Don’t Fall For It

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

One thing I’ll say for our side of the political equation. We seem to have become slightly more immune to psy-ops, or perhaps less willing to go along with anything the left tries to prod us into doing.

These days, it looks like when they need a patsy they have to actually recruit and pay them, which they’ve apparently been doing to get people to “talk back” to Republican representatives at townhalls, or use bots. Now the AI bots are getting better, but you can still tell if the person you’re arguing with on FB has an account made yesterday and no followers. (Okay, normally made after the election, but still.)

And despite the dire warnings — really? — that the government would “collapse” in six weeks (awfully precise there chum. Kash, are you monitoring these?) that was suddenly everywhere after Carville flapped his lips, and which seemed to imagine that US governments like British can “fall” before elections. (Was this ops run by a Britisher? Did Carville have a senile moment? Was he fed the wrong line? Or does it indicate something far more sinister? Again Kash, are you monitoring this?) even the most squishy of squish blogs on the right has not run with panic.

And the whole “people are mad at DOGE” also isn’t taking.

The screaming that if the right touches Medicaid it’s done, that this worked before is the left drinking their own ink and/or trying to panic the right. It is important to remember that no, it didn’t work before. What worked in 2018 and 2020 was FRAUD. Massive, industrial quantities of fraud, served from a firehose. I can’t be the only one who remembers polls held open for two weeks after the election in 2018. What, are all of you more ADD than I? How do you remember to dress in the morning?

If we solve the fraud — Mr. President, more needs to be done — then curtailing Medicaid is certainly not going to bring the government “down” (even if that were possible.)

Frankly, this whole “Medicaid can’t be touched, or people will turn” is nonsense. As with social security, medicare, etc, the vast majority of people my age and younger (and I’m sixty two, rapidly approaching the point at which MOST people are younger than I) never counted on any of the social net programs. Since the eighties, we expected there would be nothing for us when we qualified.

AND thinking people are super invested in “government paid health care” ignores how much more cynical we got about health care in general in the last five years. I desperately need to go see a dentist, but have been putting it off, because I remember dentists closing because they couldn’t figure out a way to make us wear masks during procedures. And the other doctors? the last time I got asked to wear a mask was two months ago at my PCP. And the receptionist said the doctor might refuse to see me if I wouldn’t wear it. (I know the doctor. She ALSO wasn’t wearing a mask. Because she’s not crazy.) Then there was the crazy time mid 21 when a doctor tried to convince my husband they could do his physical over the phone as thoroughly as in the office.

Look, it’s not happy making, because it’s one of the things we still need, but the medical profession has lost a ton of confidence and prestige over this insanity. And people are way more hesitant to seek “care.” (Which might prevent iatrogenic issues, but hey. Better or worse than the fact people are putting off needed care? I don’t know.) So, saying “We’ll take away your free medical care” is not as scary as it used to be. On top of which, frankly, we now know how much medicaid was being used to look after illegal immigrants who just came in and got top of the line care. And if that’s cut, there’s probably still enough for every citizen and legal resident.

The fact is that the left is mostly trying to panic our politicians and make them buckle. I urge those cooked-spaghetti kneed idiots to stand firm. Borrow someone else’s spine if you need to. Because you have no idea how bad things will get if you cave now, and therefore Trump can’t clean up the mess y’all have been creating for a century or so. You don’t want to know. Trump is the VERY POLITE REQUEST.

Despite my moments of blind, red-veil rage, I do NOT want the tumbrils to roll. Once you start feeding madame Guillotine, you can’t stop for a long time, and you’ll be fed to it yourself.

As for the right wing bloggers even the squishy, gooey-center ones, who are for now holding firm. I need you to continue holding firm. Remember they’ve got nothing. The only way they controlled us before was by use of an absolutely coordinated propaganda machine that went from the news to actual fiction books, all publishing the same narrative at the same time.

They tried that in 2020 and it failed, even with the panic created by the “pandemic.” It failed to the point they needed to fraud openly and in front of G-d and everyone. (And if you refused to see it or talk about it, shame on you. Also sign up for remedial math. Because it really was obvious.) They tried it again in 2024 with everything at their disposal, trying to create “inevitability” for Kamala. They convinced the Europeans and every “reputable” source in the US. And yet they failed, spectacularly.

Because people have tuned them out. They’ve seen them in action. They’ve seen the masks off for eight years now, and once the mask if off you can’t put it back on.

If you’re scared, if you’re a squishy gooey “right” wing person, if you’re afraid, if you feel like panicking, I want you to stand in front of your mirror every morning and practice saying “I really don’t are, Margaret.” Or come here and I’ll give you the needed righteous kicking. I have a lot of aggression to work off, anyway, thank you for volunteering.

The truth is that Medicaid, aye, and social security too, are going to go away. They are unsustainable. They could have worked if the left hadn’t forgotten they needed every-larger generations to sustain it. Instead they wanted to plunder the young and at the same time reduce population and at the same time sideline legal workers in favor of illegals who don’t contribute (no, really) to any of these social programs, but do take from them.

The left is dying at its own hands, drowning in a pool of incoherence and self hatred. We understand the self hatred. Heck, I even understand the incoherence since they were fed a lot of contradictory bullshit and forbidden to think about any of it.

But I really don’t care [Margaret.]

