The Fire Will Suffice, And It’s Enough

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Like most people of my generation, I grew up reading stories of the end of the world. Actually maybe that’s true for kids of every generation.

Mike Williamson has a t-shirt that says something about an end of the world tour, and lists all the apocalypses we have escaped.

I don’t remember which ones he lists, and I know no matter how much I think about it, I’ll never get all of them.

However, off the top of my head and in no particular order, to get to sixty two, I’ve escaped nuclear holocaust, the population bomb, the disappearance of all potable water, acid rain, the neutron bomb, alar in apples, global cooling, global warming, ebola, net neutrality, covid, monkeypox, birdflu, covid, AI….

I read countless stories in which not only is the coming apocalypse one of these things, but it was due to one of these things that Atlantis, Mu and Avalon came to an end.

Thing is, none of those ever looked very likely to be world enders, however, looking at California this past week, I wonder if one of these world enders is even needed.

There are so many points of insanity, delusion and incompetence, all of them contributing to such a level of property destruction — while lives lost aren’t that large a number — that I wonder if all of those are enough to end a civilization.

Certainly a civilization that convinces itself that it can’t take basic precautions like raking the undergrowth is in mortal peril. But if you add to that people so incompetent at their actual jobs — like, say reservoir maintenance and firefighting — that they divert their efforts to the things they can actually do, like ensure there are more lesbians in the fire department. And then entire neighborhoods go out in flames.

Now multiply that by everything we actually need done, from flood control, to fighting wars, to the production of food, to maintenance of tech, to–

It is said that California is the future of America.

In this case, I hope not. I hope we have averted it. I hope California is what the future of America would have been if Kamala had been “elected.”

We just might have escaped it. Gone down another leg of the pants of time.

But if we do escape this — and we can at least hope we do — we must fight like hell to correct both the delusions and the incompetence.

Teach the children — and the adults — well. Because we can’t continue to coast on luck.

And it turns out some levels of cluelessness and performative illusion are not survivable.

224 thoughts on “The Fire Will Suffice, And It’s Enough”

  1. Your list of apocalypses missed the ozone hole and the flesh-eating bacteria.

    That’s okay. I think we’ll be filling in our favorite examples of inescapable doom for the rest of the day. That ought to be fun, listing all the ways we haven’t died yet.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Comet impact / Dino Killer

      Backwards messages on vinyl albums.

      Ice Age returns

      Andromeda Strain / spacebug /Captain Tripps

      Alien replacement / dining habits / Triffids

      Supercomputer takeover

      Sentient Ants (“Phase Four”)

      Androids “serve” us

      NASA says “Uh oh.”

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Y2K Computer disasters –

          • Planes falling from skies
          • Orbital decay from satellites, and space stations.
          • Hospital equipment failures.
          • etc.

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        2. Have we really survived The Rise of Taylor Swift?

          My household almost got infected when C started to listen to all her albums last year but then got obsessed with Chapel Roan instead.

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          1. I might have a Madonna LP somewhere in the stack, but the CD collection has been invaded by a handful of Sabaton albums. Started with Heroes, and Primo Victoria is at the mail drop. (Already have The Last Stand and both WW1 albums.)

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      1. Also Crow: “You’ll get enough L-tryptophan to knock you on your sorry Thankgiving Ass.”

        MST3k for the win!😁

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    2. Newsome has some really weird body language. Watched one inyerview where he was shaking his torso weirdly, and an odd grin.

      Is he on antipsychotics? Tardive Diskinesia is a side effect of such, drug and disorder.

      One fellow working at a local hugemart has TD that looks like a cross between Sign Language and Disco. Decent cashier, glad he can becemployed, but can be a tad confusing when you think he is trying to sign.

      So when I see Newsome, and he says something bizarre, and seems weird-twitchy, I have to wonder exactly what a Doctor Feelgood might be feeding him. And why.

      Anyone else seeing it?

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Yeah. I was just saying yesterday he’s starting to remind me of how the TV version of Homelander from The Boys acts. It’s starting to skeeve me out big time, and I’m used to a certain level of Wrong from our “elites”. Somethin’ ain’t right with that boy…

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Someone on Twitter photos hopped in an Indian drummer and dubbed in the appropriate music with one of Newsom’s appearances. It looked appropriate.

          And now, not a snake charmer. Though that might be appropriate, too.

          Liked by 1 person

      3. Indeed the bits and bobs I’ve seen of Newsome scream of 2 things to me

        1. He is a SERIOUS narcissist, worse than Clinton or Obama.
        2. His affect seems to scream sociopath. His face and body are like on the edge of giggling when he’s talking about the fires.

        Hopefully the fire failures take him out of running in 2028. He wouldn’t have been a strong candidate but he might have been one with some legs. Having screwed the pooch so bad with the LA fires will pull him out of running in the purple states the “Independents” will see him as the clueless failure he is. If the Democrats run him and Trump 47 is anything other than a complete Charlie Foxtrot anyone who runs against him would take the current swing states and that pretty much guarantees an electoral victory with the current hard red states.

        Liked by 1 person

  3. I’ve found an amazing number of people – employers in particular – think people are interchangeable – and of most jobs – Oh anyone can do that. Except being the boss. That takes a special sort of person that always happens to be THEM. I had a window washing business once. You’d think you could train a monkey to wash windows. You may be right, but I can assure you there are people too stupid to wash windows. I’ve seen waitresses too stupid to handle three tables and once was treated to seeing two managers at a Shoney’s try to cook when their cook worked a double shift and refused to start a third. They soon gave up trying to make individual orders and tried to just maintain the buffet table. The couldn’t even do that. If anyone can do it why not hire somebody just like me? This applies to elections too. Why not vote for somebody I understand just like me? If your city is full of low life creeps who want a free ride and to ‘take care’ of their relatives, and they elect their peer – what do you get? LA, Detroit, Chicago….

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    1. My favorites are the big city snobs who declare that they don’t really NEED to put up with those uppity farmers, they could grow food fine, and it doesn’t need all that much brain involved!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. You just stick in the ground, right? And then just pluck it out when you’re hungry. Surely there’s no more planning or know-how involved. Chickens and cows just do their thing and you only need to get involved when you want something from them. I mean, if ignorant, anti-intellectuals like those fly-over state rubes can do it, an Ivy-league grad can of course do it faster, better, and more efficiently. Right? Right??

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        1. I swear, I wish we could take a bunch of those snobby morons and stick ’em in a fairly isolated location and say “Sure. Give it a go. We’ll be back in a year…”

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          1. Isolation, with web cams, please!

            “Here are your chickens, and that’s a milk cow. The seeds there are labled, so you can grow anything you want. Everything you need is in there. Have a good time.”

