By the Numbers

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Ever since the deep-set organization and by-the-numbers programming to the circus in Minneapolis came out, people on the right have been blackpilling.

Well, you know my opinion on black pills. It’s two fold: You know exactly where it’s been, and nothing that’s been THERE belongs in your mouth. AND even if it all were lost, what could you accomplish by getting people to despair and give up? This last is why people in a war shoot those spreading fear and despondency, even if what they are seeing is right. Because Blackpill fights on the side of the enemy. And while you could argue someone like the Red Baron coming out with his certainty the war was lost before his death might have saved death and destruction (maybe) in our case that is never true. There is no surrender to communists. Communists are as my friend Eric S. Raymond reminded everyone on twitter recently, Hostis Humanis Generis, and therefore the only surrender they accept is death. Well, f*ck them very much. I was never going to go quietly and without making sure I took an escort with me to hell. Even if they were fated to win, I’d fight them for every inch, every breath, every micron of mind space, in hopes of planting a seed of freedom for future generations.

However the bizarre thing about all this doom and gloom is that THEY AREN’T WINNING. The situation is very far from hopeless, very far from lost, and in fact, barring our complete and abject surrender to a panicking foe, we will win this and send communism to the ash heap of history with its cousin, fascism. And that even if they manage to win you can count their victory in maybe years. Maybe. My guess is less than four, because four is all they managed before, and even then they couldn’t implement all their dreams. Or most of them.

This is important. They need all the organization to give the impression of support they don’t have; to push an image of an ideological upswelling that simply isn’t there. They need organization and financing, because THEY AREN’T WINNING.

Yesterday one of you, reading the post on carefully orchestrated demonstrations and protests got it into his head that the demonstration in which I found myself at sixteen facing machine guns was equally organized. Snort. Giggle. It was organized like the Tea Parties were “organized.” A friend told a friend told a friend. I say we had a phone tree, but the truth is we used phones as little as possible as we were convinced that our phones were tapped. (Were they? Who knows? Ours was. I know the tell-tale sound in a mechanical system. But then mom ran a pirate radio station, so what do you expect?) SOMEONE printed banners. At a guess someone who happened to own a print shop. But they were such novices at the business, they didn’t punch holes in the fabric, so in the normal mizzle and wind of Northern Portugal (if you read of Wellington’s campaigns you know what I’m talking about) holding that banner (half of it) about broke my arm. And the rain fell down the pole and down the sleeve of my anorak. (Anorhank, a symbol of holy abstinence, according to Pratchett and boy was he right.) There were very few banners. I think three in an immense crowd. And I happened to grab the end of that one as the previous kid holding it (It was specifically about youth) got tired of almost breaking her arm.

For display no one would pick me. I wasn’t a pretty kid, and in the anorak you couldn’t tell if I was a boy or a girl. And anyway, it was all organic and …. disorganized. I won’t say the right in Portugal are exactly individualists (they’re not) but they are individualist enough to fail to organize.

But that disorganization, those thousands upon thousands of silent people walking across town. (Had to be silent. We didn’t have a protest permit. But they couldn’t stop people just happening to walk together) brought down a government that thought it was on its way to full control.

In the same way, the tea parties while they couldn’t completely curb Obama unnerved him enough to stop a lot of the worst overreaches he would have attempted. And they BAFFLED the left, because they were what the left was trying to achieve with Occupy Wall Street.

They started Occupy Wall Street in the serene belief that all they had to do was astroturf the beginning and then the people would rise up and support them. But despite a compliant media reporting it that way, and swelling the movement in image they never achieved more than “boomers with oxygen tanks and mentally ill homeless pooping on cars.” And then the Tea Party came out of nowhere and blindsided them.

They look at us, and wonder how we’re organizing on the quiet. Hence the insane search for “dogwhistles.” Which make no sense because what moves us is not what they attribute to us anyway. And we look at their organization, know we can’t do that and think all is lost.

We don’t need to do that. We have reality and the fact we’re not trying to hurt people and take their stuff.

Look, the left largely hid what a shitshow places like Russia were by the time the Soviet Union collapsed. And they are very much in denial of what a soft, decaying shitshow Europe is for that matter. But the last four years of the Bidentia showed people what the left wants to do to them, personally.

Ignore pollsters. Ignore the media making big scary noises. The left is — to quote one of their own — a paper tiger. They have nothing, or nothing people want. And most people now know it. Unless people are very well off and willing to buy into boutique causes at the cost of sky high groceries and transport and no employment, the left has nothing for us.

