On Being An Example

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Lately and for various reasons I’ve been thinking a lot about Europe.

I’m not here to rag on Europe — mostly because I’ve been told that’s just plain mean — but rather to reflect how very fundamentally different they are from us. Mostly because they are. And the differences infuriate them and worry their “leadership” while we mostly aren’t aware there are any differences, take everything Europe says at face value and sometimes think there’s a lot we should learn from them.

Or believe their opinions of us…

Way back, when the US formed, Europeans were both astonished at the appearance of something that was supposedly formed on the lines that Rome had been founded, and the fact we didn’t implode immediately. They waited for the implosion a long time. Then settled back tow ait for us to become an empire instead. Just.Like.The.Romans.

Partly this was based on USSR propaganda, and their telling people we were decadent just like Rome and would fall just like Rome, and because that was the only form of republic that Europe knew of that lasted more than a minute, give or take. So, of course we were the same.

We are not the same as Rome. Mostly our software in the head is very different. Rome was amazing for its time, but the structures our funding fathers copied were the idealized form of Rome. In practice Rome had more in common with the Soviet Union than with us: a heavily militaristic and rapacious entity that actively sent out colonizing forces and which stripped occupied territories of wealth to reward the populace at home.

We’re far more of a trading people, far less interested in colonizing (Americans are terrible imperialists. All they want to do is go home.) We also innovate and grow enough that we can feed ourselves (and a few other people.)

Stop expecting the US to go Imperial. The problems with Rome before the Empire were not even vaguely correlated to our issues.

Like Rome, we tend to assume Europe is just the same as here. After all, a number of us came from there. Sometimes only a few decades ago.

And apparently even those people who acculturated, never reflect on how very different it is.

Part of what makes visiting Europe so difficult for me — besides the fact that my immune system is apparently made of kleenex and air planes are my mortal enemy; and the fact I live in fear that someone over there is going to read what I wrote here and I’ll run afoul of their anti-free-speech laws — is that it’s like having my face sand papered with the differences on the regular.

Deep conversations on TV over whether more homes should be built with the strong implication this is somehow the government’s business, either through direct financing or regulation. This while I sit there scratching my head, going “If people want the house built and have money to build it–” A Sunday morning panel on whether the nation needs more “kindergarten slots”. (I THINK that was while running through Holland? Maybe? That or Spain. Maybe France. The airports all have TVs) And me going “Or, hear me out, people who want their kid in kindergarten when there are no slots, if the need is that great, get together in a group and finance their own kindergarten.”

And always, always, the pervasive appeal to authority, to an extent that makes even our TV talking heads positively “don’t tread on me.”

You see, it’s not, like here, “We brought in this celebrity we tell you it’s an expert” it’s the underlying current of being sure there is an ultimate expert on something, someone who could tell you, off the top of his head and with absolute certainty that the country needs precisely 234 kindergarten slots, and be RIGHT.

There is a vast space in European programing that’s marked “ruler by divine right” goes here. These days they call that person “expert” or “genius” or a million other words, but what they really mean is “ruler by divine right.”

Sure, we have had more deference to experts than we should for the last 100 years, here on this side of the Atlantic, but if you looked beyond the glossy barrage of coordinated, all pervading media, Americans were never 100% on board with it. Tons of reasons, including the fact that our country is so vast and fractured we’re very deeply aware that local conditions might not at all match what … coff rich men north of Richmond see or think they see. But also the experience of colonizing and taming the continent set a certain skeptical “You and whose team of mules” base character to the country. And frankly a lot of us late imports came here because we like that character.

We are — as the meme goes — not the same. We always think it would be best if we could do it locally. We chafe and grumble under the necessity for any vast centralized mandate. And frankly, the market for such mandates, including the spicy mostly peaceful fire setting and murder might have been financed by the government issuing those mandates, once we track where all the dark federal money was going.

Europe? Europe has a hole where a king should be. They resent us, because they blame us for their having got rid of their kings.

Is it true? Well, kind of, kind of. Except the French revolution, while claiming to imitate us was in fact its very own crazy cakes European thing. And they never got the point of the revolution over here, which was LIMITED government. Instead, they try to stick bigger and bigger centers in their concoctions, and call them “republic” like it’s a magic word.

But the hole remains. Europe crawled up from the mire on the idea of strong tribal leaders and tribal affiliations. The Romans destroyed that, but the Romans passed. And strong tribal leaders (even if countries had to be imagined as being all related) persisted, and came back stronger than ever.

Now even the European countries that are technically monarchies aren’t, really. Instead, they’re supposed to be governed by these slick, fast talking people that even they know are bullshitters.

And they keep falling behind.

There is a “king” shaped hole at the heart of their malaise. To sooth themselves into uneasy sleep they convince themselves that someone somewhere is a secret king. “The best authorities.” “This genius” “This person who knows everything.”

What they get, of course, is more of the slick fast talking people. And they keep getting more and more weasel-like.

It’s not holding very well, mind. Better than here, but not very well. However the poor bastages have no first amendment, and the lights keep going out… And the crowds get more restive.

Yes, it’s going to end in tears over there. Would already have ended in tears if they hadn’t exported everyone with a smidge of initiative, and if they hadn’t stopped reproducing under socialism.

But even the wormiest of worms eventually turns.

However ending in tears is exactly what it will do. In all these centuries, they’ve tried to subvert us, forecast our demised, envied us, and hated our guts when we rescued them and financed their socialist dreams.

What they’ve never done, not even a little bit, is understand why we are who we are, and how we tick. They’d never for a second consider our constitution and our bill of rights.

So, it will end in tears.

Unless we can somehow demonstrate once and for all that we are better and beyond their dreams. Unless we can take a step so obvious, so immense they can’t deny it.

Planting the American flag on Mars would just about do it. Planting the American flag on Mars while, once more, performing a revolutionary cleaning of our government, taking us back to our principles? Outstanding. Planting the American flag on Mars, cleaning our government back to our own principles, and creating excellent culture that explains why our way is better and will always be, and how to follow? Perfect.

How fast do you think we can do that? Because it should be fast.

When being an example to the world you have to go big or go home. Or, in this case, go big AND go to Mars.

Let’s go.

208 thoughts on “On Being An Example”

  1. I get a bit more as I watch a bit of Brit TV (though it is only sports tv) and the associated commercials.
    Though this one is sorta cool:

    But I don’t get quite the hit you would. But, seeing some of the comments on a few “EU/Brit reacts to the USA videos, all too many Americans don’t really know what it is to be American, let alone from the EU perspective.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Deep conversations on TV over whether more homes should be built with the strong implication this is somehow the government’s business, either through direct financing or regulation. This while I sit there scratching my head, going “If people want the house built and have money to build it–” A Sunday morning panel on whether the nation needs more “kindergarten slots”. (I THINK that was while running through Holland? Maybe? That or Spain. Maybe France. The airports all have TVs) And me going “Or, hear me out, people who want their kid in kindergarten when there are no slots, if the need is that great, get together in a group and finance their own kindergarten.”

    The housing thing is a problem in the US too thanks to stupid zoning laws and in Dumbocratic strongholds like Caliufornicate required environmental enemas and the like. I suspect the kindergarten thing is too in those bits of the US as well because you probably have to have 3 dozen degrees and pass a hundred safety checks to run a kindergarten.

    True, parts of the US rise above that and Europe fails to. But the US is (was? pre Trump?) teetering on the edge of the same regulatory swamp.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. The problem is that while you are taxed for everyone else’s housing and everyone else’s kindergarten, you may not be able to afford it.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Going to Mars is a grand idea, but unless they can develop a propulsion system that cuts the amount of time to reach Mars, humans will probably not fair well, and killing a bunch of astronauts for foolish reasons usually doesn’t appear good to most people.

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    1. The current propulsion systems are marginal for the job (nuclear power would do better, time to dust off Nerva?). But it would work. The key goal is to make things self-sustaining, unlike all current space activity where every item of supply has to come from Earth and be delivered in a timely fashion. For Mars that isn’t particularly practical.

      Could you actually grow potatoes on Mars?

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      1. I’ve read a few things that suggest the soil may be toxic to Earth plants. If so, using Mars soil will not work, hydroponics would be a good alternative, and the Martian poles the best place to build bases….if the water isn’t toxic too.