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        2. BlondEngineer, I believe that’s exactly how Michael Bloomberg phrased it during his 2020 Presidential primary run. Showing rudimentary intelligence, he only said that after the Iowa caucuses.

          Possibly you thought you were joking. As The Babylon Bee keeps proving, it’s hard for satire to stay ahead of reality.

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          2. It was mostly sarcasm, because, I am well aware of how out of touch with reality some of these people are.

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            1. IIRC, it was CHAZ/CHOP where they started a “garden” with a bit of dirt on newspapers and some potted seedlings struggling to stay alive.

              It took us a few years to figure out how to get our garden going in our microclimate. A quarter mile away, it’s easy, but not in the cold air pool near the river. (Gave away excess seedlings one year and the ones at the church did a lot better than the ones we kept. Sigh.)

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              1. I find it interesting on “Homestead Rescue” that the answer isn’t just “needs a greenhouse, or raised beds, and proper placement, with proper predator control options”. Some need partly buried greenhouses, raised, boat, swinging, and other inventive solutions.

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                1. One of the people in the S. Central Oregon rescue works at the $TINY_TOWN store. I gather that their semi-buried greenhouse was a neat idea that didn’t pan out.

                  $SPOUSE starts our plants from seed. When we transplant, we’ll take the excess to said store. She’ll take a few. Since there are a lot of places nearby that can grow veggies better than we can (stupid microclimate, helped by greenhouse, but not all plants), it helps.

                  Excess produce (in good years–last year wasn’t) goes to the Gospel Mission.

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                  1. “semi-buried greenhouse was a neat idea that didn’t pan out.“

                    It is interesting the variety of buried greenhouses that they’ve built. For all that they are “going in blind”, there has to be some research on the various homestead locations and what might be options.

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          3. I sometimes suspect that Clarkson’s Farm is a direct response to that attitude by Bloomberg and others. I see hints that Clarkson isn’t quite as foolish as his persona in the first season. Rather, it’s likely that he saw this as the best way to show just how difficult and arbitrary farming could be.

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        3. Ringo’s character Bandit Six had a “discussion” about that, and the unpretty results, in The Last Centurion.

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        1. The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (in Seattle) was one of the ones that did a [ray shell lee]-segregated “garden”. The sum total of which would not feed one an0rexic for a week.

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          1. Your average urban viewer would have no idea how much acreage it takes to feed a person, and would therefore accept what they were told at face value.

            After all, The News wouldn’t *lie* to them would they?

            Liked by 1 person

      3. Farmers are not pretentious. In my area, they drive an older pickup, then switch to driving a half million dollar combine day and night for three weeks a year.

        Liked by 1 person

        4. Reminds me of a joke. Big-city lawyer gets his BMW stuck in a rural ditch. Along comes a farmer with a huge tractor and offers to pull it out. As he’s unwinding a chain from the 3-point hitch, the lawyer expresses some doubts: “I’m not sure I want you to hook that thing up to my $70,000 BMW.”

          Farmer stops, looks at the lawyer appraisingly, and puts the chain back. “Reckon you could be right. I’m not sure I want to hook my $300,000 tractor up to your $70,000 BMW either.”

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    2. The concept of unions is based on the assumption of interchangeable workers. For no-skills jobs it might be true to some extent except for the fact that such jobs often demand physical strength. For any job that requires knowledge, judgment, or intelligence, it’s obvious that the workers aren’t interchangeable.

      I learned this by watching my computer programming mentor, in college, realizing he was perhaps 20-50 times as productive as the average among his colleagues.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. I’ve always thought I was replaceable. What I did, programming, was not complicated algorithms or embedded OS hardware programming. My thought was always “If I can figure it out, anyone can.” Apparently not. Got called after let go/not hired (because not “needed”), every single job (even the last job which I retired from voluntarily where I left a lot of documentation/notes). Did I help? No (last one, yes, got paid). Wouldn’t meet my, more than free, reasonable price (What? Not like the ones calling were every going to be used as references, nor were those they reported to.)

        Just because the companies I worked for disappeared, and my position went away, doesn’t mean my work disappeared, at least immediately. Second time the software eventually was shelved as “not needed anymore”, but took 5-ish years (also says something that it lasted without any changes or fixes. Also in use in the wild long past shelving). First one, at least one software has majorly evolved into a GIS system (already designed, and very early started, but not anywhere near implemented) incorporating some of the other software. Some of my software, if the purchasing companies didn’t already have something else, better or not, I’d be shocked. Another? If it hasn’t evolved and been replaced, I’d be shocked (it has been almost 30+ years since written, and the primary tool written in pretty sure will not run on Win11).

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    3. We had a supervisor who said anybody could do our job, and was bound and determined to prove it. His hires seem just as bound and determined to prove him wrong.

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      1. I could keep track of tables and orders (even now). Delivering said orders OTOH, slower than, well something. I can’t do the multiple dish full of food carry. Never could.

        Growing food? There is a reason why those in my household ask “What is the current victim?” when I bring home ornamental plantings to fill in voids. Most of this is benign neglect. Not always. Even as I’m careful to plant at the right time, make sure clearing enough roots to allow potted plant to extend into the soil. Still fail.

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        1. I’ve stopped asking that of $SPOUSE$….

          On the other hand, she does quite well with indoor plants. Whereas, if I even walk into her office a couple of times, SOMETHING always begins to wilt.

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    5. My workplace is having an extreme number of callouts ATM.

      I don’t know how many times I can tell people, “It’s too cold. It’s so cold here in the store the customers are complaining. It’s so cold and the hours are so stressful we just got one head cashier back from the hospital still being treated for double pneumonia. It’s so cold that we had to shut down the outside section – oh, and BTW, that’s the only time we’ve been fully staffed in front in weeks, because they were inside.

      “Last year you brought out heaters when it was this cold. This year? You started jumping on people because their cold-weather hats don’t have company logos on them. When the dress code specifically says clothing without logos is fine.

      “We’re too cold, we’re worked too long hours on the days we do have work, and you don’t schedule enough hours in any one week for people to keep paying any kind of reasonable rent. There’s lots of things you could fix here, but first MAKE IT WARM!”

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  4. Then there were all the “economic collapses” that were to come.

    And of course, Japan/China/Common Market will “own” the US.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. From 105 years ago in Harper’s

    Robert Frost

    Some say the world will end in fire,
    Some say in ice.
    From what I’ve tasted of desire
    I hold with those who favor fire.
    But if it had to perish twice,
    I think I know enough of hate
    To know that for destruction ice
    Is also great
    And would suffice

    Liked by 2 people

  6. The L.A. ‘fire chief’: “Diversity is my Number One Priority!”

    “What about putting out fires? Ya gonna put any effort into that?”

