it well. JD is cheap enough.

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    2. It occurs to me that I’ve felt hardly any hostility towards my printer since I swore off inkjet printers in general, and HP products in particular.

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      1. At the risk of invoking Murphy, since we have retired and nothing we ever print or scan is critical any more, our HP all-in-one devices have behaved as advertised/fantasized by the optimists in HP Marketing.

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        1. My last HP printer dated to the parallel port days. The inexpensive Brother duplex laser printer is over 10 years old, and doing well for light use. Not sure if I’m on the second or third cartridge of toner, but it’s far less hassle than talking a seldom-used inkjet into working.

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        2. hate to admit I have an HP laser printer/scanner/fax that came home when I retired, it still works great, as much as I despise HP in general; I scan to NOT ON THE WEB storage of all serious paper work, as well as old family photos and documents I am merging into a historical scrapbook; AND all my (unfortunately burgeoning) medical information which I then print out and hand to each provider who never gets a hold of all the reports they need but then have no excuse for not acting on.

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        3. Only thing I have against HP is the older the printer the less likely to have good ink. Replacement ink costs a fortune (so does HP sanctioned ink). Otherwise works great, as long as it answers the call to wake up. Non-HP-replacement ink gums up the works relatively quickly. We now have one of the new Epson’s that gets ink poured into the ink cartridges. Our prior HP that it replaced is going to Goodwill. It still works.

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          1. Only thing critical we print these days are our yearly state tax filings.

            Mom has me print her boarding passes (both plane, Amtrak, hotels, cruises, etc.) but that is for backup.

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      2. Always had fair-to-decent luck with Brother printers. But I use one at home so little, it’s hard to say for certain that they’re decent, or I just don’t use it often enough for the usual problems to crop up.

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    3. I have a Beretta CX4 Storm carbine. Sooner or later, I need to shoot a few toasters*.

      *Those of you who are familiar with that firearm’s use as a prop in a certain reimagined SF TV series know why I should use her to shoot toasters.

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  9. The insanity on the left is starting to break down the DEMONcrat party. Of course they will try to lie and gaslight us, but they lost the information control and the people. The spiral downward is speeding up, they look around their cities and see the destruction. California is failing, all blue states and cities are failing. I wouldn’t live in New York for a billion dollars. I am waiting for a powerful Demoncrat’s family to be killed or raped to death by an Illegal, I don’t wish it, but it will happen. They are destroying themselves and don’t even realize it. I pity them, if they kill Trump, I will join in killing them and their cities. That is the fire they are playing with, not one lone snipe, but hundreds. We know how to shut down their cities and make them starve. they know how to protest and riot. We know how to kill, big difference. If Civil War happens the world will never be the same.

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  10. On another aspect of today’s post, I will share information obtained in the past week from the depths of blue Michigan. I have more than several in-laws who are registered D Party voters for decades. Sadly they are otherwise normal appearing, acting, and cogitating human beings some of whom are actually friendly towards me. One couple is diverse in that one spouse gets their news from MSNBC and the other from NPR. While well aware of my spouse’s R wing fanaticism (well, I’m sure that’s what they think, but they all know that’s all My Fault that she peeled her COEXIST sticker of the back of her Subaru and replaced it with an Obama era “Bend over we’re not done” sticker.). Anyway, they were quoting Caryn Elaine Johnson regarding The Donald, either knowingly or not, and spouting all sorts of Nina Totenberg nonsense with any attempt at calm and sensible political conversation. Every Single One of them. One even opined it was a shame the bullet missed. These people are without hope for redemption from my point of view.

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    1. I am not even asking my younger brother his thoughts, because I don’t want to know if they are loony thoughts.

      I expect it would be a “but”, just like I expect he has some weird idea about The Acolyte having some redeeming value somewhere. And I do not want to hear it and think less of him.

      OTOH, if I leave him alone, he is less likely to swallow as much crazy, and more likely to stand away from his crazy Facebook friends. He is something of a contrarian like that.

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      1. The Acolyte has redeeming value. It made me mad, which made me write. So far the redeeming value is approximately 30K words.

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  11. There is rarely any THOUGHT attached to people’s opinions. The sad fact is few of them have the equipment to do so – and if they ever did it was not cultivated or maintained. It’s hard to wrap your head around how stupid the majority of the population is. Our civilization was not built by the average person. If everyone was merely average we wouldn’t have cell phones, modern automobiles, agriculture to feed the current population or medicine that extends life for most people past 60. How we live was created by people of 140+ IQ and maintained by 115+. The challenge right now is keeping the sub average from killing themselves and others because they can’t even USE the present tech.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. I have to say that my view of Trump is not exactly a result of thought. I saw him as too lacking in any definite convictions or worldview, back in 2016, and voted for whoever the Libertarian candidate was (Johnson, I think?), despite misgivings about him. Then came election night, and as the returns came in, I realized that I was feeling tremendous relief that the winner was Trump and not Clinton. That all took place on an entirely subconscious level, but what I’ve seen since then has not made me think I was wrong.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. I briefly considered Johnson, as I didn’t like either one – I figured “more of the same, and equally annoying.”

        Then it came out that Johnson thought it was right and proper for the State to force a baker to violate his deeply held beliefs. Nope.

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        1. I hadn’t heard about that back that. Now that was seriously not libertarian.

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          1. He also talked about considering a carbon tax, and not considering which size of bomb to blow it up with. Pretty much the antithesis of libertarianism, regardless of capitalization.

            His choice of a gun grabber as his VP wasn’t exactly inspiring, either. While Trump is hardly a staunch 2A supporter, he at least apparently figured out gun control was unpopular with his supporters from the backlash following the bump stock ban.