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        1. Martian dirt is loaded with perchlorates. They showed that in The Martian; he had to make a watering machine to neutralize the perchlorates. The first one blew up…

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        2. Presumably water could be purified if necessary. That’s something that’s been done for ages. The trick would be figuring what needs to be taken out of the water.

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          1. Unless the water they find is radioactive or something, the low ambient pressure would make a distilling setup trivial.

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    2. I foresee a future video game, “Barsoomian Trail,” with “you have died of space dysentery.

      Tragedy in the midst of great accomplishments, while remaining tragedy, is nevertheless, as American as apple pie–more so since the apple is an invasive species.

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      2. Your propulsion unit did not survive asteroid hit. You are now marooned in space with one carton of Tang and a case of Space Food Bars.

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          1. The Reader adds that you have no water for the powdered Tang and the Space Food bars are a good substitute for concrete after exposure to vacuum.

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        2. If you’ve ever read the “Vorpal Blade” books by John Ringo and Travis Taylor, you might remember the scene where the XO (a physicist) updates the inexperienced Captain (former sub skipper) on what space travel is really like:

          “Captain, if we have a major engineering casualty we cannot correct, we will be as dead as a submarine on the bottom of the Marianas Trench. In fact, we will be deader, since they could actually recover our bodies from there for a funeral.”

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          1. One of the things I liked about the Vorpal Blade books was how physics actually consistently appeared in the stories. The one example that rises to mind was the pauses they had to take when using their FTL drive so they could radiate down their accumulated heat load and not cook everyone on the boat.

            I do not recall Star Trek ever once discussing what the Big-E routinely did with all the heat generated by all the gizmos on board while underway – as far as I recall they only ever touched on thermal tricks in the TNG Yesterday’s Enterprise ep when, in a throwaway line I think by Riker, he said the altered timeline combat-optimized Galaxy class had tons of something chilled down to near absolute zero in what would have been holodecks and schools and other peacetime use spaces in the original timeline, so they could shoot longer at full power.

            Any ship in space is literally vacuum insulated, and of the three heat transfer methods useful down here one the gravity well, two don’t work – no convection or conduction, just radiation – so to get rid of all the heat from all the people and equipment on board you basically need huge radiation panels, shining away like mad in IR, so as to not parboil the crew. Which means we should be looking for monster transient moving IR signatures in near-Sol space if we really want to watch for aliens.

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            1. Dealing with the heat is a detail in Mass Effect, though I don’t think it ever actually influences any of the missions or the plot.

              Ships in the (still in alpha) MMO game Star Citizen all have coolers installed. They’re a swappable component that can be upgraded by players, though so far their effect is somewhat minimal.

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              1. I think the only time they attempted it was when you had to “refuel” in Mass Effect 3…and if you dinked around in the system too long, the Reapers noticed :D

                But otherwise it was a nice bit of worldbuilding, but background only.

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              2. It never affected the plot in ME, but the theory behind the Normandy being “stealthy” was that it could store the heat generated by onboard systems in some sort of heat sink material, up to a point. But after some hours, it would have to stop running “silent” and radiate that heat back out into space or it would cook the crew. That radiant heat/radiation was the primary method of detecting ships in-universe.

                Elite Dangerous does a simple setup of tracking heat as a percentage, which is a main issue if you are using a fuel scoop to scoop hydrogen from a star. You can get too close and damage your ship by overheating. You can also overheat your ship by doing a hyperspace jump when your heat is already high, firing too many energy weapons too fast, or by silent running (same concept as Mass Effect) for too long. You can buy a heat sink launcher that will drop your heat to 0% when you fire it, but the ammo is extremely limited.

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                1. That was how Vorpal Blade handled it, and also a series, “Man of War” (based on Aubrey-Maturin rather than Hornblower) by Honsinger.

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    3. Lotsa folks died on the trails West, but more kept coming anyway and look where we are now.

      Mars* or Bust!

      *Titan, Ceres, Oort cloud . . .

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Getting across the Pacific from Europe.

        Getting across the prairies, mountains, and rivers, from Atlantic to Pacific, or Texas gulf coast.

        Neither were picnics, or easy.

        What is it said? Oregon Trail is paved with graves? Most unmarked. Donner Pass? Most were not because the tribes took exception to the migrants moving through (after all, they weren’t staying … Right?)

        Roanoak aside (missing, but at least known). How many unknown east coast settlements failed before settlements stated succeeding?

        How many ships went missing on the Atlantic? How many died? It wasn’t just the slave ships the sharks followed.

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          1. The Irish, most, came over early 1900’s …. by steam, not sail, and still got here crippled or died.

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  4. We need a goal and the growth. The American project was largely due to growth and opportunity. Had Marx plagiarized the entire section about subsistence wages from Smoth, rather than the part he did, well, Marx’s project would have collapsed to the great benefit of all the rest of us.

    Same with Rome, I think. Sure Rome’s wealth grew through conquest, but the net growth didn’t, the ruling class just expropriated it.

    Other news, gonna be a wild day on Wall Street. Buckle up, buttercup and all that.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. They’re blaming Trump, naturally,  that the market is just too damned expensive and this was a dump waiting to happen simply won’t appear in the financial press.  My intermediate term models are in the bottom quintile and trending lower.  You’re probably better off in cash than holding the S&P right now.  Long term models are at generational lows, but it’s the journey, not the destination when it comes to them.  I don’t do short term.  For myself, I have been buying puts so I’m serene, smug, and if this goes on, insufferable.

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        1. Hubby sells covered calls. Then if the stock drops buys back the calls for less than what it was sold for. Then sells a call again. Some of our stocks have had calls sold so often, the calls paid for the stock. Anything we get for the stock at that point is pure profit. In addition this is all in tax deferred or tax free (Roth) accounts. Former we pay income taxes on eventually.

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      2. Market nervousness about the new tariffs, I imagine. I’ve given up trying to figure out why the stock market does what it does, at this point I’m beginning to think it’s so divorced from economic reality that you can’t really use it as a leading or lagging indicator of anything. And I work in the fintech industry.

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        1. the only reliable indicator of future market performance is inflation, whether in prices, real estate, or the market itself. We have all those things right now and we’re following the increase in the money supply by 18-24 months, just like always. the Austrians school is right about the. Modern business cycle.

          Nihil sub sole novum.

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        2. Interesting take on the tariffs this morning at Coffee and COVID, that DJT is through these tariffs renouncing the basic bargain of the 1944 Bretton Woods structure, where “America agreed to carry the world’s economic burdens in exchange for geopolitical dominance.”

          But as my next door neighbor when I was growing up said to his German postwar bride wife’s observation that, back in Germany, the neighborhood men would lever up, dig out the roots underneath, and reuse that length of sidewalk instead of tearing it up and pouring new concrete, “The war is over.”

          The U.S. has been carrying the load without much reciprocal benefits for 80 years, seeing tariffs by everyone else, but “free trade” forced the. U.S. to mostly recline supine in response. No more.

          It’s a good read.

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          1. That’s very interesting. Breton Woods is when the US dollar became the world’s reserve currency and we’ve benefited from that. The cost was trade imbalances. Triffin’s Dilemma is what it’s caused and really went into effect when Nixon took us off the gold standard. I think this is more a negotiating tool than a long term strategy, but it’ll be interesting to see how it shakes out now that Atlas has twitched.

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          2. Now the next thing Trump needs to do–and I’m not sure he will do, given his own statements and who he’s surrounded himself with–is to blow up the H-1B and OPT programs, cut back on foreign student visas and the visa-to-work pipeline they have, and build those visa programs back up as something that helps Americans and American workers, instead of leaving hundreds of thousands of American STEM workers unemployed while their jobs get taken by visa holders…who then get green cards and only hire foreign visa holders. Just like tariffs, immigration/visa programs need to benefit American workers and the American economy first. But considering what Trump’s said in the past, and the people around him like Elon and Vivek, I’m not sanguine about him doing this.

            The tariffs are a tremendous start but they’re only one step.

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            1. I have previously here made my very, very low opinion of H-1b indentured servitude clear. That system undergirds much of Silicon Valley’s tech landscape, so any reform will set off the tech elite. But it is fundamentally unfair and abusive, binding foreigners into low pay indenture until their green card clock ticks down, while simultaneously discouraging US citizens from pursuing high tech engineering degrees since they will be undercut at every turn by those desperate foreign engineers.

              I have not seen any clever reform proposals, but it is a bad thing and needs reform.