    Apparently not. The city can burn to the ground but as long as they have their Diversity! all is good. I’d get a good horse-laugh if some woman whose house burned down called her a useless tw-t to her face.

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    1. Apparently, if your LA firefighter cannot pick you up and carry you out, “You are in the wrong place.”

      Having seen a 500+ pound human, she may have a point.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Had she said something along the lines of, “Look, I’m not a front-line firefighter, I’m the fire chief whose job is to coordinate the rescue efforts. If I’m in there hauling people out of buildings, I’m not doing my job right because that means nobody’s coordinating the effort. So no, I don’t meet the physical standards that the front-line firefighters have to meet, because if I’m trying to do that job instead of my actual job, everything’s already gone wrong.”

        Had she said something along those lines, she wouldn’t be getting nearly the mockery she’s getting. But that would require: 1) being able to admit that she isn’t perfect, i.e. humility; and 2) admitting that the physical standards have a point to them. Humility is singularly lacking in the DEI crowd, and they’ll never, EVER admit that any standard that men can pass more easily than women has any point to it.

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        1. Actually, that wasn’t the fire chief, that was some sort of deputy assistant something-or-other. Who looked like carrying her out of a burning building would be a tough job for a strong man. Maybe for a couple of strong men.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Haven’t watched the clip (and don’t want to, even though it would be easy since it’s back on the front page of Instapundit right now), but the still image shows a caption of her saying “You want to see somebody that responds to your house, …” and I know the rest of the sentence is something like “… who looks like you,” i.e. she’s talking about “representation”. Which means that she is, in fact, someone who is supposed to do front-line firefighting work — responding to houses that call 911 — and therefore she needs to meet the qualifications.

            So yep, there is no excuse for her.

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            1. “Somebody who looks like you” — fat and out of shape. :-(

              I suspect most people, when their house is on fire, want to see somebody respond who can PUT OUT THE DAMN FIRE!! And do whatever else needs doing.

              But no, these Diversity Activists see important jobs like Fire Chief or District Attorney as platforms for promoting their hobby-horses and exercising their pet peeves.

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              1. And somehow they always seem to wind up with teethmarks in their fundaments. Which they richly deserve.

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  7. I grew up in California, when it was mostly sane and well-managed. It breaks my heart to see how it has degenerated, although in some places more than others. We went back for a short visit this last June, and I could see, though … how most Californians are sort of sleepwalking. The weather is mild, all year round, California is beautiful and varied, the neighborhood where my sister and her family live is beautiful – long-established early 20th century to mid-century cottages, with gorgeous gardens, and a view of the mountains at a distance.

    I don’t think this round of disastrous fires are enough to wake most of them up. Oh, they won’t vote for Governor Brylcreem or Karen the Commie Bass … they’ll just automatically pull the lever for another progressive Dem, who will probably be worse.

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    1. If there is one thing the Democrat party excels at, it’s finding somebody even worse. Witness Johnson, Carter, Clinton (both of ’em), 0bama, Biden, Harris, Walz… There has to be a bottom somewhere, right? They have to eventually find somebody so atrocious that there IS nobody worse. Right?

      Right?

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        1. It’s the only thing the guy is known for and I can never remember his name.

          “Against stupidity the very gods
          Themselves contend in vain.”

          Friedrich Schiller. Apparently he is known for other things. Wikipedia has list of quotes.

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            1. LOL! Have you not -listened- to Freddie’s work? (Grin) He was discreet, not closeted.

              ah well off I go. ..

              (Singing ” …for me, …for me… For MEEEEE!!!!” ..

              ..

              Guitar rifff /headbang….

              Liked by 1 person

                2. “Come out”? (grin) Nicely done!

                  But you are also the one who had to listen to me singing Freddie Mercury tunes for half an hour. And I was all out of bucket for carrying tunes. (grin)

                  “… shes a killer…quee-een….”

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    2. With jungle primaries and ranked voting it could again be one Dem vs. another Dem on the final CA Governor ballot. The vast swaths of motor-voter-registered voters sending in their all-mail-in ballots mean these highly public catastrophes are really the only chance we have here to make any party change even remotely possible.

      It opens the door, but the R party here is a shriveled remnant of a functional political party, so we’ll see how it goes.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. As if elections mean anything when they can get away with counting ballots for three weeks until they get the “right” result. Congress needs to step in to put some standards in place for national elections.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Would likely take a Constitutional Amendment to do so. The legislatures set the methods. Its a rather broad brush painting.

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          1. U.S Constitution
            Article 1.
            Section. 4.

            The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

            I would say the Manner of holding National elections is, indeed, within the purview of Congress.

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              1. California had one, with a state senator from each county; but the commies in the ACLU took care of that.

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            2. An enforcement mechanism amendment, along the lines of either fast-track impeachment or a death penalty. And ditto the republic form bit too, as our hostess correctly quips.

              Hm. Whole bill of rights, too.

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      2. California doesn’t have ranked choice voting. In fact, the jungle primary – for all its faults – blocks ranked choice as only the two best candidates in the primary compete in the General Election. Ranked choice isn’t compatible with that.

        Some local areas have it, though. I believe San Francisco is one of them.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Yeah I realized I had the wrong term for what we have here – I think Alaska did ranked choice. One state with worse voting laws than CA.

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          1. Rank choice voting was on the ballot in Oregon last November. It did as well as the “it’s not really a sales tax, trust us!”. So we’ve escaped those hellhole propositions for a while.

            Liked by 1 person

    3. Many, yes.

      But there have been a few known conservatives in LA posting on X about neighbors in the Palisades area coming up to them and saying that they’re going to vote Republican in the next election. Is it enough for a real preference cascade? Only time will tell.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. You mean voting and speeches weren’t enough when faced with corrupt officials who rig the system and ignore the laws???

          Say it ain’t so!

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          1. No one, today, seems to be volunteering for Club Fed, so we will just have to make do with voting and protesting, and related in-system stuff. Seems to work in the long run.

            If folks are proposing a need for alternatives to “in system”, they should speak clearly stating what those alternatives are, so the readers can decide if they want anything further to do with them.

            Liked by 1 person

  8. I don’t think California has been the future of America for a very long time, if it ever truly was outside of gold rushes or golden ages of Hollywood. Certainly, while I know that in the past “California Dreams” have been a thing I can’t think of a single person I knew growing up (and this was in the 80s and 90s, mind you) who had a dream of moving to California. Even then, I think for most of the rest of the country it was “Well, it’s a nice enough place to visit, but…” (Granted: I didn’t hang out with the theater kids, so possibly some of them had dreams of going to Hollywood. I only had one of those, and it was when I was in college. Don’t know how it’s going for her these days, but she did have a decent role in an episode of Sleepy Hollow, which was rather neat. Though I don’t think that was filmed in California, come to think of it…)

    And that was my feelings in the single year that I lived there–nice place to visit (though even then going downhill), and some very lovely people, but wouldn’t want to live there. Too expensive, and too crazy.