            Liked by 1 person

          2. He and Weld were also pro the Kelo V New London decision that let New london take a little old ladies ~90k house for 12K to turn over to a commercial park for a large Pharmaceutical company. I will note that said company bailed Circa 2018 so all that land taken by public domain just sits and rots. That is clearly NOT something a Libertarian ought to support. Also had the VP Weld as a governor. He was better than a pointy stick in the eye (e.g. Dukakis) but only slightly…

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          3. I remain convinced that the Libertarian Party exists mostly to prove that you shouldn’t trust politicians, see us for examples.

            Liked by 1 person

      2. I saw Trump in 2016 as a pig in a poke, which was still a better risk than the sack of… organic matter… alternatives. That included the Libertarian ticket in 2016. In 2008 I voted Libertarian so I could say that I voted against both Obama AND McCain. In 2016 the Libertarians had gone so “liberaltarian” that they weren’t even worth a protest vote. So I held my nose and voted for Trump.

        In absolute terms I think Trump was a bad President. In relative terms, he cleared the very low bar of being better than any other President or major-party candidate in decades.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. In 2016, the Reader voted against Clinton. He didn’t expect much from Trump but was pleasantly surprised. One of the amusing things is that the Reader believes that if the Democrats had been mildly cooperative in 2017 they would have gotten amnesty for a border wall. That would have cost Trump the support of the people who elected him. They chose poorly.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. What’s truly funny is that the GOPe made the same mistake in 2016. They wanted Trump instead of Ted Cruz. Bob Dole:

          Bob Dole said Wednesday that Ted Cruz at the top of the GOP ticket would mean “wholesale losses” for the party in Washington and across the country.

          “I don’t know how he’s going to deal with Congress,” Dole said in an interview with The New York Times. “Nobody likes him.”

          Dole, a former Kansas senator, was the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 1996.

          Donald Trump would “probably work with Congress,” though, Dole mused, because he’s “kind of a deal maker.”

          😁😁😁😁😁😁

          https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/01/20/bob-dole-ted-cruz-donald-trump/79079408/

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      4. I voted for Trump, but I too was pleased to realize, after, that I was actually happy that he won.

        Then I expected two things of him, namely, that he would not be Hilary Clinton, and he would make leftists go spare in amusing ways. I have to give him both, although there were a lot more who went spare in unamusing ways.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. I had been going to vote for Evan what’s his name (and am now VERY grateful I did not, as it turns out the guy is 100% a leftist shill), but at the last minute voted reluctantly for Trump in 2016. I, too, felt a massive amount of relief when I woke up Election Day morning to learn he’d won. And I willingly voted for him in 2020, and will do so again–I just hope he’s now learned (and I expect he has) to not trust ANYONE who has been in the DC circles/politics game for any length of time, and will make better choices this go around and have better success draining the swamp. (As I say frequently here and elsewhere: while I *am* a federal employee and I absolutely loathe job hunting–if someone came into office who pulled a Javier Milei on the federal government, I would be thrilled even if I *did* lose my job.)

        Liked by 1 person

        2. “absolutely loathe job hunting“Preaching to the choir here.

          Or why I could never go independent contractor as a developer/programmer. Always looking for the next gig.

          Interestingly enough same with two cousins-in-laws. Both have phd’s in their respective fields, one in astro physics, the other in chemical engineering. I call them “working phd’s” because they are not in the university system researching and teaching. They get hired into companies, when the major project is completed, they have to find another position. Granted both are head hunted once one position has wound down. It has meant moving a lot (also, no thanks, even with someone else paying the bills).

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          1. My backup plan is to become a stenographer/captioner–even independent ones are usually in high demand. Alas, finding the energy after 10 hours work days (because I commute an hour each way to my office) is a lot harder at 44 than it was even at 34. (And I’d give my right foot to have the energy I had at 24, dammit)

            Liked by 1 person

    2. “We readily assign others’ perceptions and opinions to the many thoughts and decisions in our lives – especially the big ones – and we choose to think for ourselves on the “little things.”

      This takes the burden of responsibility off of our backs and places it on the shoulders of those who seek to “help us” or manipulate us. If they turn out to be wrong, then we can blame them; if they turn out to be right, we can take credit for the success as long as they don’t find out we are frauds.

      To many, this is the recipe for life that they believe to be acceptable. I say it is the mire that keeps them from becoming the people they are capable of being.”

      -Your Life, by Tom Spooner

      Liked by 3 people

    3. In 2016 I saw the silly things the Dems imagined up to tar him with and wondered how anyone building towers in unionized NYC didn’t have any real dirt for them to dig up. I also thought he’d probably make deals with the dems in Congress but was probably too good a deal maker to make disastrous ones. So maybe worth a roll of the dice.

      OTOH, I saw that Hillary had succeeded in bringing slave markets back to the streets of Tripoli just for spite. There was no sane geopolitical reason for going after Khaddafi at that time. Add to that getting away with destroying evidence under subpoena. Yeah, chaotic evil alignment is a hard no.

      I was pleasantly surprised that Trump was as good as he was from 2017 -> 2020. Was disappointed in his deferral to “experts” who weren’t during Covid, but noted that he didn’t use the opportunity to gather personal power but respected State & Local decisions instead.
      That’s why the “Trump will be a dictator!” cries are so ridiculous. He had a chance to become one served up ro him on a silver platter and refused to take it.

      Like

        1. Someone mentioned that Trump and Reagan shared the same characteristic of not having their ex-wives going after them. The only other modern politician I can think of like that was Fred Thompson.