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            2. yeah Elon wants H1B fodder for SpaceX. Trouble is they all seem to come from One Particular Part of the World…..and not all of them are engineers. I haven’t heard about any from Europe or Japan.

              Vivek’s interest is more obviously cultural.

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            3. In the 1950s and 1960s the “brain drain” was a serious issue in Britain, Germany, and parts of Eastern Europe, as scientists and high-level academics emigrated to the US, which was able to pay substantially more money for their services than their home countries, as well as provide a higher standard of living in general.

              On the other hand, there was a big difference between the likes of von Braun, Einstein, Fermi, Teller, Wigner, Erdos, von Karman, Bethe, von Neumann, etc. and the rabble of “migrants” the Fed has prioritized in the decades since.

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      3. … I really need to contact my investment advisor about buying…

        We talked about a bunch of changes to my mutual funds in January, but I haven’t seen and documents from her about actually doing it.

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        1. I don’t give investment advice, but I would caution you to make sure you’re buying the dip, not trying to catch the falling knife. By historic standards, this market is still very expensive and the Biden bubble still hasn’t worked its way through.

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          1. Aren’t we still technically in a bubble that dates back to when the interest rates were artificially set to 0 as a result of the 2008 mess?

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            1. Arguably yes. I think the underlying trade was deflationary — demographics, etc., — and they printed money to cover the gap. Eventually it bubbles up and then the bubble pops.

              the thing with bubbles is to ride them until they’re about to pop, then jump. Easy to say, very hard to do.

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        2. Remember the most important thing in the stock market is not return on investment, but return OF investment.

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      4. At today’s close the S&P is still up 8.9% over the last 12 months. Based on the amount the Brandon administration juiced the economy over that period the Reader thinks the market has a ways to fall yet. The price of gold only moved a little down, so the market is still anticipating some inflation. Fun times indeed.

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        1. Yes. There are all sorts of crowing headlines about Tesla “crashing” after their delivery numbers reflected the factory shutdowns to switch over to the new version of the Model Y, but it’s still up 20% from the post-DOGE low last month. I don’t give any advice, including investment advice, but I would certainly be happy if I bought it in March when it was at $222/sh given today’s close of $265ish.

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          1. if Musk convinces MAGA folks to buy electrics, he may do better in the long run. Especially if the Left reverts to at least grudgingly buying what is arguably the best executed electric.

            Will also be interesting to see if Stellantis/Dodge can sustain “muscle = electric”. I suspect “not”.

            I have no intention of ever owning an EV. If I have to buy a classic ICE to rebuild, will do so.

            eff No.

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            1. Dodge has signaled an electrifying retreat, stating they will be reintroducing Hemi V8s in upcoming vehicle years.

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              1. They are fun to drive. (Grin) and a fill up takes just a few minutes.

                “Vrooom” is visceral.

                If I wanted to hear a whine, I would go listen to some Lefties.

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                1. Some of the electrics from the Stellantis Dodge people have fake vroom sounds introduced via the internal speakers.

                  Yeah, no.

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                  2. Mitsubishi started doing that with some models back in the 1990s. Ford talked about it for some models around 2010-ish, but I’m not sure if they actually implemented it.

                    When I was a child I had a battery-operated “motorcycle noise” thingamabob on my bicycle. Every time I read about one of those “auditory auto enhancement” schemes I remember that.

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            2. “no intention of ever owning an EV“

              –

              Ditto. At best, if forced, we will consider a not plug in hybrid.

              Reasons?

              Local. Do not go somewhere for the time required to fully charge. Not sure can reto-wire a charge station for our 1973 built home. We do not store vehicles in the garage so that isn’t a problem.

              Travel. We just drove about 850 miles (Eugene to Yosemite, via I-5, and hwy 140, back vial hwy 120 and I-5). Two fuel stops, and one meal stop (one of fuel stops), each leg. Meal stop was < one hour. FYI, 13 hours heading south (hubby really hates hwy 99). Coming north was only about 9 hours (it was a Saturday, so …)

              Let’s just say our current two vehicles are not being replaced, ever.

              What is interesting is two of the liberal nieces can’t have electric vehicle, unless they want to park on the street. They have covered garage assigned parking at their apartments. Electric vehicles not allowed.

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              1. I’ve got relatives who were/are in the insurance business, and it’s getting common for homeowner policies to not cover damage from EV related fires. Park it on the street or otherwise away from anything they cover.

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            3. Here in Gavin’s Formerly Golden Now Singed Bear Flag People’s Republic, 2035 is the official year-when-henceforth-no-ICE-cars-shall-be-sold. Yet here we are, with Teslas now declared NSDAP cars, and yet the Model Y is still the best selling car in the world. And from the number of Teslas I see on the road with temporary license plates, they are still being bought here.

              I can hear the leftist brainpans steaming up due to the conflict between the dirt goddess and their Musk Derangement Syndrome from here. Cranial RUDs have likely already begun up in Berkeley. I have bought more popcorn.

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  5. A few reactions from a fellow escapee from Europe (Holland, in my case, when I went to college):

    1. Right on!
    2. As has often been observed, in Europe one doesn’t normally speak of “citizen” but rather of “subject”. And I remember debates in Holland about tax cuts that were not phrased as tax cuts (the people get to keep more money) but rather as “taking away from the Treasury”.
    3. On “it’s the government’s job” — charity exists in Europe but it isn’t a big thing the way it is here, because of a general feeling that taking care of those who are suffering is the job of “the government” and not something that is a concern of ordinary people. It’s a bit different but similar to an observation I saw recently, stating that liberals are more charitable than conservatives. What it turned out to be is that liberals are more giving of other people’s money than conservatives are of their own. But it isn’t charity if you give the money of others; that is called robbery.
    4. J.D. Vance caught a lot of grief for it, but he was right to complain about the lack of free speech in Europe. We saw it just a day or two ago in France, and it happens all the time in Europe. In some countries there may be laws claiming to be for free speech, but if you dig — either in the words or just in the execution — you’ll find that “the right speech” is permitted and other speech is not. Consider for example the concept of a political party being outlawed. Or in Holland, some years ago, when then-queen Beatrix stated in her Christmas speech that “free speech is not permission to give offense”.
    5. Some European countries don’t have a constitution (like England — ignore the “unwritten constitution” thing). Some do but it doesn’t mean anything, like Holland (look up article 120, it amounts to “the constitution is unenforceable”). And others might be more real but I don’t know of any that meaningfully limit the government. Hamilton’s plan (read Madison’s record of the Convention) is alive and well in Europe. The US notion of a government of limited powers seems to be unique. Even though in reality it isn’t very limited — the fact that the Constitution requires it to be once in a while gets applied a little bit, or enforced slightly. Only slightly: if it were taken seriously Trump would simply have closed down the Department of Education and a pile of others, declaring that his oath to protect and defend the Constitution requires him to do so. See “Hope” by Zelman and Smith, it’s a great story.

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  6. One of my last tasks before retiring in disgust over the cancellation of the Constellation program was being part of a team to scrub the then current reference mission to Mars. A few of our findings that should be public knowledge:

    A manned mission with current chemical rocket technology would take an estimated nine heavy lift launches to put enough mass into Earth orbit to assemble a Mars transfer vehicle, six or seven should our research into nuclear fueled vehicles. By heavy lift we mean rockets as powerful as the Saturn 5 that got us to the lunar surface, Or the proposed Aries 5 that never left the drawing board. Estimates at that time were in excess of one billion dollars per launch.

    At closest approach the round trip would take roughly 2.5 years, with the crew spending the transit time in micro G and time on Mars itself in one third the gravity of Earth. The recent oopsie that left two astronauts on ISS for nine months does show that proper PT equipment can greatly reduce damage to crew over long term life in reduced gravity. My jaw dropped when I watched the Bill Hemmer interview with Butch and Suni. Thirteen days after landing they were both walking around, I believe both stated they had done three mile runs, and Suni scampered up a flight of stairs with apparently no difficulties

    Several other technologies that demand major development before risking a crew with them, but from the outside looking in we do not appear to be doing our best work to resolve them.

    In other news I have long believed that President Trump’s biggest mistake in his first term was to believe in recognized “experts” who as turned out were incapable of telling chit from shinola, a term we used back in the day. Best indications are he won’t be fooled like that again.