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    1. At least in the 1970s, California was the place to go for tech jobs, particularly semiconductors and aerospace. I don’t know enough about aerospace, but semis started to go sour (and moved to Asia) somewhere in the 1990s.

      When Silicon Valley became known for eBay, Facebook, and Google, rather than Fairchild, National Semiconductor, Signetics and so on, it was time for the silicon part of the industry to leave. And it did.

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      1. Semiconductor design is still very much a US strength, though it can certainly be found in other places too. And it’s probably less CA-centered than before.

        Manufacturing is a different matter entirely. Nearly all high end silicon is made in Taiwan, which is why the security of that country is a critical global concern. I wish the Taiwanese government would apply the Swiss lessons to national defense (a rifle in every home, for example).

        Curiously enough, the essential machine enabling that silicon manufacturing is only made by one company, in Holland. It seems they have a natural monopoly, the problem is so hard that no one else has been able to duplicate those machines and catching up with 40 years of research appears to be implausibly difficult.

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            1. HP (actually Agilent) dropped semiconductor manufacturing in the early 2000s. I was in the first (and best severanced–totally a word) wave in Sept, 2001, though finding another job was considerably more interesting than I had expected. ‘Tis amazing how useful 9/11 became for companies to back out of job considerations.

              AFAIK, Agilent was out of silicon manufacturing by 2004 or so. They partnered with Philips to make Lumileds. At the start, they were manufacturing in San Jose, but while silicon manufacturing gave the SJ fire chief worries, it was nothing compared to what III-V materials could do if/when things went awry. (In the early days, the LED crystal-growing area in Palo Alto planned on one explosion per month. I was glad we were in the next building over… For some reason, Palo Alto FD was less nervous than San Jose’s.)

              Liked by 1 person

              1. ’96 a number of my co-workers from IP, the majority of the foresters, loggers, etc., who weren’t hired (not very many hired) by the asset (timberlands) purchasing two companies, had their “industry switching continuing education” paid for to train for the new Hyundai chip manufacturing facility being built off of W 11th. Five years of production, facility shutdown and abandoned, all were unemployed, again.

                Not that I fared any better. Hired in ’96 by a software company. It was purchased (intact) by a different company. By 2000 was trying to avoid bankruptcy and breakup by the courts. Stripped by 2002. Took 17 months, but I did find tech work. Most these co-workers that weren’t the surviving few hardware, and embedded software, engineers (two in my division), in the two different divisions, did not find tech work, at least locally, again (have ran into a few). A couple of managers did “restart” the original ’96 company concept under that name, but not until late 2010 (found out mid-2011, after 7 years at then current job, did not “leap”). Current status? IDK. Google only brings up the old references.

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          2. Yes, Intel still has fabs, but Intel is well behind in manufacturing technology and falling behinder every day.

            It’s one of the reasons why I expect a Chinese invasion of Taiwan to be a global catastrophe: running a top fab is ridiculously difficult, and it is very unlikely that communists will be able to do it even assuming the fabs aren’t destroyed during the invasion.

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        2. That would be ASML lithography systems. The big advantage they have is close proximity to IMEC in Belgium. IMEC took over the role of directing semiconductor R&D from US based Sematech, when Sematech failed. But Nikon in Japan still does 193nm photolithography systems according to their website. 248nm and 193nm still are about 60% of semiconductor fsbrication I think.

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          1. Not every semiconductor is a cutting edge CPU.

            Power control chips are a commodity, and many generations back in sophistication, yet every car on the US road probably has a similar chipset from one firm. 90% of 2000 vintage motherboards used one firm’s power chipset.

            Appliances use commodity CPUs. Automatic rice cookers of the late 1990s used a 186 series CPU (versus the computer standard 486-Pentium-Etc types). Again, bulk commodity chip. Rad-hard for space use and military are another interesting bottleneck. Intel got burned licensing a key CPU to someone else who wound up priced something like 90% less. The government eventually forced Intel to license to the same firm for a rad-hard CPU for DOD, but did extract a promise it would -never- see market for anything but DOD.

            The cutting edge moves about every 18 months. That is, what machines you huge-spendy on cutting edge today, are playing desperate catchup in 18 months. Hard to make a buck that way, and the sorting was particularly brutal 1995-2005. There is a huge advantage to expanding on existing, versus new startup.

            But.

            China has designs on seizing that one critical island, of the magic golden goose CPU eggs. But folks have had decades to see that one coming. Would be too funny if the CCP tried, only to find out that the local partisans wrecked the golden egg machines, and the owners had started setup elsewhere of “next” geese, thus the surviving seized stuff is only useful for about 5 years, absent megabuck investments the CCP cannot make, or already would have on the mainland.

            Ouch. All that shooting. All those lost ships. Squandered blood and treasure. For pride and a few years of relevance, quickly dimmed back to “you evil dorks….”

            Kinda like how the CCP discovered that the more they made Hong Kong like CCP China, the less Hong Kong was worth as a cash cow. For some very strange reason, the CCP is King Mierda. They can brownify a dungheap.

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            1. Yes, ASML. Don’t know about the relevance of IMEC; closer still is TU Eindhoven, and I understand from people who worked there that the precision (mechanical) engineering researchers at TU Eindhoven were instrumental in getting ASML to where they are. My father was one of those…

              The other day I read that ASML machines have a “remote kill” feature, so apparently it would not even be necessary for Taiwanese patriots to destroy the machines when invaded, they can simply lock out the commies and walk away. Interesting.

              Indeed a whole lot of silicon is made on much less expensive and widely available machines. So, for example, many of the chips in your PC and your smartphone don’t need the high end stuff. But at least one or two do, so while a shutdown of Taiwan would not affect the majority of chips made, it would definitely disable the manufacturing of a number of devices that the modern world depends on.

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              1. Yeah, 95% of my entire career was working with ICs where the smallest intended* feature was 5 to 10 microns in width. Optocouplers (AKA optoisolators) tend to have simple electronics working off a large photodiode.

                The last 5% was interesting; would have been sustainable barring the dot-com bubble collapse around 2000-1.

                ((*)) Defects a micron in size could raise hell… (1 micron == 1/1000 millimeter == 1000 nm == 10,000 Angstoms)

                FWIW a hair is about 100 microns in diameter.

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                1. When I was still working in the photolithography part of the semiconductor field (the negatives in the process) “Deep Sub Micron” was the buzzword and it was somewhere under 0.1micron. A MEBES 3500 electron beam apparatus was still viable for cutting edge photomasks.