As when you’re faced with a pet who is going to die in a few days, in pain, your choice is to give it one clean shot, or let it linger and die ugly. And at that, I don’t think the plan is even to kill these “social net” dinosaurs outright, but to put them on palliative care: saving them just enough for those who desperately need it, until they die a gentle death as those few who counted on them pass.

This is the GENTLE option. If we do nothing, if we don’t investigate, if we don’t cut back, it’s going to collapse suddenly and explosively and leave a lot of people in desperate straits.

Same for the government, all of it, honestly. Yes, I know a couple of people who were doing needed functions for the government and who are right now in limbo. But the whole thing was so bloated, convoluted, overfed and over-wasteful it was going to collapse anyway.

It should never have been created, is the problem, and btw, my friends who are in limbo say the same “it sucks, but it’s needed to save the country. And in the long run my job is less important than saving the country.”

Yes, it’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt a lot.

Thing is, people are already hurting. Badly hurting. I don’t know the real numbers, but I know what I see around me. My sons’ generation and younger is drowning, particularly the males. They either have no jobs; have jobs in seriously exploitative situations; are being treated as inherently bad for being born with a penis. Girls aren’t much better off, though academia and make-work have absorbed a bunch of them.

People are starting to see that what they thought was the economy is a painted floor and they’ve been running midair a long time.

There’s a feeling of subdued panic everywhere. None of us are being told the truth, but seriously, do an inventory of the young — 35 and younger — people you know. How many are solidly established as a proportion? Yeah, yeah, they’re young, but by 35 people were firming up, even in my generation, and boy we thought we were late.

As for the older… my generation was hit hard by layoffs every few years, which kept people from any real savings for retirement. And the H1B thing has been brutal to those in tech jobs.

We’re now hitting retirement age, and most of us know we’re going to have to work until we drop in our traces, if only we can continue finding work.

You can’t make it worse by cutting the illusion of security. In a way it’s a relief when the truth is finally told.

Which is why all the left’s demands we panic, and their whispers that “the government will fall” are finding no purchase. Yes, what DOGE is finding is horrifying, but we’ve suspected it so long, we’re just relieved someone is talking about it at last.

Don’t give the left an opening. What they want is impossible. We can’t go back to sleep. We can’t go back to the pre-2020 world, no matter how much nicer it seemed. That world isn’t there anymore, and we too have changed in ways they forced us to.

If we let them propaganda us into destroying the current cutbacks and clean up — chainsaw go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrt — we’ll only be put on the sure path to hell to heads on pikes.

Even if most of those heads would be lefty ones, it won’t be all of them. In the end that kind of collapse always claims more lives than you can imagine, and more indiscriminately than you think: it always ends up door to door and intimately personal.

The only way to spare us that horror is to stay the course. To hunch one shoulder and say “I really don’t care, Margaret.” And forge on.

It’s the right thing to do, but more importantly, it’s the only thing to do.

Because the alternative is unthinkable.

170 thoughts on “Don’t Fall For It”

    1. I believe this can be demonstrated. Simply ask the next libtard with whom you have a discussion to rank these in order of importance to society:

      Academics

      Government workers

      Police

      Grocers

      Farmers

      Garbage collectors

      The answer should be enlightening. :twisted:

      Like

        1. I’d add grocers (or at any rate, food distributors) as #3, with #4 “all the rest”. While farmers are at or near the top, unless the food can get to where it’s needed it simply rots, since mosty people don’t live near farms.

          Like

      2. I recall reading that no revolution succeeds of it messes with those who pick up the garbage and put out the fires. That always seem like good advice to me.

        Like

        1. I suppose firemen should be ahead of “all the rest”, although that would apply mainly in the cities and denser suburbs where one building fire can spread to entire neighborhoods (legend of Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, anyone?😉). They’re certainly ahead of academics and government drones; probably on a level with police.

          Like

      3. Hmmm. . . on one hand, producing food is a very basic function of human society, on the other, farming is not the only way to do that. . . and there has never been a society without people who acted as police, even if only part time or even on an ad-hoc basis.

        Are you specifying modern society or society in general?

        Like

        1. Contemporary US society. I’m not really qualified to have an opinion on on any other, although I’d imagine the answers would be significantly different for the San, the Maori or the Inuit (all in traditional form), for three examples.

          Like

          1. The problem is that modern society is too interdependent to be quite clear. You need farmers to raise the food, but it will rot in the fields if you don’t have a grocery system to distribute, and garbage collectors to prevent its infecting the neighborhoods.

            Also, it’s too large for an informal justice system.

            Academics are needed to turn out civil engineers to make the roads to distribute it by, and government workers include those civil engineers, so I’m going to say those two groups are too imprecise to quantify.

            Like

            1. Quantify? No, but that wasn’t the question. The question was which are relatively more essential to survival as a (perhaps minimally-functional) society. We can get along without (formal) police and academics (the rate of profress will probably suffer, although except for the most sophisticated tech much will be maintainable by the sort of competence exhibited by 18th-century railroad designers who mostly got OJT training after minimal formal education in the apprentice-journeyman-master system used for centuries. So I’d maintain that my initial ranking of “necessary” was accurate.

              Like

                  1. Only when you have formal ones. Many societies don’t. One man from a Great Plains tribe had an enormous insight when he figured out that the anthropologist was studying his tribe’s justice system: it was a revelation that they had had one.