    And on “peaceful” protests, the folks protesting on January 6 had watched the left’s version with fire bombs, destroyed buildings, and several murders. And had then seen the recent election stolen from them in front of their eyes. Their worst crimes were trespass and perhaps a bit of minor damage to property. The only death was Ashli Babbit, an unarmed veteran murdered by an agent of the US Government. And to be very clear, doesn’t matter whether they can prove enough voter fraud to sway the election, the actions taken by our MSM to suppress and deny information that is believed would have changed a large number of voters’ minds in and of itself is prima facia evidence of that stolen election resulting in four years of rule by a sad, feeble, and by all accounts crooked man, or more precisely those of the deep state who manipulated and controlled him.

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    1. “You stole an election, to empower a doddering idiot, with a dozen puppeteers fighting for control. Thus, ultimately leading to another Trump term. Way to go. Brilliant. You will be legend for decades.”

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  7. “…I live in fear that someone over there is going to read what I wrote here and I’ll run afoul of their anti-free-speech laws,”

    That’s probably a real problem for a LOT of American writers, and anyone who comments on line for that matter. I’m waiting for reports that the U.K. are arresting writers at the airport, or denying them entry into the country. That probably won’t happen until after they arrest J.K. Rowling for her stance on transgender people.

    Americans still have a legacy of kingdoms. Under the Dillon ruling, a large number of states, maybe the majority, do not have home rule for towns and municipalities. They only get to exercise what the state allows them. We’re actually running into that in NH over a couple of bills in our House. One of which would dictate that all towns would be MANDATED to allow building additional homes on single house lots, and another MANDATING smaller lot sizes. Which means local zoning goes out the window, and towns lose the ability to stop or slow urban sprawl and decay. Hopefully my neighbor can sway enough support to kill the bills; he’s running around the state to various townhalls to brief people about what a group of builders is trying to take away from them.

    Considering our Constitution is the first step. Understanding for the reasons that went into each article, both pro and con, is the other; and why reading (and discussing, hopefully not under the auspices of a Globalist-Leftist) both the Federalist and anti-Federalist papers is, or should be, a vital part of the education process for children or young adults in this country.

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    1. “MANDATED to allow building additional homes on single house lots, and another MANDATING smaller lot sizes.”

      –

      Already happened here in Oregon. We’ve had two houses sell on our block. Surprised neither have been torn down to build multi family or split lot into two houses. Granted one is raised quite high off street level with steep driveway.

      Already mentioned the lot, split off off an acre lot that ran between two streets where they are putting two duplexes and one 4 plex (stacked duplexes), with 8 parking spots, about 3 blocks down.

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      1. If you played music in one duplex, the people in all the other duplexes would be able to hear it.

        Imagine the joy when your neighbor decides to argue with his/her ex on the phone at 3 AM.

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        1. Not only that. But from what someone said after the first duplex was closed in (windows/doors installed), there is very small opening windows in each of the bedrooms. No other egress except the front door. Front windows are solid pane.

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          1. Uh… I was under the impression that all bedrooms needed to have an egress-sized window to be legal as a bedroom, for fire safety purposes. That’s a part of building code I can support, given that code restrictions like that are written in blood.

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            2. Agree on the egress requirements.

              Now that the first two sets are closer to being done, there is a backdoor. Can’t tell about the windows (without traversing over our wonderful sticky clay soil to look). Do know whatever is placed on the west side of each building does not have windows. Front facing windows on the units are fixed.

              Liked by 1 person

    2. We explained how this works to Britain a couple of times. Happy to provide a reminder as needed. Can do so with 18th, 19th, 20th, or 21st century exclamation points.

      FAFO

      (Walks away singing “Battle of New Orleans”.)

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    3.  Which means local zoning goes out the window, and towns lose the ability to stop or slow urban sprawl and decay. 

      —

      I’ve chatted with a number of people who beleive that everyone should live in large cities, and rural people should be forced to comply, at gunpoint if necessary.

      I’m not exactly sure why. I’m pretty sure most of those people wouldn’t want me living in the middle of their apartment complex when I fire up the air hammer, angle grinder, or my aluminum-melting furnace. And someday I’ll get around to finishing the big Tesla coil. I don’t know if it would make an iPhone light up like a flourescent tube, but it would be fun to find out.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Heck we irritate the neighbors because our dog must gossip every time she is outside. If the lab to the NE, or mini-poodles to the north, or the doxies to the NE, or the lab to the east, are all outside then she gets very enthusiastic loud about wanting to play and gossip. We do not allow this. She comes in immediately. We stop it when we are out there with her. Then there is the announcements when anything so much as walks past the property, let alone actually comes to the door …. We do not need you to knock. Trust us. We know you are there (cats go hide, the door greeter gets vocal). OTOH the neighbors can’t hear the latter. No more than we hear their large 4-legged alarms. In an apartment or condo complex? The whole building would be in an uproar.

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      2. “I’ve chatted with a number of people who believe that everyone should live in large cities, and rural people should be forced to comply, at gunpoint if necessary.”

        These would be the same people who assume that food comes from the back of the store, I assume.

        (I hate people who think like that. I like to eat! About the only other thing I’ve heard of that is as stupid is the person arguing, forcefully, that farmers were “stealing” the water that cities deserved. See above. I. Like. Food.)

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      3. They’ll enforce noise legislation on you.

        That’s the purpose, of course. They want to have the excuse that you are bothering the neighbors so they can control you.

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    2. Alas, yes. They are latching onto G-d-shaped things and not realizing what it is they have found. Islamism (especially women), environmental movements, Marxism in “we’ll get it right this time” versions …

      Liked by 1 person

  9. I’ve always been convinced that the reason for Euro resentment of Americans is that the ones who stayed in Europe were glad that the nonconformists, the eccentrics, the ambitious (and the outright nuts) all emigrated, and left them in peace in Old Europe – and they all happily concluded that their weird relatives would go off and die in poverty in the wilderness of America. It was kind of like that odd-ball cousin whom everyone despaired of, who went off to California as a hippy and everyone confidently expected that they would never hear from him again.

    Only the weird hippy cousin invested in tech, turned out to be pretty shrewd and prosperous, and comes back to visit driving his high-end car, and showing off his gorgeous wife and happy children … while everyone else grinds their teeth.

    It’s the same with the Euros – they thought they would be well-rid of us and we would all just die off, killed by Indians, or earthquakes, but instead, we thrived and got rich and happy, and they cannot stand that. (I put this into one of my books, where the immigrant German family comes back to visit the village they came from, and the relatives who expected them to come crawling back, asking for alms … and the one character realizes that their own success in America just absolutely fries the relatives, and he unloads on them with a long rant…)

    Liked by 1 person

    2. IIRC, Trump’s great-grandfather Friedrich/Frederick went home to visit the village with his wife Elizabeth Christ (he had married the girl from next door, and she was pushing for them to go home and stay), and then had to leave.

      Apparently the Bavarian government was unhappy, because he left for America when he was still too young to be drafted, and came back at age 35, when he was too old to be drafted. They were also mad that he hadn’t filled out all the paperwork to become an immigrant, because obviously all teenagers are great at paperwork. So as revenge, they wouldn’t let him get his citizenship back, even though he would have obviously been a prosperous addition to Bavaria. He and his wife went back to America.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. That reminds me.

          I read (and enjoyed) that series via KU but never purchased it.

          I just purchased it. 😉

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          1. Thank you! And if you like, do a review! (And if you really like it, and get engaged in the whole story, most of my other historical novels are extensions of the Trilogy. Separate novels, new characters, but all sort of linked.)

            Liked by 1 person

  10. One thing about the US not being a colonizing nation. We do not do colonies. We do settlements. We are a settling country that expands by growing, establishing settlements where we live. Those settlements are not colonies to be exploited. They are part of the US, with territories admitted as states (and full members of the community) when the inhabitants desire statehood. Even overseas territories like Alaska and Hawaii.

    France sort of / kind of did this with Algiers without bothering to assimilate the inhabitants and fell on their face. They did succeed with some of their American colonies, but never tried to do it elsewhere in Africa or Asia.

    Britain never did this, although anyone from their colonies had full rights of British citizens, including voting – but only when they were in Britain. They never extended Parliament to seats in the colonies.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. “Britain never did this, although anyone from their colonies had full rights of British citizens, including voting – but only when they were in Britain. They never extended Parliament to seats in the colonies.”

      Which was one of the complaints that kicked off the War for Independence: “Look, give us a seat in Parliament -”

      “No.”