                  That, of course, was 25 years ago.

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                  1. To give you some idea of the size, a half micron dust particle is technically human eye visible at arms length. We would shine a brilliant light on the masks, just prior to closing the package up, using a special Nikon lamp. Any contaminants would flare visible in the otherwise dark room. Some folks can see even tinier items.

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      2. I’d did several TDYs to California, but aside from, one ah, interesting trip to Anaheim they were either to Sacramento or Fresno. I was just as glad.

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  9. Another apocalypse that always is just around the corner but never quite arrives: the collapse of Social Security and of various state pension systems. I am 61 years old and have been hearing for at least the last 40 years that Social Security is doomed and that you should expect it to be completely broke before you ever see a dime. And don’t even get me started on how the Illinois state employee pension system is going to destroy us all and it’s all the fault of greedy parasititcal state employees like me. (For which I apologize)

    Yes, I know all about the demographic trends and how unsustainable they are, and these are legitimate concerns that have to be addressed. But it is getting to the point where I’m finding it increasingly difficult to take the prophecies of doom at face value. I figure something will have to give eventually but it won’t necessarily be the end of the world – benefits may have to be reduced or means tested but they won’t vanish completely.

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    1. according to the leftoids any attempt to fix social security will bring about Armageddon. Those saying it is a failing system are avert the pain, though it is now set so anything done about it will bring at least some pain But, even if my Mom lived to the oldest of her line (mom’s 80 and the ‘record’ is currently 109) she isn’t going to get the money she or Dad (now passed) paid in, even having started drawing at 62.

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      1. Never expected to see a dime paid to me or hubby for SS. He has been drawing now for almost 11 years, me for 6. Joke every paycheck was “well just paid parents and grandparents SS”. We planned on SS collapsing on us.

        Guarantied grandparents received way more than they paid in (grandpa drew for 45 years, starting with SSD, grandma for 30, starting at 65). Mom, now at 90 has received way more payments in SS than she and dad (dad started at 50 with SSD, she started working at 50, retired 62) paid in. She’s also now gotten more than what she and the state combined, paid into the state pension system (her pension is < $550/month. Note she is tier 2, which had none of the guaranties.)

        I have a chance to eventually get paid back more money than I paid into SS given longevity history of both sides of my family. Small chance. But it is there.

        We definitely would have been better off with forced self directed SS (not available), or current 401(k) pensions currently being used (why I started getting my IP pension check at 60 instead of 65 because of this trend. Could have waited until 65, but ran the math … Besides putting down $121/month or $1440/year on loan apps is fun to see the look on loan officer’s face. Ditto on the “Hey, my pension deposited. I can, almost, pay for dinner out tonight!”)

        Liked by 1 person

        1. “Not getting back what you paid in” to SS does not equal “getting nothing at all”, which is what the doomsayers keep predicting.

          Liked by 1 person

            1. I got the SS dependent survivor’s benefit when Dad died my freshman year in college. Wasn’t a hell of a lot of money, but with care it paid for housing and groceries, and semester expenses. (Was on a scholarship and didn’t have to deal with tuition.)

              Liked by 1 person

    2. Bookeeping handwavium. Everything money is fungible at the Government level. If they have it, they can spend it as they wish. Nothing is truly “lock box”.

      So as long as they have income or borrowing, they can keep writing checks while declaring whatever smoke and mirrors please their re-electiorate. Ultimately, they can print it, accepting that alternate disastrous result.

      So they cant “go bankrupt” strictly. Recall the threat of “Obama’s 2 Trillion dollar coin” scam. “money” is literally whatever they say it is. They can, however, bankrupt everyone and everything else. Because “value” is out of their hands completely. They can declare a Quatloo is a days wage. They can force a farmer to sell a bushel of wheat for a Quatloo. They cant get anyone to actually complete the transactions, except at bayonet point, and at that point, it kinda breaks down when the guys with the bayonets realize they are getting mightily hungry. For some odd reason.

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  10. They want us to die. Too many humans, not enough slaves (or serfs – pick a word, it means the same thing to them). Even with the shenanigans perpetrated by Cooper and others in NC we had every day people swooping in to help. If the rumors are even halfway true, that is not being permitted in California. They are burning not only due to depraved, malicious negligence but because they are turning away help from regular people and aid from other states. Refusing to let the NYFD come but accepting help from Mexican firefighters, when the airline promised to let the NYFD fly to LA free? Whiskey Tango Hotel?! Why not take both?!

    They want us dead. Lahaina was the first overt attempt. NC during and after Helene was the second, where they thought they could just let the water – and now the snow – kill people. Since that didn’t work the way they desired due to civilians picking up the slack, they are allowing California to burn just like Lahaina.

    This is what we face. This is what would have happened if things had gone differently last year. Do not forget it. Make CERTAIN others know. Compare it to the response in NC. Why aren’t we hearing the same out of California? Two disasters, two disparate responses, and in both cases the people in charge either flew off before the trouble occurred, they didn’t maintain (or actively destroyed) the structures needed to mitigate the damage, or they actively slow-rolled the help that they were supposed to provide.

    They. Want. Us. ALL. Dead.

    Do not give them that satisfaction. Prepare. Keep your things where you can find them in the dark. Be ready to help.

    Because in plenty of places, the people in charge will not be coming to the rescue.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Gotta say, though, picking LA? (Or, at least, choosing to disallow competent help) In areas where their wealthy and famous supporters and donors live? And where those same narcissitic twits will be plastering themselves all over all kinds of media trying to get the attention and sympathy they crave?

      While it might not red pill California to the extent it really needs red pilled, I think it’s NOT going to work out for them the way they want it to. For one thing, that kind of nonsense very much requires the ability to keep the shenanigans hidden. They managed it, to some extent, in Maui–but that’s an island, and a quite smallish one at that. Lot easier to control who comes and who goes.

      But in LA…well. We’ve already got idiots like Megan Markle and her pet prince “touring” devastated areas, led by the local mayor–when homeowners aren’t being allowed back in those areas, and that’s not mentioning all the others pulling similar stunts. And given the sheer size and population of LA, they can’t hide what’s going on. Given the breadth of the devastation, body count is thus far really low (although I expect we will never know how many homeless died in the infernos–I don’t think the “authorities” are bothering with those.) Everyone has a camera, and they can’t confine it because LA isn’t an island. Musk turned up in very short order to ensure that worldwide communication remained up and/or was restored. You’ve got the (thankfully outgoing, ugh, only 4 more days) president of the US wittering stupidly on camera about how the federal gov is going to pay for ALL THE THINGS…when people are very well aware that there are hurricane victims still living in tents in a North Carolina winter. AND that FEMA deliberately avoided giving aid to “Trump supporters.” You’ve got the equally stupid (and without even the excuse of dementia to hide behind) governor of California screeching loudly about…PR. And censoring his critics. And on camera and all over the internet openly doing anything and everything but actual leadership, and refusing all responsibility. Given what occurred in November, I think we can at least say that LOT of people are paying more attention than they were–and we’re all seeing this.