                    Like

                    1. Or a militia.

                      Or a Neighborhood Watch.

                      Or an HOA.

                      Or the neighborhood Karen who drops a dime on her neighbors.

                      There are a number of terms used to describe it, but in the end, it is someone (with some sort of group backing) who is enforcing group norms in a given area. Ultimately, what they can do depends on how much physical backing they have. As Mary said, unless it’s formalized, that group is the government.

                      Like

    1. Barely scratched the surface.

      If they expose the -really- crappy stuff, people will lose their minds.

      Probably why “epstein’s list” is still vaporware.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. But there are Trump-based, “I did that!” stickers to put out by the egg counter. Because these folks can only build on what others create.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Or as I’ve said before not only can the Left not meme they can’t even steal memes from others effectively.

        Like

    2. Hell, you haven’t even SEEN the guy since Jan 20, so far as I can tell. Even odds whether they’ve offed him, or just have him locked in a basement with all the pudding and ice cream he can eat.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. I expect he’s alive and living very quietly, for now. Given how long it can take dementia to kill you this is not an unmixed blessing.

          It really does depend on just how ruthless/sociopathic his handlers are. If anyone sees an advantage to his passing and a chance to claim he died of overwork/a broken heart at the descent of the nation into fascism, well….

          But the fact the first of the tell-all books about his “decline,” and “disastrous decision to run again,” are already coming out actually makes a sort of insurance policy for his continued existence.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. The Reader was expecting this in late September / early October of last year. Apparently TPTB must have concluded it wouldn’t have pulled Kamala over the finish line.

            Liked by 1 person

        4. Personally, I think much of the odd behavior is carefully practiced theater. It is intended to make him proof against prosecution, much like that mobster that wandered the streets in a bathrobe.

          And note there is already one major official instance of “we can’t prosecute a shambling old coot”.

          And this is not just about financial skullduggery.

          He is a sneaky scheming manipulative bastard, and he has been planning his financial endgame and exit strategy for a long time.

          And I strongly suspect there is a highly classified self-pardon stashed in some obscure hidden records, as well as notarized paper in his pocket.

          Crazy. Scheming. Evil. And possibly some real dementia hitting his carefully planned act, because the Author has an -epic- iron.

          Supposedly the current admin will release some Epstein info, probably flight logs. I suspect it will damage some folks that have particularly annoyed Trump. And/or some “allies” no longer useful.

          Investigations? Impeachments? Offers of exile to Switzerland?

          Like

  4. What is getting to me at the moment is the, “Judge X (Biden appointee) has forbidden Trump to do Y.”

    Because desperate activists are judge shopping. These judges are burning the judiciary credibility and that, too, will lead nowhere we want to go.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I think it’s already starting to backfire. People were already beginning to notice activist judges in a much bigger way than before, but this is really gonna get angry eyes on them.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Not just that, but as it’s becoming more visible people are talking about going to the USSC and asking for a decision that would keep activist judges from making decisions that affect people outside their jurisdiction. The Left are using their last cards so often and so blatantly that they are going to lose them sooner rather than later.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I do not think they care about the courts, they are trying to save their graft and embezzlement from the Treasury. These Judges will get their comeuppance either here or in hell. Oh, by the way Commie Kleptocrat pukes, God doesn’t care if you believe in hell or not it only matters if he does.

          Like

      2. Activist Judge?

        “He’s nothing but a low-down, double-dealing, backstabbing, larcenous perverted worm! Hanging’s too good for him. Burning’s too good for him! He should be torn into little bitsy pieces and buried alive!” – Hanover Fiste, Heavy Metal movie.

        Like

    2. I suspect at some point in the very near future Chf. Justice Roberts and the SCOTUS will put the kibosh on this shameful judicial overreach, for the sake of the Court as well as the country.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Anyone who thinks the founders wanted a judicial branch superior to the rest, able to rule us by whim and decree, should go re-read the Declaration of Independence.

        Pity the Constitution omitted the final clause, or Bill of Rights item: “No, you idiots. We really mean Freedom, not your sick twisted tyrany deliberate misinterpretations.”

        Like

        1. Had the Constitution been written after the insanity of the left was known, there are a LOT of things the writers would not have left open to twisted interpretation.

          Liked by 1 person

        2. The conduct of the courts is explicitly described as not a danger in the Federalist Papers. If only they knew.

          Like

            1. Correct, although in Federalist 78, Hamilton hints that something like judicial review might develop over time, raising the “weak sister” to equality with the other branches.

              Like

  6. The one thing keeping me from rejecting entirely the siren song of pessimism is that there is nothing inherently preventing us from drinking our own ink the way our opposite numbers do. Human nature is like that.

    But really, we are committed. All our chips are in the pot. If we do not succeed, any “next chance,” if it ever comes, will be too late. So what’s the point of folding now? We just have to play the hand to the best of our ability.

    And I must confess to wanting at least a few heads on pikes. How else am I going to satisfy my deeply-cherished ambition of doing the Vir Wave?