      “But we’re Englishmen, and we really need this, and if we had a seat -”

      “We said no, you uppity, snot-nosed Colonials.”

      “….”

      “….”

      “Okay, then. Here’s our resignation, signed, sealed, and delivered.”

      “We’re not even going to open that.”

      “Fine. It’s war then.”

      “Oh, the injustice of it all! Witness how little they respect our king!”

      “You just made it clear he has no power – you hold it all. Hang any respect for a king whose power is controlled by Parliament – draw, you mangy curs….”

      Liked by 5 people

        2. #metoo

          Although King George actually was in charge – he had bought a majority in Parliament out of his slush funds and made sure they stayed bought. We poor Colonials didn’t understand George’s version of the steal.

          Liked by 1 person

      3. (Singing loudly) “They ran through the bushes and they ran through the brambles. They ran through the thicket where a rabbit couldn’t go. They ran so fast the hounds couldn’t catch them, down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.”

        Liked by 1 person

        1. (Joins the loud singing) “Old Hickory said we could take ’em by surprise
          If we didn’t fire our muskets ’til we looked ’em in the eye,
          We held our fire ’til we saw their faces well
          Then we opened up our squirrel guns and really gave them – well…”

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          1. We fired our cannon till the barrel melted down
            So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round
            We filled his head with cannonballs and powered his behind
            And when we touched the powder off the gator lost his mind

            Liked by 2 people

              1. When I was quite young, we didn’t have a HiFi system (Stereo? You jest!), but did have a portable record player. We had a 45 rpm record of Johnny Horton’s “Sink the Bismarck”, and if distant memory serves, “Battle of New Orleans” was on the B side.

                Played that record a lot.

                Liked by 1 person

        2. One of the downsides to calling it the “Gulf of America” is all the songs that won’t rhyme or scan…. 🎶😇🎶😏

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      4. No one was represented by a local seat in Parliament. All Britons who could vote (15% of the male population in 1770, IIRC) elected a member from their district, but each member represented the country at large. It was called virtual representation, and so colonists were represented in the same way as people living in Great Britain.

        Even after the passing of the Stamp Act and later taxes, colonists would have paid far, far less in excise than did English-in-England, so they had nothing to complain about.

        At least, that was the argument and the theory.

        Liked by 1 person

        2. Interesting, though, how those members-at-large who never had to worry about gaining votes from those American colonists so often forgot to represent their interests in Parliament…

          Back when old Gaius Iulius expanded the Roman Senate and added all those new Senators from the new province of Gaul, he was being very clever indeed.

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    2. I once noted in a largely British forum that if the Colonists had just been granted seats in Parliament, it likely would have taken the wind out of the independence movement. They countered by noting that Britain didn’t give seats to colonies.

      And then someone pointed out the absurdity of that situation where the American colonies were concerned by noting that by 1820, New York was the biggest English-speaking city in the world…

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Churchill talked about a similar situation with South Africa in his history of WWII, relating a conversation with Jan Smuts on that exact subject.

        Smuts wound up stuck in England for a while when German intercepts on his return seemed likely, so Churchill stuck him in Parliament as a member-at-large. I think the intent was to show Smuts that his insights were valuable, but it looks like it just rubbed SA’s lack of representation in his face. In any case, Smuts wasn’t nearly as pro-British after returning home.

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    3. One thing about the US not being a colonizing nation. We do not do colonies. We do settlements. We are a settling country that expands by growing, establishing settlements where we live. Those settlements are not colonies to be exploited. They are part of the US, with territories admitted as states (and full members of the community) when the inhabitants desire statehood. Even overseas territories like Alaska and Hawaii

      I spoke last spring with a Liberian man, now a chaplain in the US Army Reserve and living stateside, about the history of his homeland. It’s an interesting counterpoint to the Decolonialism drumbeat of the 20th c.

      BLUF: Apparently we (the US as we were in the 1870s or so) just dropped off a bunch of ex-slaves back in Africa, who’d never known anything BUT slavery, and left them to fend for themselves. Every other country in that part of Africa is an ex-colony of somewhere, and every other country is doing better, these 150-ish years later, for the benefits of colonial laws, structures, and infrastructure that their former conquerors left behind.

      But we’d only JUST shaken off our own colonizers a century before and refused to Have Colonies ourselves, so the one legitimate colony we had, we neglected from day one instead of tending to it and developing it, and thus invented the first Post-Colonial Third-world African Shit-hole.

      More or less.

      Liked by 1 person

    4. One thing that the American Revolution (and a whole lotta science fiction) has taught me is that the only way to have a colony is to have an exit strategy—that is, once certain conditions are met, hey presto! You’re independent now, would you like favored nation trading status?

      Because from all I’ve read—and those SF books were based off of good old history, so they have a lot of weight to them—you can’t do generational exploitation from a distance and expect things to end well. Even penal colonies eventually become Australia. You either have to have it be the same nation in multiple locations, with all the rights and privileges thereof, or a parent-kid association of “we’ll get you going and then it will be up to you.” Colonies try to be something else, maybe owner-pet, and that doesn’t play well over time.

      Liked by 1 person

  11. And of course, the Lefties believe in “Evil Master Minds” who prevent their Glorious Plans from being accepted by the peons.

    IE They believe that the peons would go along with their plans except for the “Evil Master Minds”.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Mars is a stepping stone. And not necessarily a good one; but hey, you play with the cards you’re dealt. We’ll have to wait until we go extra-Solar System before we can play with a brand new deck.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. It’s the only planet in our solar system where we can realistically practice developing the techniques we’ll need when a good world presents itself.

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      2. Personally I like Ceres as a target past the Moon. Mars has only a few near term advantages past the really very thin atmosphere for aerobraking, and a fair number of downsides. Getting big stuff on the surface of Ceres should be easier, all of the stuff developed for lunar work should work, and when you have to dig hab space anyway why not do it where there is identified water ice at the bottom of a very modest gravity well?

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    2. I’m pessimistic about what effects planting a US flag on Mars would have. We did plant several US flags on the Moon, after all.

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      1. Johnson killed the extended lunar exploration program hardware development before Nixon cancelled the last three Apollo missions, for which the hardware had already been built (that’s why there are Saturn V full stacks around the country at various museums – they used most of one built stack to launch Skylab, but thresh became sad monuments to what could have been), but the real lunar program killer was Senator Fritz Mondale.

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              1. In Ringo’s Substack he just said in passing there would be no more Empire of Man books because it was Weber’s universe and he was done.

                Maybe time to consider commenting on David’s website? I’d much rather reas the further adventures of Prince (oops, Emperor) Roger and Companions to the early history of the House of Murphy or even fill-ins to the Honorverse.

                Liked by 1 person

                1. Then again, EOM is -done-. Nice ending, and not sh!++ed up trying to milk it for another book.

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  13. About the only republic besides Rome’s that Europe saw for a thousand years was the Republic of Venice, run by the Doge. ( :snickers, waits for others to stop doing the same before continuing: ) It was a merchant city, had a very good fleet, and was useful to the greater European powers in various fights.

    It was also small and couldn’t really show them up after a point.

    Then we come along and we (a) don’t fall apart, (b) keep getting bigger, (c) are a merchant nation bigger and more powerful than Venice so we can’t be bought or pushed around, (d) we don’t stop getting bigger, more powerful, and more wealthy, and (e) their power is shattered by internal strife due to longtime “family disputes” and the absolute insanity unleashed by the French Revolution/Enlightenment (as opposed to the much nicer and healthier Scottish Enlightenment). We’re powerful enough to come in and stop them from killing each other not once, but twice. We’re powerful enough to subdue Asia, which they never managed with all their colonies.

    We are powerful enough to be what Venice never was or could be, but we are on par with Rome when it comes to power. We just have the Venetian mindset of “no, we like it here, thanks. If there’s free land we’ll settle it but we really don’t do the colony thing. Trade?”

    At no point in that mindset can Europe predict us, nor can they stop us if we ever did decide to rule the world. The fact that we don’t want to does not assure them, because since they have spent millennia trying to be Rome, why wouldn’t a nation with all Rome’s power try to imitate the Empire? “Thanks, no, been part of an empire once, we would really rather not run one” does nothing to assuage their fears. They know what they would do with our power.