          Like

      2. My thought was that it was very INTERESTING that a man who has been married, what, three times? and divorced twice, and neither of his exes had anything bad to say about him (so far as I can tell, the media never even tried talking to them–or tried and were rebuffed, and never admitted it), and that his kids are not only by and large functional adults, but obviously have–at the very least–a cordial WORKING relationship with him…well. The man has many flaws, but clearly treats his nearest and dearest decently (at the very least)–and that told me he probably didn’t have much in the way of actual dirt. Usual rich blowhard stuff? Sure. Probably not the world’s greatest husband in terms of fidelity–but again, it’s telling that neither ex appears to hate him, or at least not enough that they were willing to say bad things about him to the media. And they didn’t seem to find all that many disgruntled former employees, either, which was also telling.

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          1. That makes a lot of sense. The man does strike me as a major workaholic (well, he’s gone bankrupt more than once, if I recall right? And come back each time? I also love how dems hold that up as well like it’s some kind of black mark).

            Was just reading that he took the time to speak to his VP pick’s seven year old on the phone. Even if it was “only” done for image points (I don’t think it was, because even the nicest of us would fully understand just wanting a noisy seven year old in the background to be quiet while you asked his dad a very important and life changing question), it was still a kind thing to do. Same with reaching out to the widow of the man killed at the rally. Yes, it’s a bit of a “must” on the campaign front…but he still didn’t have to do it. Notably the veggie and kamalalalala haven’t in similar incidents in the recent past, or when they have it is *painfully* obvious that they are ONLY doing it to look good, and are therefore insincere on all levels about it. I don’t know how spiritual Trump is either, but I note that he’s always appeared to be quite respectful of others’ beliefs–again, a notable difference to his opposite numbers.

            Liked by 1 person

  12. Everyone the media and .gov knows in their bubble agrees with them, but their plans never work, and the flyover people keep successfully doing things against what they know from their doctrine is the hoi polloi’s true best interests, so they just keep getting more and more frustrated.

    Since revealed doctrine cannot be wrong, it must be something else, some vast and clever conspiracy, but they control the media and the bureaucracy, where any vast and clever conspiracy would have to be operating to work. And so instead of questioning base assumptions, i.e. doctrine, they spiral down into paranoid fantasyland.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Standard Marxism. Failure isn’t because the Great Plan just plain stinks like a loaded diaper (and that’s being kind!), but because of incompetent execution (“it wasn’t socialism because it wasn’t done right”), active sabotage, or a combination of both.

      See also “Social Justice”, which is neither.

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      1. I’m reminded that in Orwell’s 1984, Big Brother could blame problems on the mysterious Emmanuel Goldstein.

        There was some question (in the book) about Goldstein’s actual existence.

        IE The Marxist leadership always needs an “Arch-Fiend” to blame problems on, especially the problem of the People not supporting them. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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        1. Probably did exist. After all, with all the people they threw to the wolves, one would be high enough to be blamed.

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      2. Planned economies can’t work overall. To work you essentially have to have infinite information, which violates all sorts of information theory. It should be noted that omniscience is only attributed to one class of being and that class of being is NOT human.

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        1. Hell, the government has become too big even to manage itself effectively. Not only information theory, also control theory. The task of controlling a system scales at least exponentially with complexity, if not factorially. A system composed of 320 million fractious, argumentative curmudgeons is utterly unmanageable.

          ——————————

          “With our augmented intelligence, we know we’re not smart enough to micro-manage the lives of three hundred and twenty million people. You are stupid enough to believe you can.”

          Liked by 2 people

      3. Also that human beings are, well, human beings. Which means that you’re ALWAYS going to get a percentage of contrarian goats mucking up The Great Plan(tm). I swear the only reason socialism/communism is still hanging on in some places (up to and including China) is that too many of their goats opted to escape here instead. (That, and our government propping them up.)

        And the US has a massively higher-than-average percentage of contrarian goats by its very nature. And socialists/communists just cannot seem to grasp this–I suspect because they do not view other human beings as, you know, actually real and individual and having their own thoughts (because Marxism views people as widgets–except, of course, the great and good and wise who are of course implementing the Great Plan(tm))

        Liked by 1 person

        1. “US has a massively higher-than-average percentage of contrarian goats by its very nature.”

          In addition they aren’t leaving the US. Granted the biggest reason is there is no where else to go. Now open a new frontier, (cough) outer space, where a group can put together their own colony ship, individuals can put together merchant ships with crews, then all bets are off. But for now? No where they can go. As already said, there is a reason why suppressed people run here.

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    2. The vast right wing conspiracy is called truth. Multiple people with no physical or communication contact can come up with the same thing, because it is true. Observationally true.

      To the left it looks like magic.

      Liked by 1 person

  13. Woke social media last week: “Conspiracy theories and disinformation must be rooted out at all costs!”

    Woke social media this week: “FALSE FLAG! GLASS SHARD! MAGIC BULLET! MK-ULTRA! SMART GUNS! STAGE BLOOD! ANTICHRIST!”

    Liked by 2 people

  14. And speaking of shooting truther takes, here’s a new one I just found: the Trump campaign deliberately radicalized the shooter.

    And uh, how did they ensure that the shooter would miss? The answer, of course, is “SHUT UP FASCISTS!!!!”

    Liked by 3 people

    1. One of those idiots tried to claim it was “movie magic”.

      No real rifle fire and Trump used “fake blood” on his ear.

      Of course, there’s one picture that shows a hole in Trump’s ear and there were real people actually shot. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I’m counting down until the Left accuses the other victims of being “crisis actors”.

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        1. I’ll repeat here something I said on Instapundit:

          Clearly, the whole thing was faked, including the dead man. There’s no such person as Corey Conspiratore or whatever his name is, and I can prove it:

          He has not made one single social media post to announce that he is dead!