    Liked by 1 person

        1. me, yeah. DIL can’t eat any flour, also no nuts, so you know… poor girl. I however don’t have problems with either nuts or gluten. (Even if my 23 and me thinks I do…) Also is there one of my books you want? If I have extras, I’ll bring it and sign it and everything. (None of the new ones arrived. So mad at Amazon. SIGH. )
          Also asking Shane :D

          Like

          1. Thank you for asking, Sarah, but not at ConFinement, no. Had to prioritize, and picked LibertyCon. (BTW, anyone need a roommate?) I’d ask you to say hi to Mr. Reynolds for me, but it’s not like I know him or vice versa.

            Liked by 1 person

          2. I apologize if this is intrusive, but is DiL sure it’s the flour? My sister cut all the flour out of her diet and her gastro-intestinal issues dropped to nil. She tried gluten-free and that was fine, but then we tried her on a bit of organic, and that was good too, which brought us to the conclusion that it wasn’t the wheat, but the freaking roundup that gets sprayed on the fields to make it all ripen at the same time.

            That’s something I’ll have to see about bringing to RFK jr’s attention. No more spraying poison on our food, just for efficiency.

            Like

            1. ?

              As far as I know, Roundup is a broad spectrum herbicide, intended to kill any plant not genengineered to be Roundup resistant. Basicly, it kills everything green but the crop, cutting out weed competition.

              Never heard of it as a growth/timing regulator.

              Like

              2. The deal with Roundup (technically glyphosate) and grains has to do with factory farming beyond “amber waves of grain”. When you rent a combine and set it to harvesting, it has to go through full 24-hour day’s worth on your land until your land is clear. And it wants the grain to be on the ends of dry stalks in the middle of dry foliage. You can’t afford to do six hours here and six hours there because the other wheat/rye/oats/barley isn’t dry yet.

                So, something like 36 hours before your planned harvest, you spray glyphosate on all your fields which kills all the green out of your entire fields. Unfortunately, you will now harvest contaminated grain — but cheaply! You spray the stuff that was already dry, you spray the stuff that was close to dry, you spray the stuff that barely had seeds forming.

                As smaller harvesters (which would only do the “ripe” fields) gave way to the massive combines (which would do all the fields, prepped with glyphosate), we got massive reports of gluten intolerance and celiac disease. It’s pretty close to Occam’s Razor why.

                Like

          3. I figured on making a batch for the con suite, will definitely make sure you get yours.

            Also contemplating contributing a bottle or two; we’ll see if I remember.

            Would not turn down a copy of Darkship Revenge if you have it. Enjoyed A Few Good Men from last year.

            Like

            1. I don’t have a copy of DSR. Will have to order them, but am mid-changing covers. Also the order of stuff to sell from Amazon did NOT arrive. So–
              I’ve done a search downstairs and found some very strange things. This might be the weirdest table since the history of selling tables. You’ll see.

              Like

          4. I am certain that The Sarah already knows this, but for anyone with similar issues reading along at home, oat-flour cookies (the shortbread kind) work.

            I discovered this when my last ex developed an allergy to wheat. (Yeah, allergy, and not just to gluten.) As it turns out, Scottish shortbread cookies made with OAT flour taste even better than the same recipe made with wheat flour.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Do be careful sourcing your oats, though. I have heard from a celiac friend that regular oats can suffer from cross-contamination issues at processing unless they’re gluten-free. (The label is not, alas, unnecessary in non-gluten products.)

              Like

            2. Are you using a traditional recipe and swapping wheat flour for oat flour, or did you make other adjustments?

              Like

  7. In my weaker moments, the fact that there aren’t crucified bureaucrats lining both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue like Spartacus’ slaves along the Via Appia disappoints me a bit. But then I realize just how far things have gone so far and I suppress the bloodthirstiness because it will benefit no one.

    However, it appears other countries are learning nothing. AfD isn’t quite there yet in Germany and will of course be frozen out. Two-Tier Kier continues to drive perfidious Albion to destruction. The Irish continue to insist upon national suicide by immigrant. And apparently the Conservatives in Canada are blowing a sure thing in succeeding Turdeau? (Not sure about this last one, just saw one article.) Compared to them, what Trump and the administration are doing here is a fantastic pressure release valve and just what we need, although we MUST continue to push for more and not be satisfied with partial measures. Other places? They’ve taped down the wobbly thing on the pressure cooker and insist upon turning up the burner to max.

    Liked by 4 people

    1. Glad to know I’m not the only one with that vision. Mine was all around the beltway, then all the way up 95 to NYC. Sigh. Alas, not to be as wisdom does not lie there,

      Liked by 2 people

    2. I figure it’s the guns and the lack of guns. I believe the really huge numbers of firearms in the US caused the Dems to blink about mashing the turbo-boost button on the Fraud Machine in 2024, and is chilling the idea of more extreme responses in the election’s aftermath, at least among the cooler-headed Dems. The response to the 2020 fraud frightened them, and they’re frightened even more about what might happen if they now tried to poke harder. So they’re betting instead on lawfare, finessing their hand, and quiet appeals to the patriotism of the GOP establishment as loyal citizens of the Deep State of America.

      Whereas overseas the Dem’s counterparts believe themselves able to crush any servile rebellion, because their revolting peasants are at least disarmed peasants.

      Like

      2. They blew the takeover. They weren’t harsh enough soon enough or often enough.

        They had to embrace triggering a boog, on their plan and timetable. Instead, they bet on lawfare, and on the invincibility of judicial jackassery.