      So yeah. They want us dead. It’s always a good idea to stay prepared for anything. But also take comfort in the knowledge that these people are morons on a level that make Pinky(aka of Pinky & the Brain, if you are of that generation ;) ) look like a frigging genius.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. I read that Newsom kicked Musk out of the FD snd ordered all the satellite links he brought be turned over or returned to Musk. They are in hysteris mode (Kevin Bacon screaming all is well remain calm)

        Liked by 1 person

      3. I like the tinfoil hat and cloak rumor that it is all part of “a plan” to rebuild LA as the Smart City of the Future. Totally wired and monitored, AI control, with plenty and well-distributed. (Will they call the cops “Sandmen”?)

        Kinda like Rome got re-done, or Chicago, or…

        Liked by 1 person

    2. Chef Andrew Gruel is running food/donations runs around LA. People are giving. But for whatever reason, mainstream isn’t covering it. (They are running ritual, “Give to the Red Cross,” ads and I have seen *one* Salvation Army ad online).

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Word on the news is that all of the current aid locations here in LA County have more than enough of just about everything they need for now. As always, Americans are *incredibly* generous, and there are a *lot* of people in Greater LA who can donate.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Samaritan’s Purse is working the West NC Hurricane and LA Fire recoveries. They have a very high throughput of donation to victims. I personally support them and highly recommend them.

        Liked by 1 person

  12. Oh, California. My favorite childhood memory was traveling to California to visit my Aunt, whose Woodland Hills home was gracious and airy and filled with love. We went to the beach, which was sparkling and clean and gorgeous, and we went to Disney Land, and my Aunt kept a bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen table and refilled it every morning. I’ve never eaten fruit so fresh and tasty.

    And then we traveled there a few years ago to see if youngest daughter wanted to attend Chapman College, and the streets were strewn with garbage and every underpass was filled with a revolting mass of tents and debris. We didn’t try to go to the beach. Too dangerous. Daughter chose to attend another university. My heart breaks for the California that existed once. God willing, it will exist again.

    Liked by 2 people

  13. Your list forgot Y2K, the most human-made disaster of all. But of course, apocalypse movies aren’t about the cause but the effect, which is an end of stultifying social rules, where you return to a natural state of running, hiding, and shooting anything that moves.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “…and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’ (Leviathan, i. xiii. 9)”

      Hobbes may have had too much love for the State, but the older I get, the more true his description of the State of Nature seems.

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    2. Ah Y2K, sigh. To me as a longtime software engineer it represents one of those significant moments. In the mid-nineties, I believed it was overhyped. After all, how many critical systems were written in COBOL (my ignorance even on that score because I didn’t use COBOL). The DoD used Unix and FORTRAN (slowly being replaced by Ada, C++, Java, etc.) in all our tactical and intelligence systems. In 1997 however, someone in charge of Trident Warrior (Navy’s sea exercises for testing new and proposed systems) decided to set the clocks ahead, and discovered that the Unix systems wouldn’t boot! Uh oh!

      Many thousands of programmers worked very hard, and many retired COBOL programmers made the best money in their lives, fixing Y2K, so it didn’t become a disaster. Of course, how can anybody credit you with an accomplishment for averting a disaster that doesn’t occur? If you make things run smoothly, people take it for granted like it’s just naturally that way. Ever notice how people complain that too many people are locked up when crime is low? Or how many calls there are for paying less for police when crime is low? A police chief and a fire chief has a paradoxical job. If they do it well, there work is devalued. If they do it poorly, money is thrown at them to fix it.

      That’s how I came up with my software development theory of Crisis Design Engineering. Boring is good. I’m happy to pay a lot for boring (except in fiction).

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      1. My sister was a business software contract programmer; she did a LOT of COBOL and RPG work leading up to 2000. For her at least, there was real work needed in those legacy applications. And I personally worked on a few as well, code going back to the 1970s.

        I suspect that things written in 1990 or after were generally ok, as were essentially all Unix based applications.

        Speaking of silly scares, I once saw an attempt to get a “leap second scare” started. That didn’t go anywhere, of course, but I did have to write an explanation why it wasn’t a concern.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. In aviation, there was a relatively recent leap-second-involved issue, but not any kind of world-ending problem.

          In the summer of 2019, a good chunk of the CRJ regional jet fleet had GPS outages. All sorts of theories were thrown around- solar flare, satellite collision, etc. Ultimately, the explanation we were given was that the Rockwell-Collins ephemeris database was now one second off, and the triangulated position being umpty-squillion miles off, was rejected.

          No big deal, we just set the nav radios to triangulate automatically off VOR signals and FIDO’d.

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          1. That’s odd because GPS time, by design, does not use leap seconds. The current (or upcoming) leap second information is distributed by the GPS satellites. If a receiver needed to know UTC but didn’t pay attention to that data, it would certainly get the wrong answer. That would just be a software bug.

            I’m not sure what Rockwell/Collins have to do with ephemeris databases; those are GPS data services supplied by DoD and distributed by the satelllites.

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            1. Good to know- apparently that explanation was incorrect. I’ll have to find a better source of information then. Thanks.

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          2. Back in February 2024, I think? It was a dropped leap second, versus a gained one. One of our servers had an app/database that went bonkers until rebooted, over the “missing” leap second. Once the clock was ticking “normally”, it was fine.

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    3. Y2K was garbage in. I worked in a manufacturing firm with the foundational multi-location inventory/warehouse system being a legacy from “wayback” in COBOL. It was being upgraded for Y2K in the late 80’s when I began working there. It was easy peasy … every time a file was touched, that upgrade was implemented. They had designed the upgrade so it fit seamlessly with current operations and non-upgraded files. I never worked directly on that system, so I can’t give you details. Nobody there was anxious about the apocalypse LOL. Nobody there between the late 90’s and 1995, when I left the company, ever had an oops on that feature. I wonder whether the hype originally came from the prep vendors.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. First task hired in 1990 was to fix the Y2K COBOL problem. Can’t run growth models if you don’t know the correct age of timber stands. Why not fixed before that IDK because some of the stands were already over 100 years old.

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      3. On the other hand, plenty of the “Upper Management” in other companies (and likely in government) put off fixing the problem.

        On the gripping hand, the “hype” was from the Idiot News Media. So of course, the “hype” was nonsense.

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      4. In my first real job (1983) I made a remark about the chaos that would come when all the files expired after 99365, (or 99000 as the “permanent” files had it.). Sigh. wish I’d followed up, I coulda had class, been a contenda.