          /Leftist-twit

          Liked by 1 person

      2. I am especially horrified at the “fake blood” crowed because…what, then they proceeded to seriously wound a bystander, kill another, and kill the shooter? All in the name of false flag?!? Talk about piling the evidence that these people (the ones proclaiming this theory I mean, and their fellow leftists) are utter psychotic sociopaths…As our esteemed hostess said: We are not the same. I think that’s something that would have even some of our obnoxiously big gov supporting folks in our tent going “Whoa now, that’s several bridges too far”

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I can accept that they think the other side is that evil. They’ve been groomed to it, heaven knows that their side has similar plots.

          What I can’t accept is that they aren’t even checking their own idea.

          Just… look at the photos and video of what actually happened; there are some points where you could do something like smash a pill of fake blood into the side of his head, by the ear.

          But then you have to upkeep the illusion. The initial hit can be faked with some slight of hand for the same reason I was watching those videos so closely– the initial hit can look like a small impact, and then the blood starts. I was afraid he’d been hit… well, a lot worse. And was basically dead but half moving.

          He didn’t either try to hide the blood, or emphasize it. He acted like someone who was hurt but still moving, and thinking of stuff like “gotta make sure the crowd doesn’t think I’m dead.”

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Yeah. When I watched the footage I saw him grab his ear, it was more a “Ow, did something bite me?!” sort of gesture, then realize it was shooting, hit the deck and (rather belatedly, I thought) the agents gathered round. And then when they were getting him back up he definitely seemed more than a little shocked and dazed, but then…there’s almost a moment when you can see him get, I would say, MAD. And that’s when we got that iconic, every-campaign-manager-ever’s-dream-photo as he showed the crowd he was not only alive but okay.

            I’m sure the reaction later, almost certainly in private with his family, was shattering. But given that he did all of that IN THE MOMENT, in the space of less than 30 seconds or so, was impressive as hell. I’d never really thought of Trump as a badass–a fighter, to be sure, especially when it came to words–but that was badass and moved me from merely really liking the man as leader of our country to full on admiring him. (Especially when he changed his mind about cancelling events and went “No, you know what? Screw them, I’m not going to hide.” That’s pretty damn brave to do less than 48 hours after death missed you by a fraction of an inch–and I don’t think any of us would have thought less of him if he HAD cancelled some of his near-future appearances.)

            Liked by 1 person

  15. 1: “First let’s dismiss the entire “it’s an hoax””

    Yes, let’s. That’s literally a TV show plot, I think it was The Saint or something.

    Be aware that X/Twitter is saying that most of this is down to bots.

    2: “Why should I care if Trump was shot at by a right winger?”

    I’m going to go on a little tear here, and then walk out of this house and go for a bike ride down to Lake Erie.

    We are being asked to believe:

    -that a 20 year old punk showed up at a Trump rally with a gun and explosives in his car, and didn’t get arrested.

    -that he “happened” to see a ladder at the back of the building, “realized” there were no cops on the roof, and “decided” he was going to climb up there (to the most perfect sniper position ever created) and sh00t the guy.

    -that he went to his car, got his rifle, climbed up the ladder and belly-crawled to the ridge line in full view of the crowd, who were literally taking video the whole time including when he was shooting, but none of the cops could do anything.

    -that he managed to get five rounds into Trump and the crowd before a USSS sniper could shoot him, even though it took him quite a while to crawl up there and even though he pointed his gun at a cop who fell off the roof before the shooting started.

    -that while all this was happening, he was in fact climbing up the roof of the building were the police swat team was sitting -inside- far away from being able to do anything useful.

    -and a lot of other extremely sketchy decisions and twists of fate happened as well, each of which stretch one’s credulity like a piano wire. Like for example, who left that friggin’ ladder there?

    -coming to the ultimate thing you are being asked to believe, that none of this was a setup and it all just kind of happened by accident, man.

    And prior to the school atrocity at Uvalde Texas and subsequent cover-up, not to mention the Green Hills school shooting and subsequent FBI-level cover-up I would never have believed that all that could “just kind of happen.”

    But you know what? Now I do. I really do believe that the Feds could create a comedy of errors this appalling. Five bucks says the last guy to check that roof left the frickin’ ladder there because he just plain forgot to take it down. Because he’s an incompetent, overweight donut muncher with the brain of a unionized public employee.

    3: “Damn it, he missed!”

    Public employees all over Canada posted that stuff to X right after this thing happened. Thanks to Covid, we already know what’s up with these people and how far they’re willing to go. What’s hard to understand is how STUPID they are, and how lame we are for letting them f- with us like this.

    4: “LOOK, SHINY THING!!!!”

    The one thing I’m sure of in all this is that I am being manipulated from half a dozen directions at least, that all of it is bullsh1t, and that none of it is good for me.

    So now I’m done my little rant, and I’m not paying any more attention to this sh1t for the rest of the week. Auf wider steen, as Ted Baxter famously said.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. SNAFU kinda defines our current government.

      Yes, this was a colossal effup, not a conspiracy.

      Some folks might have said “eh” to their duty, but it was neglect or disinterest, not calculation.

      I assure you, far far bigger effups happen.

      Pearl Harbor

      Little Bighorn

      Operation Market Garden.

      That kid who flew a Cessna from Gemany to Red Square, at the peak of the Cold War.

      Humans eff up.

      Here is something else to consider. The kid who shot Trump may have been trying to suicide by cop. He telegraphed rather bigly. In full view. Pointed at a cop, even. Maybe dumped rounds in the general direction of Trump. “What does it take to draw fire?” BANG

      probably not. But that is more likely than yet another “we would rather believe a superplot, than that we are ruled by fuckups.

      Folks, we -are- ruled by fuckups, not evil geniuses.