        I doubt even the “ruthless” /decapitation option was ultimately a winner for them. But it was their best option, and they blinked.

        Liked by 1 person

    3. Europe is on the brink of another great Pogrom. They are either going to go ape-stuff on the important, or the imports are going to go Caliphate on the natives. Either way, bloodbath in 20 years unless something changes.

      A general eurowar might be significantly less bloody.

      This is why I sometimes forsee a very annoyed USA conquering the place and imposing serfdom. An imposed Pax Americana might be the least awful outcome.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. 11B-MAILCLERK I fear you are too optimistic. I think the feces are going to hit the whirling blades within a decade. If it waits 20 years then we likely get a european adjunct to the caliphate ala Col. Kratman’s Caliphate novel. At 10 years it would still be in doubt with odds strongly favoring the caliphate, especially on the continent, I fear.

        As for an imposed Pax Americana umm no. In fact HELL NO. One can not impose a reasoned democracy on a people from the outside as we observed with Iraq in the early 2000’s. We particularly learned that we no longer have the forces or the stomach for their use to enforce a proper democratic start up. Protect the Eastern Europeans who for the most part have maintained their rationality. Get the UK and France’s Strategic Nuclear Arms protected if a fall seems imminent and neutralized (they are universally SLBMs) if the caliphate rises and we can’t stop them. Pull back any remaining Tactical US weapons on “loan” to the europeans NOW. Tactical nukes were always a poorly thought out idea, and having nukes in say Belgium or Italy makes no sense at all here 25 years after the fall of the USSR. Rescue whatever cultural treasures you can (Suave qui Peut).

        Like

        1. Who said anything about imposing democracy? Nor did I say anything about imposing our form of republic.

          Serfdom. We rule. They pay tribute and keep quiet. Or we deport and settle more if it.

          Conquer. Colonize. Rule. Extort. “Let them hate, so long as they fear.”

          If they want to grow up and be free, fine, prove it and we may be benevolent.

          Liked by 1 person

    4. I’m hearing speculation that the Liberals in Canada will stall the election until 2026 (using the Emergency Powers when finally forced to do so, and blaming the “emergency” on “Trump!”). If that’s what happens, there’s not much that the Conservatives can do about it.

      As I noted in the previous comments, the leading candidate in the first round of the Romanian Presidential Election was just arrested under the charge that he’s a Russian puppet (as well as a fraud claim, iirc). A few weeks ago – when the election round results were announced – I asked what might induce Romanians to vote for someone who was known to be a Russian puppet.

      Strangely, no one ever answered me.

      Liked by 1 person

    5. Ah. #teambluejinn, then*.

      The advantage that #teambluejinn and #teamkatepaulk have over #teamheadsonpikes is that the latter cannot provide a verbal warning about how it feels to have taken the wrong path in life.

      *The reference assumes a passing familiarity with LTC Tom Kratman’s Carreraverse series.

      Like

  8. Per Scott Adams, Carville is giving the RINOs an excuse to go back to obstructing Trump if and when the honeymoon period ends in a few weeks. Any dip in approval will be interpreted as collapse.

    I have no clue if it will work, but the confirmation votes are a good indicator the dynamic has shifted.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Perhaps some RINOs are on an as yet unpublished black book list? (Grin)

      Trump 47 is playing hardball. He hasn’t forgotten or forgiven being buggered, repeatedly, by his own side.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. There is a reason that “winning” fast and furious is so critical. Not everything can be done this fast. But keep steamrolling, rolling along.

        Already have a budget passed. Including the critical no tax on SS and tips, and I presume stopping the sunset on the earlier cuts, but IDK. Dems are screaming about adding to the deficit. What they haven’t figured out is, at least the base, the GOP can do the math. Thanks to DOGE the budget isn’t adding as much as DOGE has uncovered in waste and graft, with more to come.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I think the sheer speed is also about staying inside the Dem OODA loop. To steal a boxing analogy we have them on the ropes and punch drunk. Now is NOT the time to let up. The findings with USAID that much of the Astroturf was being funded through a chain NGO’s makes it even MORE critical we don’t let up. They were burning cash with Que Mala at a fierce rate. If they can’t replenish that cash (and some of their less devoted billionaires are walking away) their cutesy astroturf goes away.

          Like

          1. FIDO. Eff it, drive on. Moar cuts, cutcutcut. Cut the spending. We’re not at cut the throats. Yet.

            Don’t particularly want the fallout of that, truly. There’s a lot yet to be done. More work to in the Augean Stables, smelly and nasty though it may be.

            Liked by 1 person

  9. I sure don’t know and am unable to predict the future… One thing for sure is the current administration and ‘culture’ we are now dealing with is unlike anything before.

    The massive changes needed may indeed happen or at least come close enough to push on and continue a move in the direction needed. The opposition is failing to understand the major shift in perception and thinking and are trying to use the ‘tried and true’ methods from the last few years without success. So as our host has said – don’t fall for it as it is all paper tissue lies and fantasy on their part. I much prefer reality as it seems most everyone else does.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. The plain vanilla original Social Security could be sustained for a long time at the present pay in rate or longer with a modest increase. It’s all the ADD ON programs like disability running it broke.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. Of my own young ones… I haven’t heard from my niece since she blocked me on farcebook, which I only joined to try and keep connect with her (she couldn’t cope with the way my sister and I kept logicing her into corners about her latest liberal cause du jour). She drank the koolaid good and hard while in college and firmly believes that ‘no one should have to waste their lives toiling for wages’ or that ‘one in ten thousand can come up with an idea that will more than support the other 9,999 without the need for icky work’. Of my nephews… three have decent blue collar jobs, one is just finishing up a degree that has to do with managing/maintaining manufacturing lines, two have been rendered useless drags on society by their psycho harpy of a mother, and three are still in school with the intent to aim at blue collar careers rather than college.