    Which probably scares them and makes them more envious than anything else. All that power, and we’re interested in going to the moon or Mars, when the whole Earth could be ours? They don’t have a settler mindset, they have an Imperial mindset. So they look at us, at what we don’t do, and they hate us for not doing what they would.

    Sorry-not-sorry, but we’re the Frontier People. We like expanding over the horizon. Earth’s great, but what about what’s out there? Maybe it’s at least as good? What can we find over the lip of gravity, or even the Solar System? To paraphrase the Tarzan song, I wanna know, so let’s go!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Part of America’s strength is how diffused and scattered the poles of power are. They’re not entirely concentrated in fixed royalty-nobility. That’s not to say we don’t have a core group of semi-hereditary elitists, but we’re not so in bred, nor ultra exclusive as say, Europe.

      Liked by 2 people

  14. “Europe has a hole where a king should be.”
    That nails it, except I would change it slightly, “Europe has a hole where a king used to be.”

    Milei in Argentina has shown the way back to freedom and what freedom unleashes, but Argentina is not big enough. If America can unravel the bureaucracy that has been funding riots, vandalism, and cultural rot with our tax dollars, it will truly serve as an example to the world. In the same way Reagan outspent the USSR rather than funded it, if we truly unleash free enterprise again, the world will have to adapt or wither.

    Liked by 3 people

  15. Just noting that we aren’t a unified culture. I recommend _Albion’s Seed_, or at least this book review: https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/04/27/book-review-albions-seed/

    We aren’t an empire, but we have provided many of the benefits of an empire. That’s ending.

    One reason it ended, in my opinion, is that the Biden administration, and their ilk, disavowed pragmatism. I cannot explain why they treated the hurricane victims in Appalachia with such neglect and disdain. The Borderers (read the sources above) are at the heart of our armed forces. Mistreating our equivalent of the Roman legions was…a sign of the end of an era.

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    1. As a citizen of Appalachia, I can explain it. Rather simply: They f*ckin’ hate us.

      Appalachia has a long, strong history of independence. Prohibition Era, when secret saloons abounded, was what made many of us richer. There was copper stills in every little holler from Georgia to Maine. Appalachians volunteered in large numbers for every war America had had a finger in. We’ve been considered throwbacks, hillbillies, uncultured and simple with some reason, but what we’ve never ever been is easily governable.

      Appalachia has suffered. Drugs funneled into the trailer parks harmed our children. Gangs recruited aggressively along the I81 corridor for decades. Before even that, many were barred from voting and owning property because of our mixed heritage. We’ve suffered petty tyrants and obnoxious rules for years. And the cold indifference of the government is nothing new to us that have our roots sunk deep in these little mountains.

      We’ve voted red for a long, long time. Mostly because the R party is less of a corrupt, controlling tyrant than the other ones, but we regard politicians almost always as corrupt fraedsters and hold our nose to vote for the one that takes just a smidge less of our money and freedom.

      They hate us because we do not conform. Appalachia has long been a land where the crazy individualists hole up. We don’t often ask for help, being that we’d rather do it our own damn selves. When the hurricane happened, Appalachia responded. We went around, over and under law and authority to get what was needed where it was needed most. We took in friends, family, and bloody strangers as kith and kin. We spat on authority that tried to block us from aiding those in need.

      That very defiance of “authority,” the kind of thing we don’t recognize as “above” even one of us is why they hate us, and want us punished or destroyed. They want to be obeyed, and more than that, served and revered as authority figures. To us, they’re the corrupt and disobedient help that was hired to work on our behalf. That’s the attitude they don’t want to see spread.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Appalachia – Why FEMA needs to be gutted then destroyed. Florida and LA fires FEMA was bad, well FEMA is always bad. But nothing showed how bad FEMA is than how FEMA obstructed those getting things done on the ground and in the air in Appalachia.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. “It will take nine months to rebuild a road to that stranded town.”

          (Bunch of mine workers put in a road in three days.)

          “That road isn’t safe! You can’t use it! We’ve blocked it.”

          (mine workers look at the XXXL earthmovers using the road, versus tiny superduty pickups) ” what is ‘blocked’?”

          “

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      2. Appalachia in a nutshell: “Here now, varlet — who is your master?”

        Appalachian (and most other real Americans into the bargain): “That sumbitch ain’t never been born!” (h/t: Kevin Baker)

        Drugs were funneled into the trailer parks, yes, and someone made sure there were bright klieg lights on that phenomenon, for our “entertainment and edification.” Looking back — and shame on me for not catching onto it sooner — I suspect it came from much the same source for much the same reasons as the sudden wave of breathless articles warning of “chav/yob” culture out of Fleet Street in the mid-to-late ‘Oughties. “Who cares about them oiks anyway — look how they act!”

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      1. It’s game theory in action. narrow the numbers necessary for you to hold power, then pay them enough to keep them sweet. That’s wh6 the dems like block votes so much and why any defection of e.g., Black voters is an existential risk to them. if black voters stop voting as a monolithic block, then the vig has to be spread wider. bad for business that.

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    4. Why did they treat the hurricane victims in Appalachia with such neglect and disdain?

      Because some of their powerful patrons wanted the land currently occupied by the peones at bargain-basement prices (for the lithium rights and probably other reasons).

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      1. For most of the Left, the hate isn’t that rational. Assuming a lack of extermination, they want the rural folks relocated to the cities to live carefully guided and childless lives of toil.

        There isn’t much practical difference between “15 minute cities” and KZ. The end result is rule by socialism and extinction of opposition.

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        1. All that open space means they can’t use the justification that you’re a nuisance to the neighbors.

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  16. “…Founding fathers copied were the idealized form of Rome. In practice Rome had more in common with the Soviet Union than with us: a heavily militaristic and rapacious entity that actively sent out colonizing forces and which stripped occupied territories of wealth to reward the populace at home.”

    We became that as soon as the Louisiana Purchase was signed. And then the march to the Pacific. And Alaska. Hawaii. Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, North Mariana Islands, Samoa. Temporarily the Philippines. And probably more I’m forgetting. And no, it isn’t liberal whining to say so. It’s Liberal whining to say it was “bad”. When in fact it was good.

    No, America has almost ALWAYS been like that. The difference between us and the USSR was a) the way we handled our economy and related to that, b) the fact the USSR did NOT reward the people at home, except the party elite. THAT is where the Constitution and Bill of Rights separates us from them. Where we were more the idealized version of Rome, rather than the actual.

    You said before that you don’t think Islam will conquer the west. I wonder if you still think so, since you admit it almost certainly end in tears.

    I still hold hope for Poland and Hungary. Maybe not in that order. Until very recently, I was confident that the UK and France could be saved. I no longer think so. No matter when we plant a Flag on Mars.

    Rather, i think the remaining Europeans outside of Hungary and Poland who have a clue should *come here*. For pretty much the same reasons white South Africans are.

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    1. I think Sarah means “It would be sad if the West had to kill off a lot of terrorists doing jihad, as opposed to peaceful conversion into useful citizens who believe in Christianity, Judaism, atheism, etc.”

      There is more conversion going on than anyone could have expected, but the process is probably not yet fast enough to prevent blood and tears being shed in mass quantities.

      I feel like a preference cascade is coming, however.

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        1. The Muslim world is panicking over the “avalanche of apostasy.” Iran has had to close down a ton of mosques in the last few years, because the young people just don’t go. Other Muslim countries are also complaining about this.

          Many Muslims are getting converted by Internet videos, or by earnestly trying to learn more about Islam and finding out unsavory things they didn’t expect.

          Some of them have visions or dreams commanding them to become Christians.

          And a lot of them do end up going to church, even if they have to do it secretly or after going overseas.

          Every so often there are conversions to Judaism, the LDS, etc. And there are a lot of ex-Muslim atheists, although they have to be very careful.

          There are conversions the other way, of course. A lot of them happen in order to get married (male or female), or while in prison (mostly male).

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          1. This is the first I’ve heard of this, while evidence of them taking over the West is much more prevalent. It would be welcome news, to be sure, but at best it seems merely to maintain an equilibrium, rather than a collapse.

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            1. I can easily believe that the press simply refuses to talk about any sort of conversions happening away from Islam. I’m not saying whether or not it’s happening. But I’m fairly confident that if it is happening, The Powers That Be will work overtime to bury it.

              They HATE Christianity, even though Western Culture’s descent from it is probably the only thing that’s keeping them from being hung in the square (or worse).