      Liked by 2 people

      2. “Little Bighorn”

        I always envisioned Custer and those who went down with him, in a dip in the prairie, with the defenders of the native encampment riding down on them from above. Not so much. The native encampment was on the flat riparian prairie. Custer & companies, he split his command at least 3 ways, rode across a much higher prairie hill top, as the native defenders rode up, very steep up, to engage. Custer and those who died with him (including three brothers) were slightly down off the top on an upper slope. Plain and simple, Custer lost the high ground. The other two sections, who survived, did so, because they kept to the high ground and they rejoined. Still lost more than the natives did total, but the entire commands were not wiped out.

        It was interesting driving between the two national monument sections which went through the battle field. White headstone markers noted where Calvary fell, some with names others with descriptions. Red headstone markers where known native fell. Latter guesses, by the time the two surviving forces, with backup, were able to survey the battle field, the natives had removed their dead. It was interesting reading the history in the native memorial section (more recently added), much nicer than the memorial for Custer, which covers a mass grave. It was even more interesting to overhear (eavesdrop) on a family where the fathers are explaining to the young children which of their ancestors were part of the Custer opposition, and what tribe.

        The entire site was eerily quiet. Even with the wild horses roaming on the reservation sections between the two national monument sites.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Having worked in fedgov since 2011–yeah. The vast majority of upper management doesn’t get promoted to that position because they’re good at their jobs, they get there because they were either promoted-to-be-someone-else’s-problem (rather than, you know, FIRING THEM), or because they have connections. (Our district where I am just cannot figure out why morale is so low. They threw us an ice cream party!! But making it so we have to work in a field office with AC/heat that is constantly broken, plumbing that breaks at least 3 times a year, and a leaky roof, not to mention being massively understaffed and having a field manager who was put into the position because, well, he’d already been acting for a while and it was easy (nevermind that the man does literally nothing, and didn’t when he was an assistant field manager, and also would rather throw employees under the bus rather than have their backs in the face of other upper management problems) is of course nothing we should be glum about)

        My last assistant field manager before the current go her job because she was accused of bullying in her last field office, and they didn’t want to bother with a proper investigation. And she continued right on with that behavior here until her retirement (at the same time as previous field manager) because she did most of his work and made him look good (not that she did a great job, she was inconsistent as hell) so he could sit downstairs and do nothing much.

        This was the same guy who admitted to my dad (who works in the same field office) when HE applied for job of AFM that he didn’t get it because he would have actually made people do their jobs. And his replacement is, frankly, WORSE.

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      4. “Yes, this was a colossal effup, not a conspiracy.”

        I’m not ruling out that there -could- have been deliberate action here.

        Let’s face it, it is not an accident that half of Trump’s team was #NewGirls who literally couldn’t holster their pistols without help. Somebody set that up. Somebody decided Dr. #MrsBrandon was going to get all the available resources and #Donald ended up with nada.

        All I’m saying is, I no longer DIS-believe that some kid could have decided to do this on the spur of the moment. I’m admitting the possibility.

        In the larger view, the degrading of the USSS from effective force to clown show was down to DEI. That’s not a conspiracy, that was literally government policy.

        See if you can imagine what the USSS security details for the Supreme Court look like these days, when #Brandon is feeling rejected by them. Fricking kindergarten teachers with Glocks.

        Liked by 1 person

      1. This. I’ve seen the ladder purchase reported by the news media today, along with the information that he bought “fifty rounds of ammo”, before telling his Dad that he was going to go to the range (where fifty rounds of ammo would be entirely appropriate).

        What I’m puzzled about is the explosives in his car. Since they didn’t go off, presumably they weren’t wired to explode. Was that for an alternative plan if he decided the rooftop sniper thing wouldn’t work?

        Liked by 2 people

        1. I read a report this morning that the device they found in the vehicle was wired to a radio receiver, the transmitter to which they found on his body. I surmise being startled by the local LEO doing his whack-a-mole impression behind him might have ruined his plan to use a big badda boom to distract, enabling a shot.

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    3. And apparently, the USSS didn’t post someone on that roof because…it was too steep??

      While I do believe their is a fair amount of malice in here SOMEWHERE, it also appears to be a horrifying amount of incompetence. Sadly not shocking, since obviously the head of the agency is a DEI hire and/or a buddy of the Bidens (read: probably gave them a nice fat check from her previous Pepsico salary to get her the job), and appears to be very much not the brightest bulb out there.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Look at the video of the visible countersniper team that eventually took the shot. Note that roof upon which they perch and successfully take their shot is not flat.

        Obviously not necessarily an obstacle, eh?

        The woman is a moron if she thinks that excuse will fly. Actually it appears to me she is thus whether she thinks that or not.

        But do note as well the ABC/Disney News fellow did not question anything about that point, let alone say something like “Director, in this photo we see two Secret Service counter snipers operating on what sure looks to me like a sloped roof. How is that possibly compatible with your statement just now?”

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        1. These guys. Look at the slope of that roof? And where are their safety harnesses? The horror, the horror…

          Quick, somebody call OSHA!

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          1. I once used a chainsaw on a pole while standing on a roof with an equivalent slope. (Pro tip: Plant your feet and do not move them without securing your power tool and watching your feet as you move them.) That’s, what, 1:12? Easy peasy. I’ve been on worse on slicked granite.

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            2. Heh. Just last night on my way home I watched a bunch of roofers redoing the roof on the three-or-four-story old hotel in the town near to mine, which has such a steep slope as to be nearly vertical (no doubt to better shed the snow). They had harness and climbing gear for damn good reason, of course–but yeah. That woman is an utter moron if she thinks that excuse will fly.