    It seems to me that if you can keep them either in their right mind through the gauntlet of higher education or out of higher education entirely, they do okay.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. On the “if we can find work” thing, I believe I said to you … oh. my. god! Has it really been — like — ten years ago? Remember? “In the future we’ll all be cottage industrialists.”? I think back then, I believed it would a positive evolution. But, if it’s born of bitter necessity, it’s still to the good. As in an aid to independent living. As much as can be accomplished in a society so interconnected. Anyway. Looking at it from here, the smart play would seem to be to make your own job. Find what you can do to keep your head above water and paddle like an effing bear.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Maybe I should be watching all those “how to run a 3D printing business” videos? Especially since I found out how to make good temperature resistant PLA.

      Still need to try it though

      Like

  14. “a doctor tried to convince my husband they could do his physical over the phone as thoroughly as in the office.”

    Well, that may be true, but I damn sure am not going to shove a cell phone up my butt for a prostate exam!

    The problem with use of violence for solutions is it’s rarely used correctly. Wasn’t it Machevelli who said a cruelty should be used once, and only once? Which means you have to get ALL of your targets the first time; don’t miss any, and don’t take more than necessary.

    It’s not so much that social security should never have been created. Having a nation-wide retirement investment company is a good idea. However, having it run by the government, with zero principal, is a dumb-ass pyramid scheme run and sustained by crooks and theft. I’d like to see all those billions clawed back from useless organizations like USAID, put into a Social Security principle investment fund, and a private company, along the lines of Fidelity or Ameriprise, begin managing it until it reaches solvency. Then get the government completely out of it. No more corrupt politicians holding beneficiaries hostage with it.

    The government has been falling for years. Screaming about it isn’t going to panic those of us who have been watching it happen, and trying to prepare for it. All we can do is try to survive the crash, and Trump & Co. are our best bets for that.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Let me convert my 401k over to a self held investment fund tax free and no more paying SS, and I’ll sign off never taking any SS payments. Hey look, one body out of the pool. At least I won’t have the illusion of ever getting any of the money paid in to SS back.

    Liked by 1 person

    3. “convert my 401k over to a self held investment fund tax free”

      –

      Biggest difference between my IRA/401(k) rollover and my husbands is the 5 years he’s had of self managing his, after he retired. He was managing mine too, but the majority of mine didn’t roll over until 2016. Made a huge difference.

      Like

      1. “no more paying SS, and I’ll sign off never taking any SS payments“

        –

        That ship has sailed for us. We are drawing. But our son? He’d jump on that. Make the inherited IRA’s tax free too (be another 30 or 40 years, but expect something to be left).

        Liked by 1 person

  16. My kids all avoided those pitfalls. Three own homes. They are stuggling, against the world, themselves and everything….as we did.

    Neices and nephews are all fighting. The ones who went to college…three of four are as libby as their parents. The fourth probably is too but she did hard tech.

    Three have goo goo jobs helping the downtrodden hated immigrants. One works to build.

    For my wifes side, they all have normal jobs and stuggle, more to not lose a step rather than gain. They are being crushed but push back.

    We shall see.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. I don’t have so rosy an opinion as that. Government is an unruly, unreliable, ambitious and devious minion. One that should be watched with both eyes, and as often as possible. And still you will miss some things. Government is a teenager with car keys and unlimited access to whiskey. Government is a brace of E6s with money to burn and a grudge against authority. Government is about as trustworthy as… Well, I can’t rightly say about something so utterly corrupt and guaran-damn-teed to screw you over.

      Liberal or Republican, I don’t trust them. They’re both losers in my eyes. They are greedy, selfish, power hungry bastards. The fewer government officials that exist, the better until we reach a point where we all can say “yeah, we might need a little government now.”

      Spoiler alert: it’ll be a cold day in h*ll before you hear me say that.

      Like

  18. If there was no fraud in 2020, then where did all those extra Democrat voters come from and go to? How many million voters? The left has attempted to remove the soap box, the ballot box, and the jury box. Do they really want American citizens resorting to the cartridge box? Somehow I don’t think their plan has been thought through.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. Off-topic, but I have an announcement. The latest Munnion was born ten days ago, at 3 AM on Feb. 16th. For anyone wondering how many that makes, let me give you a small logic/math puzzle as the answer. The following statement is now true:

    All my children have twice as many siblings of the opposite sex as they have siblings of the same sex.

    From that one statement, you should be able to deduce how many children I have, and also how many of them are boys and how many are girls. (And since someone might ask the question, all my children have the same mother, my wife, so there are no half-siblings to make the puzzle ambiguous. Also, to resolve another possible ambiguity: when I say “the latest Munnion”, yes that does mean that this one was not the first).