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  14. I’m a survivor! I have survived the Coming Ice Age, Global Boiling, the End of Oil, Murder Hornets, the Red Scare, Tree Mile Island, Acid Rain, Smog, Contrails, Microplastics, Red Dye #s 1-9, Deforestation, Reforestation, Y2K, Bee Colony Collapse, 2008 Economic Collapse, Federal Bailouts and Depleated Soil.

    I do give them credit for their many and varied attempts.

    Something’s bound to get me one of these days.

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  15. California is not so much the future of the US, as it is a warning.

    Unfortunately too many fail to heed the warnings given by that state.

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  16. An apocalypse that shows no signs of ending is Chinese Real Estate. I try to limit myself on it, but it’s really a big deal Bad policies will be paid for and what can’t go on, won’t . You might have seen that some local governments in China are now “paying” in apartments, which is nuts and a sign of how bad things are in the Chinese hinterland.

    Things are accelerating Chinese media are reporting that Shenzhen has “intervened” on Vanke Corp and may take them over. Additionally, the CEO has been taken away by public security. This is huge on many levels and speaks to just how bad the situation is and now you cannot believe official Chinese real estate data. Vanke, (formerly WanKe which they abandoned for obvious reasons) is the best run of the property firms (it was AAA, snark) and Shenzen is the richest part of China.

    It’s just possible that they seized Vanke because it’s the least bad, but it’s also a sign of just how bad things are.

    I remember writing here about how the CCP needed one last shove to fall over, well. The reign of error is about over and maybe that shove is forthcoming.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Suggestions on Twitter they may be actually looking for a Short, Victorious War to help them out.

      Also seeing suggestions the Russian financial system isn’t any better.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I’m seeing claims on YouTube (that I haven’t watched) that the PLAN is suddenly building a lot of ships that are specifically used for launching and supplying an invasion.

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        1. Producing lots of things is what China does. Producing things that people want with the quality people want them, not so much. It could be planned, but is much more likely just chaos. China is communist after all, and for all the BS about planning, communism is just chaos.

          I still have a box of Soviet matches. They’re in a very heavy wooden box because matches were sold by weight. I had to take the heads off the matches since they were insanely volatile and I didn’t want to burn my house down, but the plan said make x kilos of matches and so it was written and so it was done.

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      2. Russia’s banks are starting to break. Unlike the German’s [have a look at Deutsche Bank someday.) they haven’t been able to bury it. Germany is in a deep recession and energy use is way down. since the Germans never stopped buying Russian oil, sanctions be damned and Joe wasn’t gonna do nothin, this is causing problems for the Russians. Direct cost of the war isn’t helping, but the drop in energy sales really hurts them.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Germany – a very nice country with a rich history and neat cultures, saddled with horrible governments for the past 20 years or so. Back in the early 2010s, I read an article the noted trees disappearing from parks, and wood from national forests, when the price of gas and electricity went up for Green reasons. (The article was about unintended consequences of “well-intended ecological ideas,” I think was the phrase.)

          Liked by 1 person

          1. “horrible governments for the past 20 years or so”

            (Spock eyebrow)

            Tom Lehar singing:

            Once all the Germans were warlike, and mean, but that couldn’t happen again.

            We taught them a lesson in 1918, and they’ve hardly bothered us since then.

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            1. We know our buddies won’t give us the finger… Ah my best friend and I used to roll on the floor to “MLF Lullaby” and “Who’s Next” from an LP of That Was The Year That Was while indulging in long games of Risk.

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        2. “Joe wasn’t gonna do nothin“

          Be interesting if Trump does. On one hand “sanction Germany for buying Russian oil and gas”. OTOH Germany using the resources but unable to pay Russia hurts Russia. Then when Russia cuts Germany off for non-payment, Trump can point at Russia for being the big meany wolf in sheep clothing. Choices, choices, a wealth of choices.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. I saw an article this morning (Instapundit?) that the Chinese were snapping up German auto factories at fire sale prices.

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  17. WPDE department, every time I comment I’m getting a ,”subscribe to read deeper,” notice. I ignore it and my post prints, but I’ve stopped getting notifications of likes or of new posts. W!P!D!E!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Shirt missed at least 3.

      1970 – 1990: German Shepherds & look alike breeds
      1980: Reagan
      2016 – current: Trump
      Any Republican president candidate …

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Also Nuclear War -1983

        We skated on the edge two different times in the fall of that year (Able Archer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83 and the Col Petrov false alarm which I will not include here as WP will throw my comment into moderation WPDE!!! ). Per usual our “Top Men” in the CIA/NSA had no clue. The Petrov thing was not known until well after the fall of the Soviet Union/Warsaw pact.

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  19. In two days I’m starting a slow apocalypse campaign, in which all technology from steam engines up is becoming increasingly unreliable, for reasons suggested by Heinlein in “Waldo.” However, no one will know what those reasons are, and there will be all sorts of conspiracy theories to account for the failures . . .

    Liked by 1 person

    2. https://www.palladiummag.com/2023/06/01/complex-systems-wont-survive-the-competence-crisis/

      That’s an apocalypse I genuinely fear: we’ve failed to train and promote enough competent people to keep systems working to maintain the current level of civilization.

      I guess you could claim I’m arguing overpopulation then but that’s missing the point. It’s not a “too many people” argument. It’s a “not enough competent people to run the systems needed to support the number of people we have.”

      There are two solutions to that: train more competent people or eliminate lots of people.

      What is scary is I know what our “intellectual” class would prefer (although they are arguably the most useless class right now between being incompetent, high resource consumers, and too good to work).

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      1. When the Roman Centurion, and his peerless skillset, became uncommon, the Legions fell apart as did Rome.

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    3. I dropped off a package at UPS today. There was a notice: CLOSED MONDAY JAN 20

      I asked, “Closed in celebration, or protest?” :-D

      Then I remembered it was probably not about Trump’s inauguration.

      Liked by 1 person

          2. With the right response prepared ahead of time, you can zap back a Donk mark giving either response. (evil grin)

            Both can start “When are you Democrats going to get over….

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  21. After Milwaukee’s archbishop who was up to no good, they’ve had some really good archbishops.

    The latest is Grob, a guy who did his canon law thesis on the new exorcism rite’s canon law implications, and who then got stuck with being Chicago’s official archdiocesan exorcist for the last couple decades.

    But here’s the interesting part: when Archbishop Cupich arrived, he didn’t get rid of the archdiocesan exorcist. Nope, he kept him working, too, right up until the bishop appointment came up. It’s been years, when Cupich could have removed him and replaced him, or just removed him from office and let the office lapse. But he didn’t.