              Hell, *I’ve* worked on a roof much steeper than that! (so much so that me and everyone else in the family keeps avoiding doing the–alas, increasingly more necessary–reroofing on it, because it’s so damn scary and none of us are remotely young anymore)

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Honestly, if I were to be designing my own house in an area with snow shed, I’d design in climbing anchors at the roofline (like maybe a belay pipe or something) so that roof work could be done in harness for safety.

                Liked by 1 person

  16. I came across a very simple and plausible reason why he was registered republican. Democrats were encouraging folks to cross over for the primary and vote for Nikki Haley…

    Liked by 2 people

        1. The Reader’s version of that was to vote for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary in 2016. The Reader was registered Democratic because he lost a coin toss with his significant other in 1985.

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      2. My Dad taught me that. Growing up in the South, if you wanted to vote in the primaries (then) you had to be a Democrat because there was only one Republican running.

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    3. Yeah, that came to mind, along with Operation Chaos mentioned by Anonymoose.

      In the GOP primary earlier this year in SC (where I live), there was a report that something like 40% of Haley voters were regular Dem voters crossing over to support her over Trump.

      Even with that support and the fact that Haley is “local”, she still got creamed in the vote.

      Hell, Trump alone something like half of the vote from both parties’ primaries combined. The turnout for the Dem primary was pathetic, only partly fueled by the registration switch thing (no switching back under SC election law).

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    5. It’s also possible that he was apolitical, but registered as a Republican because one or both of his parents are. While I haven’t heard anything about his parents’ political affiliations, his father apparently owns over twenty guns. It’s not conclusive evidence, but that suggests a Republican to me.

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          1. Probably because the current version of the Libertarian Party is extreme left. The only liberty they appear to care about is the liberty to abuse drugs without any restrictions.

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  17. “It won’t wash. It won’t pass the giggle test.”

    The giggle test requires the ability to giggle. The ability to giggle requires a sense of humor. A sense of humor requires the ability to see things from both sides and the habit of doing so.

    The Left is training out–and criminalizing–the habit of seeing things from two or more sides and even the ability to do so. They are working fanatically to ensure a population that has never even experienced a giggle, even during what they demand as sex.

    We must re-awaken, nurture, and promote what it takes to giggle, chuckle, chortle, laugh, guffaw, and pound the floor with both feet while laughing our INDIVIDUAL buttock-pairs off

    Liked by 3 people

  19. “He was registered republican!”

    And? My nieces are all registered republicans … Because their parents are! No way (until this year) could you consider any of them conservative or for Trump.

    Them: “Death to Democracy if Trump wins?”

    How in the hell does that track? President Trump wants to increase liberties. President Trump supports the Articles of the Constitution. President Trump is for America First! Not subject to the world.

    I guaranty some of my local Oregonians and I disagree about certain predator wildlife (cougars, bears Black or Grizzly, but especially grizzly, and wolves). I am for full protection absolutely no hunting, or at least no hunting with dogs. Full protection for Grizzlies and Wolves until both species fully roam traditional ranges (which will be the 5th of never).

    “if they could get him, they’re coming for me next”

    100% President Trump stands between them and us. He’s been untouchable. He is Teflon, they try, it slides off. Even the two “successful” attempts haven’t fully played out year. Fully expect the NY “fine” to be overturned. No victims fully voiced by the supposed “victims”. The guilty verdict. Expect it to be overturned. Cannot be guilty on something that no one knows what the guilty verdict means, not even the court. If they can assassinate President Trump, they’ll try loading us in cattle cars next. (Note, try, not will.)

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    1. Full protection for Grizzlies and Wolves until both species fully roam traditional ranges (which will be the 5th of never).

      Unless those ranges encompass cities, I suspect they already do roam their traditional ranges. But you’re right, it’ll be the 5th of never before anyone admits that because the only sightings the PTB trust are sightings by their own fully-paid-for wildlife biologists.

      Sightings by, say, a rancher whose sheep got massacred or who has a corpse to prove presence, don’t count.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Genus canis is almost as prolific at cross breeding as genus homo. A fair number of my neighbors in this suburban but border neighborhood have caught night camera pictures of what appear to be coydogs.

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          1. The semi-developed neighborhood a couple miles north of us had “Wolf”, a half-dog. Coyotes were really active this morning around 4:30, maybe because of an antelope preserve nearby. Haven’t heard of coy-wolves here, though coy-dog is likely.

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            1. Coydogs are common here in the East. They find labradoodles good eating. No one here leaves their dogs out at night, even in fenced yards.

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              1. The former cattle, now sheep operation across the highway uses Great Pyrenees. Not sure if the dogs are kept enclosed at night, but the local ‘yotes are smaller than the dogs. OTOH, they’ve ganged up and killed a horse years back. No shock when I hear varmint rounds touched off.

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                1. Takes a pair of guardian dogs to ward of coyotes. Valley ones have gotten so they distract one and then the rest take the sheep. Cousins lost their guardian dog because they had to bring in predator control and lost the guardian dog to the measures used. The company replaced the guardian dog with a pair of guardian dog breed puppies. Couple of years later the sheep were sold with the guardian dogs.

                  Guessing the Pyrenees are not confined unless their stock is also confined in the evening. Won’t work otherwise.

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              2. Thereadersitting in darkness said

                They find labradoodles good eating.

                I would expect there to be a rash of atherosclerosis and heart issues in coydogs due to the fatty nature of their diet.They need to lear labradoodles are a sometimes food.

                I normally like dogs but most of the doodle crosses drive me insane. Particularly the Schnoodles (Schnauser/Poodle cross). Take a traditionally arbitrarily aggressive dog and cross it with a breed where the pure breeds are massively high strung. That’s going to end well…

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                1. I don’t like dogs, but our australian shepherd/standard poodle is quite good. Both parents work for a living, though, so that might help.

                  She’s basically an amazonian Australian shepherd with curly hair.