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Unless a robot can trouble shoot better than human plumbers, and the computers they use at car dealerships, the applications will be limited. And trying to program all the building code and plumbing code rules for each jurisdiction …

      Liked by 1 person

      1. TxRed, the plumbing code rules may be the easiest part of the job (I had to analyze this problem for a commercial drone tracker about 5 years ago). Robot’s location ties back to a Spatial database of regulations with the geographic coordinates of the area they apply to. Which rule areas is the robot standing in? Voila.

        Like

        1. What the bots can’t do is Jerry-rig a part not in stock. Nor agree to less money if it can be under the table.

          Like

          1. What the bots can’t do is Jerry-rig a part not in stock.

            No, they go out to the 3D printer in the truck and make the exact part needed right there.

            Like

      2. The car dealership computers can’t catch things that have no sensors, as our mechanic discovered after 100+ miles of troubleshooting driving. The issue? Sometimes the car just wouldn’t start, no rev, no go. Or it would strain uphill, or acceleration would drop.

        The actual traceable problem? A valve on the outflow of the engine that was closing at incorrect times. A $50 part, almost certainly the reason my fuel pump died on the Bonneville Salt Flats, and probably the reason our catalytic converter died way too early.

        Our mechanic was SO happy that he got to explain it to somebody, because that was some prime detective work.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. MomRed’s SUV kept draining the battery. The dealership said “bad battery and drive more.” They had put the battery in the month before. So we took it to Old Car Repairs. They watched it for 48 hours and said, “Intermittent short in the cargo area light,” and cut that out of the circuit. Problem solved.

          H-ll, I can trouble shoot better than the dealership can, now days, and I don’t do complicated liquid-cooled engines. The youngsters don’t know how to do it. SIGH.

          Liked by 1 person

          2. Don’t get me started. I wrote about this as we were going through it in 2020. The 2019 Santa Fe Stop/Start feature quit working (heck neither the 2019 nor 2020 Santa Fe Stop/Start features are working now). So we took it in to be checked out. Standard answer “Bad Battery”. Of coarse in 2020 getting a new battery was next to impossible. Got new battery, which turned out, really was a BAD Battery, dang it. Got that swapped out. Feature worked on the way home, quit working immediately. Over the next 5 months (had a few loaners) the sequence went like this (quoting stuff that, IMO, being the mechanic I am not, but trouble shooter that I am, because software, in quotes is the BS stuff that wasn’t so):

            1. “Bad” battery (because battery must be at a certain charge to work. Also can’t be working too hard to heat or cool …)
            2. Very bad battery
            3. “Bad” driver’s door harness (door sensor must sense door is closed)
            4. “Bad” driver belt buckle sensor (won’t work if not buckled in).
            5. “Bad” computer. (Vehicle computer got replaced)

            #5 actually “fixed” the problem for about a year. But honestly? I think the computer just needed rebooting, not replacing.

            What fixed it in 2023, was driving it for 2 days straight over 1200 miles to get to Banff. Just started working all of a sudden. Translation, at least mine, the Santa Fe just doesn’t get driven enough. Hubby’s 2020 version should, at least during the summer, he is driving 60 miles round trip 4x’s a week. OTOH our fall 2024 trip driving 13 hours though to Tetons (only 900 miles), and all the slow driving around both parks, then home, didn’t fix it this time.

            What is funny is when researching online most the discussions on stop/start is how to disable it on various makes/models that have it as a feature. Not “why did it quit working”.

            A lot of comments here from people on how they hate that feature in their new cars. I don’t care, as long as the engine starts back up after shutting off at a stop. Not shutting off is fine too.

            Like

          4. The Ford Mercur would shut down momentarily when the brakes were applied – but usually only when it was raining. Turned out the seal around one tail light assembly was leaking just enough that water would drip down on to the hot wire for the brake light and short the whole system. Took a while to figure that one out.

            Like

  21. My sister and I talk a lot about this stuff. We knew this year would be ugly in ways that would affect both of us: she turns 54 in two weeks and I’m already 65. She’s looking for work, as am I. I’m also moving back home to the proper elevation for my body of zero-feet above sea level. With all the costs and etceteras, paid for by Social Security lol.

    It’s all worth it. All the struggle, fear, hopes dashed, promises kept all of it. I’m so grateful to be alive to witness the restoration of the Republic I can’t even stand it.

    Onward, patriots. Fear not.

    Like

    1. >>>zero-feet above sea level<<<

      Sorry you were altitude challenged, but bodies are wondrous and weird things. Grew up around 500′ ASL, lived 27 years at 200′ ASL, now it’s 22 years at 4350′. The bronchitis/pleurisy don’t count. (I hope, and the meds are working. Needed no albuterol today.)

      Just watch out for high tide. :)

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Took a tour some years ago of the Sudan Mine MN state park. Level 23 – 2341 feet below surface and 888 feet below sea level. Even I could notice the improved effect on breathing.

      Like

      1. The Sea of Galilee is something like 1,000 below sea level. I remember remarkable energy but that could be a story I’ve written in my head.

        Liked by 1 person

  22. The NBC News anchors were smirking about Humphrey’s Executor vs. US (1935) and how it means that the president can’t fire people for disagreeing with him or her. I’m not sure how the arguments will be couched – will the federal workers claim that Trump assumes that all of them are opposed to his policies, and thus he is firing them for political reasons? The Biden-era case where the courts ruled that the president can terminate appointees at will might come into play, or perhaps not.