              Instead, let’s imagine a world based off of Confucianism. Where if an official is dismissed by the Emperor (or whomever the chief executive of the government is), that official is expected to go home and commit suicide.

              How seriously was that taken? The individual known to posterity as The Grand Historian was an official in the Han court, who was dismissed by the Emperor. He ended up emasculating himself, as becoming a Eunuch was the only Confucian-approved way to avoid suicide, and he felt a strong need to finish the history of China that he was writing (and good thing he did, too, as it’s the only surviving text that covers the previous – Qin -dynasty).

              Liked by 1 person

              1. It’s always a shock to me reading when an author suddenly goes off on an anti-Christian rant that has little or nothing to do with the subject matter.

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                1. Devil May Cry is a video game (that I haven’t played) about a guy (or a small team, depending on the game) who kills evil demons.

                  Netflix recently released the first episode of its new Devil May Cry animated series, which is supposedly based off of the game. Apparently, in the series the US military invades Hell, where it slaughters innocent demons.

                  There’s also the Castlevania animated series on Netflix. That series also gets its name from a popular video game series, this one about killing evil vampires, apparently often with assistance from the Christian church. In the series, the vampires are scared of crosses because they don’t like right angles, and the handful of Christian characters are evil.

                  Yup, they hate Christianity.

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            2. Their birth rates are collapsing. Yes, I know they’re sending tons of people to the west, but that’s because they’re CRAP at feeding/caring for their own young, not that they have too many.
              Their women discovered the rhythm method on the internet and plummeted birth rates.
              Look, I’ll give you a gauge. With Islam as with the Dems, they yell loudest and act more feral when they’re losing/scared.

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              1. Our birth rates are collapsing too, as Musk keeps pointing out. Which does not concern me as much as it might, a bounce back is inevitable, after a dip in the population. (I am not a blackpiller. My father was, though of the environmentalist variety. But I digress.) The question is how will the world be reshaped thereby. And both Musk and Devon Eriksen have expressed concern on this point for space exploration; I’m sure no one would accuse either of them of being blackpillers.

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                1. recheck

                  Coastal/Blue usa is doomlooping.

                  Along the 100th meridian, it’s 3+ and booming economy.

                  Didn’t anyone ask “why so urgent” to flood us with newcomers, versus the prior “slow and steady – don’t wake them up”.

                  Liked by 1 person

            1. I have a Muslim friend who moved with her family to the US from Canada when they realized that their mosque was trying to radicalize them. (She had been raised in both countries, including L.A. for her teenaged years.) I would say that yes, she has the American virus.

              Liked by 1 person

    2. Use your favorite non-gurgle search engine (because Alphabet sucks) on the term “third Rome” – there is a philosophy that Moscow is the rightful and proper successor after Constantinople to Rome. There are religious aspects as well via Orthodox Christian sects. Plus, they act Roman.

      If the U.S. acted Roman, there would not be a Europe, just a trans-Atlantic Eastern United States, fully subdued and incorporated (see Gaul), as well as the trans-Pacific US states of the Phillipines, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, as well as coastal China if not the whole thing.

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      1. Yes, I had heard that theory before. That doesn’t change the fact that, as Hoyt herself admits, the US was Rome based from the start. But more the Republic, rather than the Empire, and an idealized version thereof. (The Roman Republic was also Imperial in nature to anyone outside of it, and indeed that was how it was created, but that’s a story for another time.)

        The US did and does act Roman. What do you think all those military bases in Europe are? They have been subdued for a long time. We did control the Phillipines for a time. And of course, Japan and South Korea are definitely under our hegemon. We set up the current Japanese government after World War 2 directly, and South Korea after the Korean war less so.

        Even Trump is merely a variation on this formula, wanting to do more of it locally (Greenland) and less around the world.

        You can argue that the USSR was/Russia is more Roman Empire than us. But not that we aren’t at all.

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        1. Not sure I know of any Roman bases maintained in other “countries” not under direct rule. Gaul: Roman province. Egypt: Roman province. Britannia: Roman province. When they pushed as far as the middle of modern Iraq they ruled directly. There were vassal kingdoms between Roman and Persian territories, but as far as I know they didn’t get garrisons and bases, so I’m not seeing why Ramstein Air Base makes us Imperial Rome.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. It makes us like Imperial Rome, as I said. Were we not, those bases would not be there. You can argue degree, that’s fine. But Imperial it is.

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          2. It doesn’t They keep madly trying to pound the round peg into the square hole. We’re soon going to hit “romans had water pipes, we have water pipes.”
            There is no sense to it except the SovUnion said we were Rome in the decadence and the black pillers want it to be true.
            Heaven knows why.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Yep. “They had gladiatorial games, we have professional football.” Because adults playing a children’s game is just like getting all stabby and spilling the blood of slaves on the sands in front of a cheering crowd.

              And to the original point, by setting aside all the vast innumerable differences, it boils down to “Imperial Rome had foreign relations, and so do we!”

              The Soviet propaganda said we were decadent late western empire Rome and would thus collapse… and then the USSR collapsed. But all that went memetic, and took root.

              I too am not sure what the blackpill side gets from “Yes we are too Rome!”

              Liked by 1 person

              1. WPDE aside: Anyone else getting a bug on the browser comment entry on iPad where if you click back in your in-progress text in some instances, it drops away the popup keyboard and then won’t bring it back?

                Liked by 1 person

                  1. From the description, this doesn’t sound like the text that was typed is disappearing (which is the pattern we’ve been seeing); instead, it sounds like the iPad he’s working with has decided to either turn off the keyboard, or is losing focus (thus out of input mode where the keyboard would be active and displayed) and then refusing to re-enable when the cursor comes to rest.

                    I’ve seen something similar, where I’ve replied via e-mail and have to specifically click inside the comment text field before the toolbar turns on. That’s on a PC or an Android.

                    WPDE.

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              2. they get to imagine an inevitable collapse they cannot produce.

                And Trump comes along and shows how easy it is to wreck 100 years of Proggy stuff. Then he gets a second term to focus on the takedown.

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            2. I acknowledged the similarities of Empire, which are true. In my original post I enumerated them; Louisiana Purchase, conquest and purchase of Mexican territory, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Virgin islands, Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, North Mariana Islands. And we–and the entire West– are descendant form them.

              There was no black pill, either. A black pill would say we had no chance of survival, which I did not say.

              I also acknowledged the differences between us and the Soviets; that a) the way we handled our economy and related to that, b) the fact the USSR did NOT reward the people at home, except the party elite. THAT is where the Constitution and Bill of Rights separates us from them. Where we were more the idealized version of Rome, rather than the actual, which you yourself admitted to.

              Really, I don’t see why my parallels draw such an vigorous reaction. They are historical observations, no more radical than your own.

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              1. To my reading it was always a USSR priority to spare the urban elites in basically the Moscow-Leningrad axis the hardships imposed on the rest of the “Union”, with the majority of any hardships directed upon the non-ethnic-Russian parts thereof.

                Apparently that is still the case, as many of the gymnastics Vlad has been going through to keep getting more warm bodies for the formerly-Red-Army are intended to avoid imposing a general wartime draft that conscripts the military age males from the urban Moscow-St. Petersburg core, thus upsetting a critical constituency, in a pattern that extends intact from the time of the Tsars rule.

                Again, similar to Roman practices, keeping the Roman city hoi polloi pacified being an acknowledged Necessary Thing.

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  17. You forgot ‘serious deep conversations on TV about which part of the government should tell the farmers what to produce and how much’ that was seen just recently.

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  18. Europe has a long history of people being “subjects” of the ruler of the state, and thus the state. The USA was founded precisely on the premise that the people are citizens who are the rulers who tell government what to do, not subjects, and that we are citizens. Thus, rights are inherent in individuals and are not grants of beneficence from The State.

    The left of course hates this, and wishes we were subjects, with themselves the rulers, because “they know what is best”. Simply, it is a claim of rule by divine right that is tailored for their belief in The State itself as the deity they worship.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. Reminder that the Democratic Party is a conspirator in the orchestration of violence against political opponents of the Democratic Party.:

    https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2025/04/03/well-lookie-here-congresswoman-and-harvard-prof-are-caught-planning-massive-anti-trump-riots-n4938565

    The same people who pay for Democratic Party campaigns, spread their propaganda, and indoctrinate students, are the same ones who finance, plan, and orchestrate riots and other violence that is meant to further the Democratic Party’s quest for power,.