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                  1. I suspect you have taken the time to train the animal AND have appropriate space/time for it to work out its energy. The Labradoodles and Schnoodles seem to have been sold as a less allergy reactive/ lower shedding animal. With Standard poodle and Standard schnauzer you have a large potentially aggressive animal. The Labradoodles are active and High strung. These are NOT starter dogs. It’s not a Chow Chow, Cane Corso or American Bull Terrier, but neither is it Golden Retriever or a cocker spaniel. I put much of the blame on the owners they do not really seem to understand that these larger animals need access to space and attention and training. The result is confused miserable animals who could be loving companions.

                    I grew up with a Chow Chow, A Doberman Pinscher and a Basenji. My mom learned to train dogs from her father who trained bird hunting (cocker/retrievers) dogs and the Chow and Basenji were pretty well trained. The Doberman was one we took when my then girlfriend (later Financee now wife of 40 years) family of origin broke up and the Doberman would not be accepted. She was already moderately well trained and an absolute sweetheart and probably one of the most cooperative dogs I’ve ever worked with (as opposed to the Chow who personality-wise was an 80+ pound cat). Even well trained these were potentially volatile animals. Once a rather aggressive salesman came to the door. He was insisting on coming in but the Chow and Doberman were having none of it and growled rather ominously. 160+ lbs of dog convinced him there were better sales opportunities elsewhere.

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                2. The thing that astonished me is that when you take a labrador retriever- arguably an intelligent dog, on the whole – and a poodle – also an arguably intelligent dog -and breed them with each other, nine times out of ten the offspring doesn’t have two braincells to rub together.

                  It’s astonishing, really.

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          2. Coyotes have no fear of urban areas, even seen video of coyotes waiting for walk lights to cross streets. Dogs have no fear of urban areas. Coydogs aren’t going to fear urban areas, might even prefer them.

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            1. A decade or so ago I was at the airport in Groton, CT, on TDY. I looked out and there was a coyote sitting on the railroad tracks, looking back at me.

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              1. We’ve been here at our house for 35 (36 come Thanksgiving 2024). Childhood home since Dec ’63, is 1 mile southeast. Found out we have coyotes every spring. Now in ’63 – ’73, when this neighborhood went in, makes sense. Mostly farm fields north of the childhood until the development we are in went in. Now? We are a mile or so from nearest hay fields, 2 miles from orchards and farming fields, minimum. Not far, but we’ve never see deer. Raccoons, possum, and for a bit, wild turkeys (even then it was 30 years before we saw any), yes. Statements by the nearby place with hay and even longer term residents, coyotes migrate through every spring and late fall. But now are visible because of home security. Haven’t had any bear or cougar home cam sightings (too far into the valley and no farm attractants like sheep or goats). Those are more likely to cycle through the valley between Coburg and Coastal hills, further south where the valley is narrower, before it spreads out more south of Hwy 58 exit.

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      2. 100%

        There have been rumors of grizzlies in a Wyoming range outside of greater Yellowstone/Teton ecology. But just recently acknowledge by WF&G.

        Yes this recovery should include, at least adjacent, city locations, including Willamette Valley. Already have black bears and cougars wandering through cities on the west coast (all 3 states) as their populations have bounded back now that hunting over bait, and with dogs, are disallowed, even with year round seasons. For Eugene it is primarily the Willamette green corridor (bike path and Doris Ranch Springfield), and the hilly fringes (South hills, Coburg Hills, and west side valley coast range foothills, they are there.

        I can state the above, because I know it will never happen.

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    2. I have read (not sure if true) that the introduced wolves tend to be rather more aggressive than the ones that used to be in Oregon. At least one of the collared ones had a serious appetite for live cow. Not sure if it was that one or another who disappeared without a trace. SSS, and a sufficiently deep lake makes a great Faraday cage. Nobody saw a thing. Just ask them. Cougars get killed if a serious problem; the county has an official critter-controller for dangerous ones. Problem coyotes get local attention, though less so with a de-facto ban on cattle operation in the Redacted river valley. (Water lawfare, what can’t it ruin?)

      On R vs D, I registered as D before the ’72 election. Voted for McGovern (sorry, but at least he lost) and the R governor, who was one of the rare ones in that state to not having “Federal Inmate” on his CV. Eventually, I realized that while officially D, might as well be an R. Voted for Reagan in the ’84 primary.

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      1. Collared wolves are problem wolves.

        “Amazingly,” the ones that showed up in Washington all had collars…. Bet the ones in Oregon did, too.

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    3. I found out from a friend in Montana that the Fish & Wildlife Dept. will compensate for stock losses to grizzly bears. Unfortunately, I found this out because a grizzly took out her pigs and she was freaking out about the food loss until they told her that.

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  20. I’m not sure about that last remark that “The left isn’t insane…” Many individual leftists are quite sane in their non-political lives, statements, and behavior. But as an entity or collective considered per se, the American (et al) political left is outright dotty. Completely batshyte. Long gone ‘round the twist.

    Because the measure of sanity is how closely one’s perceptions cohere to objective reality and whether one’s actions and choices are suited to the objective reality they act upon.

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      1. Their insanity is at least self consistent. If they claim to be Napoleon they at least have a fear of Waterloo.

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  21. I think it would be helpful to strip traitors of their citizenship and deport them. Have a trial, definitely, but don’t give them prison time in some American jail. Take their passports. Take their American citizenship away. Deport them.

    Let them find a country that suits them better than America. Have at it.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. The merest touch of the AR-15 bullet should have vaporized him on impact. CheckMATE, Reichstag Republicans!

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  23. “…because of their conceit of a central, and centralized government who can be all things to all people…”

    I vaguely recall an author who observed that “when you try to be all things to all people, you end up being nothing to anyone.”