    Liked by 1 person

  23. the squishes at Powerline haven’t folded yet but they are waiting for the signal … today they talked about the great poll numbers that Trump and DOGE have and qualified it with “if these numbers hold” … talk about eyeing the exits …

    Powerline has always been the home of the self described “true conservatives” … usually their “priciples” prevent them from endorsing anything that works … it always amazes me that they defended McConnel for doing a good job on judges while ignoring everything else he did wrong but constantly harped on Trump 1.0 not being conservative enough while racking up win after win …

    Not folks you want to share a foxhole with …

    Liked by 1 person

  24. Pingback: Yeah,,,time to be less “Squishy”,,, | Dio's Workshop

  25. “MOST people are younger than I) never counted on any of the social net programs. Since the eighties, we expected there would be nothing for us when we qualified.“

    –

    Preach it!

    Yep. HS graduation ’74. First job paying out SS was that summer, and (most) years since retiring Jan ’16. Neither my sisters, or our husbands, expected to see a dime back. We joked until we each started collecting (4 of the 6 of us) at age 62 (younger sister and hubby waited until full retirement age, 68. He’s collecting, she’s almost 5 years from collecting.) That we were just paying our 3 grandparents SS. Given what the three were (or rather were not getting) we six were funding a few more grandparents other than our own. Mid-’80s dad went on medical SS, and our contributions quit helping other families. Now the grandchildren are paying for ours and their surviving grandmother’s SS (and yes, it is probably taking every penny being contributed by the six of 8 who are working).

    Thank goodness for PJ Media “translating”, or at least not burying the “real lead”, for the far left on events happening. Take the DOGE report where there were mass exits from DOGE. Turns out there were mass resigning exits of the Obama era department staff that DOGE is working through. Few from DOGE itself and only then to go onto their own political aspirations (like run for governor).

    In other news (someone in comments above might have already mentioned this, but I haven’t read what is already posted, yet) the House passed a budget bill. Highlights, no more taxes on SS or tips. Not mentioned of the soon sundown tax clauses from term 43 have been extended.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Still has to go through the Senate, look for the usual whores in the republican party to falter, again. You know, McCommunist and Murkalaska and their ilk, any chance they get to stab the American people in the back they will and with a smile on their face and stolen money in their pockets. God graces us with mercy and forgiveness, we’re not God…
      Et Tu GOP

      Like

  26. “MAGA is upset that Trump is doing the things they voted for, actually” the is the funniest, most desperate political lie of the decade (so far, and it has a lot of stiff competition).

    Like

  27. And speaking of psy-ops, the Dems just released a deepfake audio of Don Jr. praising the Russians. Frankly, I’m surprised they restrained themselves this long.

    Liked by 1 person

  30. Epstein’s’s List …. tomorrow? That’s the “word” anyway. datarepublican should have her programs ready to link it all together.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It seems likemthey keep delaying. I’m not worried about Trump, but I wonder if RFK Jr. Could be on the list. Erick Erickson has been opposing him for moral reasons; he says RFK’s wife killed herself after learning about his many, many affairs. I wish he was elsewhere, but that’s because I don’t trust him on gun control.

      BTW, his running mate was just baptized, and I read she’s been taking flak from tolerant, inclusive Ds because of it.

      Like

      1. IIRC, it was his second wife. Apparently she was having mental problems and maybe was having affairs herself, but there are all different rumors.

        And sommmmebody paid money to have a locksmith open RFK’s safe full of his private stuff, which Wife 2 had agreed never to go through, and stole all his private stuff including loveletters and diaries. And allegedly the somebody was Wife 2, but at this point, who knows.

        So RFK gets home, and his wife had “killed herself” and his safe full of personal stuff was all gone, but I’m sure there was nothing suspicious about all that.

        Like

      3. If Erick Erickson is saying something, decent chance that either he has not thought, or it is a calculated deception.

        He covered QAnon early, and did get it correct to say that QAnon was clearly suspect and untrustworthy.

        However, what he described as the strongest elements discrediting QAnon (the pedophile hypothesis and the satanist hypothesis) were actually the weakest. Pedophile hypothesis is at least plausible when you look into the sex ed at the schools. Satanist, depending on your taxonomic definitions, could mean clear heretics of Christianity, like the socialists and communsits.

        Like

    3. Tomorrow? As in Thursday?

      Naw. Needs to be a Friday, 5 PM EST DC dump. Let the DEM’s really blow up over the weekend!

      Like

  31. Tomorrow they will release some file on Epstein, Hmm, will there be any suicides or resignations tonight?

    Like

        1. Old news. Fox News The Five, or Outnumbered, reported on it earlier this week or late last week, under the topic of how bad school bully’s are.

          Yep. That ship flailed and sank.

          Like

  33. I seem to run into the “true conservatives” that think Trump and Texas Governor Abbott are “RINOs” because reasons… as though the Biden years were my imagination…

    Like

  34. I would remind every fed employee whining about their job right now that DOGE is their *friend*, their very best friend in the whole world.

    Because if DOGE fails we don’t go back to status quo pre-Trump.

    We go forward to a wrecked economy, war internal and external, and the wrath of millions of patient men and women.

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.