    The historical parallels speak for themselves including the violence that targets Jews.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. …in other news, water is wet and fish piss in it.

      The Democrat party has been sponsoring violence against their political opponents since the 1850s when it was formed to support slavery.

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      1. Jackson, 1830s.

        The modern Republican party formed in 1850 as an Abolition party.

        And we won’t discuss consequences of that here, per our Hostess.

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  20. Re: the circle of pork/vig — It turns out that, in all his time of supporting Democrats and giving them money… Bill Maher was never invited to the White House. Not even for a big event with hundreds of guests. Not by Clinton or Obama or Biden.

    And then Trump invited Maher to the White House… for a small private dinner, with only two or three other guests.

    And Maher is from NYC, where respect is like currency. All that work he did, and his enemy Trump is the one who shows him respect? How would that make you feel?

    Trump is the kind of guy who sees those fissures, that lack of care. And even if it doesn’t turn Maher over to his side (which I doubt he expects), he’s the kind of guy who doesn’t mind showing respect by little social gestures.

    While, for some reason, the unpragmatic modern Left has deep difficulty with this. It doesn’t want anyone to feel respected securely.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Kid Rock was at the dinner. And he says that Bill Maher brought a printout list of all the insults that Trump ever said about him, and showed it to Trump.

      And Trump asked to see it, and then signed it.

      And Maher laughed.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Trump should probably do the same with John Stewart. Make the rule beforehand no camera, no recording, etc…, so that there’s no expectation that it will be subject to the shenanigans Stewart used to pull on The Daily Show. Just dinner between the two men and a few other guests, and a chance to chat privately off the record.

      Maher has been – and Stewart has recently started – asking legitimate questions about what the Dems have been doing. Neither man is likely to become even a moderate anytime soon. But Stewart has been running bits where he’s basically flabbergasted about how much has been spent on the bureaucracy. Both men have pull with the “normies” on the left, and anything that makes them even the slightest bit more sympathetic to Trump’s goals (if not Trump himself) will likely pay dividends.

      And yeah, unbelievable that no one in a previous Dem administration ever thought to invite Maher to a White House event. As I noted, the guy commands a high degree of respect among the “normies” on the left. I guess they never really viewed Maher as being part of their club. And now a lot of them probably want to cancel him for some of the questions he’s been asking the last couple of years.

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    3. Maher may not *want* to turn, and I trust him no further than I can spit. But it might cause *them* to struggle session him/kick him out.

      This pattern is not new; Rogan, RFK Jr, Gabbard, Musk….and not least, Trump himself.

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      1. Of those listed, note how in each case, Trump showed some respect and the Left responded with savage hate. Net result was new “bipartisan” allies, and the net neutralization of others.

        The remainder get crazier and more irrational.

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    1. Ooooooohhh yeah. I saw a book about that in the regional B&N last week. No, nopity nope, thank you for playing, but no. Spanish supremacy + racism =/= climate disaster in the Caribbean and thus the planet.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Well, you see, Tucker, the Aztec Triple Alliance was keeping the sun alive with ceremonial behavior.

        When the Spanish stopped that, the sun started dying.

        In all serious frankness, I would think that everyone has been metaphorically comparing the AGW theorists with the ATA ceremonialists for something like twenty years.

        Spanish itself may be bad for the planet, perhaps it could make the sun explode. (This was sarcasm.) I bet that every time someone says ‘Taco’, the planet inches a step further towards inexorable destruction. (Sarcasm again.)

        There are a lot of scholars in academia who simply should not be making me look like a competent specialist in their area in comparison.

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        1. I’ve had people tell me on X – seemingly without a trace of sarcasm, irony, or similar things – that Christianity was just as violent and bloody as the Aztecs.

          /facepalm

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  22. Some folks highest purpose is to serve as a bad example for the edification of others.

    Try hard not to be one.

    (best advice ever from a Drill Sergeant)

    Liked by 1 person

  24. Two tales:

    One, we had a number of German Au Pairs when our children were young. One of them watching the news with us one night was astounded by a story of a 40ish mother of two who went to law school and became a lawyer.

    “Can she really do that here?” she asked. Why, yes we explained. If you have the desire to find a different path in life, and the money to finance the effort, you can do it. America is where people come to reinvent themselves, and Americans do it all the time. She was appalled as she was borderline in her pre-secondary school testing in Germany and her teachers talked her into going to the secondary school that prepared you for a clerical career, not the gymnasium that prepared you for college. She took their advice and as a result she could never go to university.

    Scroll ahead a few years, I am reading in the family room and the phone rings. My wife comes in and says its M_ from Germany and she wants to talk to you. Turns out, vacationing in Hamburg with an old friend, she read a want add for a position in an investment company. This caught her eye as I worked for one in Boston, Massachusetts, and she both loved Boston and thought it was an interesting industry.

    So, asked for an interview and went in – only to find the lobby decorated with pictures of Boston Harbor – it was a Boston based company. Her visceral reaction was “I want this job!”

    So, they offered her the job and she went home to her little town in Schleswig-Holstein only to find that her friends and family were appalled – you have a job for life here – why would you run away to Hamburg etc. etc.

    So, she said, what to your think? I said “Take the job.”

    But why she asked. “Well,” I said, “if you take it and it does not work out, so what. You will have learned something. But, if you do not take it, you will spend the rest of your life wondering if you should have.”

    “You’re just saying that because you are an American!” she exclaimed.

    “Yes”, I said, “and you called the one person on this planet that you knew would tell you what you wanted to hear.”

    Silence for a moment then: “You’re right.” She took the job.

    Story two: My job took me to Luxembourg at least twice a year for board meetings – I was the risk officer for our Lux funds. After each meeting, there was a big dinner for us and many of our local vendors. At one of these dinners I was at a table with among others the head of our legal department and a very senior woman from our Lux custodian bank. Our general counsel was a nice guy but a flaming liberal and I am a libertarian. He decided to bring up the topic of gun control. So, we went at it in a very civil debate, me being a defender of the Second Amendment – to the max.

    At one point, he turned to our European colleagues and said, “You know, Mark is a very intelligent man, but he is insane.” As the dinner broke up, I was approached by the woman from our custodian and she thanked me for one of the most fascinating discussions she had ever listened to. I remarked that they probably did not have similar debates in Europe. “Oh, no” she replied. I told her the story about Samuel Cold who invented one of the first effective and affordable revolvers and the old 19th Century saying in America: “God created man, but Samuel Cold made them equal.” She laughed and laughed all the way out of the room. Probably did not convince her, but she left with a new appreciation of American culture.

    Regards

    Mark

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  25. Sometimes I think I’m the only person on the planet who doesn’t care what the EU thinks or does. To me, it’s a rabble of 3rd world nations LARPing as 1st world after being rebuilt by the US thanks to the squabbles that erupt into continent-scale wars every 50 years. Their opinions don’t matter to me, and frankly they’re not qualified to lecture the US on anything.

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    1. Most Americans don’t. It’s an amusing refrain on social media by some Europeans who have spent time in the US and “get it” that Europeans fuss and fuss and fuss over how awful the Americans are… and the Americans are completely oblivious because it simply never occurs to the typical American to wonder – or care – what the average European thinks of Americans.

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    2. Britt, disdainfully: “Why do you Americans feel compelled to set a table with enormous weapons?” ( 5 inch steak knife)

      “Why do you folks imagine anyone free cares what you think?”

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      1. In all seriousness, the proper tool for the job is always safer than a compromise, so a sharp 5″ steak knife is going to be less likely to slip and cut someone than a dull or short knife.

        Speaking as someone who gets to watch youth learn how to use and care for sharp tools…

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  26. It seems to me that it might be appropriate for academia to issue some funding acknowledgements.

    (Such and such of our funding was expropriated by force from the good people of such and such, whose security situation we have made worse by our own words and actions.

    Furthermore, our embrace of critical theory makes us culturally alien to that population. IE, we have now become colonizers. The loss of our funding is measured and appropriate, and is a more peaceful alternative than the decolonization efforts that we have encouraged against others.)

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    1. Funding acknowledgements (aside from noting which grant funded science research) would be more useful than “land acknowledgements.” I roll my eyes so hard at those that I can see my hair clip from the reverse side.

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  27. Pingback: Instapundit » Blog Archive » THE CITY ON THE HILL AIN’T GONNA BUILT ITSELF:  On Being An Example.

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