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  24. Would like to note that the TDS is affecting some of those supposedly on the Right as well.

    There’s been a few folk that seemed normal and sane up to now that have jumped on the premise that the whole event was staged. Just because they “hate” Trump.

    One close friend of my spouse stated that yesterday. I was astonished because this person is an excellent shooter, a RO, and helps run 3-gun tournaments… and Fncking Knows Better to spout something so stupid in the community.

    I told my spouse under no conditions is someone that obtuse and ignorant allowed in the house until they display better judgement or their IQ increases above that of a root veggie.

    Meanwhile we are just relieved that CW II didn’t get kicked into the “rivers of blood” stage as Enoch Powell would say…

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  25. There’s a picture floating around X right now that purports to be of Trump’s new Secret Service escort, and the caption notes that they’re all men.

    Naomi Wolf responded to one of the postings of this, and replied (paraphrasing), “I’m fine with that.”

    Trump’s bringing people together. We all have lots of things that we disagree about. But there’s a very definite sense that Trump is the person who needs to win this year, claims about “democracy dying” to the contrary. And a theme that’s being invoked at the convention is of the person who hated Trump back in 2016, but has since realized that Trump is actually a good man, and the right person for the job.

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    1. In fairness to Ms. Wolf, from what little I’ve read from her she isn’t reflexively “don’t talk unless you agree with me!”, and is willing to at least consider others as having valid viewpoints even if she doesn’t agree with them.

      Still a leftist, mind you, but not completely “around the bend” about it.

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        1. Yes, she’s been shifting somewhat over the last several years, and reevaluating long-held positions. It seems to have started when she warmed up to guns (due to a combination of concerns over her own safety, and the help of a friend who eventually became her partner (husband?)). The COVID vaccine caused her to more actively question the media and official narratives. And that caused her to realize that maybe Trump wasn’t the monster the narrative claimed.

          She’s still a lefty. That hasn’t changed. But I wouldn’t be surprised if she votes for Trump this election.

          Big tent.

          Liked by 1 person

    2. Since the Saturday event’s team was a pickup (with DHS “Secret Service” agents, it’s save to assume that the DIE team was going away. One of the excuses was that Trump’s regular team had been running 7 day weeks, and needed time off. Apparently, DOCTOR Jill’s friend and USSS head never bothered to staff Trump’s team properly, and the effective ones on duty were diverted to Jill’s event elsewhere in Pennsylvania.

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  26. The whole “It was staged!” cope reeks of bitter, jealous Sour Grapes. Not only did Trump Not Die he came up on an epic win, with an amazing photo of him bloodied but defiant that inspired, garnered deep admiration and rallied his followers. So it MUST be a staged act right? The universe just can’t be THAT unfair to us wonderful, caring enlightened progressive elect!

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    1. They are slowly working their way through the Kubler-Ross model of grief. Some are in Denial, others experience anger and bargaining. A few seem to be well into depression, I doubt many will make it to acceptance, there are bunches still grieving over Hilary getting beat in 2016.

      Liked by 1 person

  28. Our political isn’t personal, maybe?

    Which … has to do, also, with viewing the sin as something a person does, not something a person is; while they work hard on making identity groups that are what you are, and that’s all you are.

    Liked by 1 person

  29. I’m heartsick at how many people who are upset the attempt to kill Trump didn’t succeed. Normalizing political violence is bad, people, why can’t they understand that? Especially when an innocent man did die, protecting his wife and daughter.

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    1. Some of them are saying he deserved to be shot – and so did everyone else who would do something so purely evil as attend a Trump rally.

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  30. I’ve reached the point where wasting time trying to understand the left is like wasting time trying to understand the thoughts of a spider. Both can be dangerous, and both sometimes need to be removed from where I live.

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  32. Let’s be honest here: if the shooter had pink hair, a Che T-shirt, a nametag with pronouns listed and a copy of the Communist Manifesto in his pocket . . . the media would still be claiming he was MAGA.

    Liked by 1 person

  34. “I realize that none of you EVER were responsible for keeping any group that was in anyway connected to you from doing the inadvisable. “

    (wry grin)

    (giggle)

    Um. BWAHAHAAAHH!

    “inadvisable”. Are you psychic? I was told in that very word too…

    Oh wait. I was watching the speech. When he did that I said HOOAH so loud I startled the cat and I heard my neighbors react. SO not directed at me. OK.

    OK. I also said words to the effect of “effing A” “effing HOOAH” and “EFF ALL YALL EFFING EFFERS HOOAH”. (and plenty more, some of it even relatively PG)

    Miz Kitty eventually came out from under the FurHerBunker to survey bomb damage.

    Liked by 1 person

  35. You pick the guy who hopefully can do the inspired thing in the spur of ‘The Moment’, cold.

    Trump is -that- guy.

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  36. OT, but would appreciate prayers for my beloved, who is having his second heart ablation tomorrow. The first one was eight years ago and did him a lot of good. The cardiologist is being positive, and he also found a way to “squeeze him in,” so it could be done before August.

    I have so far managed not to freak out, but the nerves are starting to tighten.

    And of course, my beloved decided now was the time to build a vardo (gypsy wagon) to use at Pennsic, and *really* is not thrilled they’ll probably tell him he can’t go back to the build Friday.

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  37. Speaking of Naomi Wolf, her current column is titled, “Lady McBiden.” Yes, the first lady is on her suspect list, largely because of her, “spontaneous,” decision to schedule an event an hour’s drive from Butler, at the same time as Trump’s scheduled appearance, thereby needing Secret Service protection that had to come from *somewhere*. All very interesting.

    In other news Biden officially has a third case of WuFlu and canceled his speech for today.

    Liked by 1 person

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