    And here’s Pope Francis, picking a major US archbishop, and he picks the guy who did all that time as an exorcist. I mean, yes, exorcism is one of the basic powers of a bishop, and exorcist priests just use that delegated power. But “canon law and exorcism” are not usually bishop resume lines. Pope Francis is usually not fond of canon law, anyway, because it includes things about the limits of papal power. So that’s a very interesting pick from him.

    A lot of the people today who make progressive noises and do not-very-constructive things in the Church, are worried about messing with certain powers of the Church. Unlike some of the crazy Sixties crowd, they aren’t crazy optimists about everything. And so I find it interesting that one of those few things they respect, or fear the consequences of messing with, is the office of exorcist.

    So I conclude that they know perfectly well that non-human evil beings are out there, and that they would rather not be the ones facing them.

    Liked by 1 person

      2. Maybe not so imaginary. If you track the past locations of East New Zealand, and West Antarctica, they merge about 100 million years ago in the south pacific just about where Mu was “located”.

        You can look at the map of sea floor spreading, and it tells you where something was. Greenland and Canada, Europe and North America. The north part of Alaska, all western North America’s additions west of Utah, as it moved west, and crashed into stuff.

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        1. “Imaginary” in the sense that it wasn’t around during any timeframe when humans existed. Mu was supposedly based on translations of Mayan glyphs and was the mother civilization of the human race.

          Liked by 1 person

  26. “God Damn the Democrat Man”
    Sung to the tune “God Damn the Pusher-man” Steppenwolf circa 1970….

    And Democrats if you don’t like it, change your party, if not, rot in hell with the Rinos.

    Liked by 1 person

  29. I grew up in California and I still love this state.

    The people in charge of it, from top to bottom for the most part?

    You can throw them in the fires in Southern California and I’d give 3-1 odds that they’ll blanket the fire and snuff it before the grease and fat and vitriol embedded in their flesh will catch fire first.

    And that’s the best that could be done with them.

    (Have several theories on why California went so bad, so fast, and a few ideas on how to fix it via the initiative system but considering that the E!GOP here is the most battered of battered political spouses…)

    Liked by 1 person

        1. Ah, WP is being DE again. A few of my comments seem to been banished to WP Purgatory. I thought they were pretty good. Maybe WP just wants to keep them to itself? :-P

          Like

    1. The Reader thinks it is more along the line of ‘never let a crisis go to waste’. He doesn’t doubt that the ‘progressive project’ is going to go into full attack mode to make it happen. And anyone who thinks they could ‘plan’ where fires driven by Santa Ana winds are going to go is batsh*t crazy.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Naomi Wolf’s version is it doesn’t matter where the fires go, the main purpose is to kill people in general while driving the survivors deeper into learned helplessness and extending power. Plus removing all those icky, middle-class single family homes and replacing them with efficient, rational. cost-effective block apartments. She would probably agree on a degree of exploiting a crisis but would argue the stupidity and incompetence leading up to it are deliberate negligence meant to induce a crisis.

        Mind you, she then starts wondering if the “mysterious fog,” contains tranquilizers or if covid vaccines produce emotional effects, which is a bit too far along for me. I tend toward yes, the Party chose for loyalty rather than competence, and we’re seeing the results.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. “Naomi Wolf’s version is it doesn’t matter where the fires go“

          This.

          There are going to be those who can afford to rebuild no matter what.

          There will be others, like long time generational families who were burned out, are some who will not be able to rebuild, even if they get insurance payouts to the insured value. Over *insured value rebuild is only paid if built and only if rebuild to the same structure size, configuration, and construction materials. Does not include upgrading outside buried facilities (pipes, septic, raised foundations), and fire resistant materials (ex: concrete, exteriors and roofs), like they will be required to do. Making it easier and faster to get permits, won’t prevent these environmental regulations from being enforced.

          Guessing a lot more of the won’t be able to rebuild, or willing to even if they can afford, than will be able and willing to rebuild. Makes the tinfoil hat conclusions (on the deliberate incompetence on the fires) too plausible.

          *Actual value reimbursement on home and contents only applies if the item is repurchased. Been there. Two ways to determine immediate payout value, either produce the purchase receipt (no matter how old), or insurance company determines value (guaranteed to be low balled). To get actual value, must purchase the equivalent replacement item. Then insurance will pay the difference between that receipt and the original determined value. Some items are not replaceable (does not have to be an antique) at any cost (also worthless to thief, just not worthless to us/me.)

          Like

      2. Pretty well explains the CCP and Democrats response to WuFlu. The CCP knew they had a problem, and made sure everyone else did too, while the Democrats made every effort to take advantage and damage Trump. They need to pay a price for that.

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  31. Two days and a wakeup!

    Blessedly, Mr. trump has agreed to move his inauguration indoors. They were expecting 24F and 15MPH wind. We lost a president before to cold weather. Folks would have gone insane if it happened again. Plus, Mr. Trump’s USSS detail mut be much, much less stressed now.

    Two days and a wakeup!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Plus they don’t have to stand in the cold for 2 hours listening to a bunch of bloviating politicians. Though you’d think that much hot air would have a moderating effect on the weather. :-P

      What if ‘global warming!’ is caused by all the hot air being blown about it?

      Like

    2. Of course, the talking point now is that Trump will have the “Smallest! Crowd! Evah!” for his inauguration.

      These people make me tired.

      Like

  32. Our Hostess said

    In this case, I hope not. I hope we have averted it. I hope California is what the future of America would have been if Kamala had been “elected.”

    From your lips to the Author’s ears Dear Hostess. For the present most of Mr. Schlicters futures seem to have been avoided (though maybe not The Attack). Not that there aren’t a thousand other landmines out there including some minor functionary who effectively was working on a soft coup, unless he was just blowing smoke. We can see the end of the tunnel just hoping that light isn’t another oncoming train.

    Liked by 1 person

  34. Close gamma ray burst.

    Yellow Stone finally erupts.

    Emp from any of our friends in the world.

    A emp from the sun that hits us straight on and lasts long enough to cover a whole 24 hours.

    The producers of the world go Gault and stay that way for 10 or more years.

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    1. The producers of the world won’t. Rand was a great theoretician. She lacked the granular understanding of humans to know her plans were as flawed as communism.
      The producers of the world CAN’T. They’re driven.

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    2. On the Gamma ray burst front Betelgeuse has been acting up of late. Some of the speculation is that it has a close white dwarf companion being fed from Betelgeuse’s gasses. This could lead to a classic type 1a supernova. Even if it is 400-700 ly away and yes estimates have big error bars as it is too far for Hiparcos and its stellar type is indeterminate making brightness estimates variable. If it went off pointed the wrong way we’d have a really bad day.

      Liked by 1 person

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