Movements that are winning don’t work so hard at keeping illegals here and voting. Movements that are winning don’t work so hard at keeping illegals who have committed CRIMES here and voting. Movements that are winning don’t work so hard just to cause turmoil in ONE city.

More importantly movements that are winning don’t need a carefully choreographed danced to present a frong that makes them seem like many.

Stand down. Take a deep breath.

No, we won’t win tomorrow. Or the day after. For too long we let leftist bullshit infect our education, our arts, our media. Perhaps “let” is the wrong term. They were top down systems and once taken over we could do nothing against them. But they had them for decades, and we’ll suffer the results of that for decades yet. However, things will be improving all the while. Yes, there will be setbacks and we’ll lose very good people (salutes Charlie Kirk) but in the end we win, they lose.

Look, you blackpillers think that I’m counter-black-pill because I don’t see what you do. You’re so wrong you’re not even on the map. I see what you do. What’s more, I’ve been seeing it since I’ve been aware of politics, which is now close on to fifty years. (What can I say? Mom was political to her fingertips, and a force of nature besides, and if she’d been born in a civilized country, she’d probably have shaken the world.)

My time of despair was somewhere in the seventies when the left’s deadlock on media, government AND academia was iron clad and when I despaired of being able to topple it. But even then I refused to stop and I refused to shut up. Because no. Because I read Heinlein and I knew the Lieutenant wouldn’t like THAT.

But yeah, that was the time all the protest babes were on the left. They still organized. They do it naturally, I swear, but it wasn’t AS orchestrated and choreographed as now. They had more useful idiots. They could always get a PREGNANT martyr when needed.

Now? Now they are at very thin on the ground martyrs. They have to buff up those they have. They have to pay their protesters who aren’t extremely and glaringly mentally ill.

What did them in? Losing the lock on communication. Having people see the man behind the curtain, the sneering disdain for humans behind the leftist cry for the plight of “workers.”

And lest we forget Limbaugh started this. That is not a sign of strength for the left. One man, in an outmodded form of communication was the beginning of their doom.

How much more can you do today with better communication?

Yes, they’ll become louder, and more choreographed, and yes, alas, more lethal the less in control they are. That’s the bad part we have to go through. And we’re going to lose a lot of good people. And yes, we’ll lose some battles, too.

But think about it, with all their resources, they orchestrated the election of the corpse. They locked the entire country down. They surrounded DC in barbed wire. They’d won. They were in charge.

And now they’re a rump movement causing trouble in one city and even that mostly for the cameras.

The desperate effort they managed in 2020 is now out of reach. Can they fraud 2026? Probably. BUT IT’S NOT WRITTEN IN STONE.

The media lies. Polls are a tool. You’re not alone. None of us is. We are the VAST, overwhelming majority.

And things are going our way. Slowly but inexorably, we win, they lose.

Be not afraid.

162 thoughts on “By the Numbers”

  2. Many people see the massive fraud and reach for the black pill. I see it and it gives me hope. If the fraud is this enormous maybe we have hope of fixing the deficit.

    Liked by 5 people

  3. “Ignore pollsters. Ignore the media making big scary noises. The left is — to quote one of their own — a paper tiger. They have nothing, or nothing people want.”

    Well, lying to pollsters is a rather enjoyable pastime. Himself knows I do it for the funsies, chances are better than magic 8-ball good that others do too. And the madia (they’re mad all the time), well, they’ve long lost the plot on “just the facts,” are hardly the middle ground, and haven’t got a scintilla of the reach they once had. Independent media is the only one worth really bothering with, as those usually have on the ground and in person folks that use their eyeballs and ears to witness what went on without feeding it twice through the Commie filter in their heads.

    What they left has is cultish psychological manipulation, corruption, and the distribution of bread and circuses. That latter has been sharply reduced of late, and may that reduction only continue! While there will always be those highly susceptible to the former and a few that desire the middle bit, the corruption creates want and the bread and circuses create dependency.

    Black pillers, some of them are organic. But I’d bet you a tomato chicken sandwich that there’s more than a few plants in there, under orders to create wedges. “Repub’s got to lose the midterm, look at all the ebul stuff they’re doing now that ain’t conservative! Vote them out so they learn their lessons!” I’ve seen it. Meh.

    I’m quite certain that the R party has its share of cotton headed fools. So? The evil party is worse. The stupid party is, at least, occasionally educable when the primaries start throwing down. Give me an Orange party that goes full bore, MAGA to its bones! Make that the new face of Republicanism. America first, America strong, America the beautiful and the strange. Gimme capitalism and a strong military, rule of law and less regulations. Dump the parasitic lobby issues and receive the support of the people.

    Will it happen? Himself knows there are idiots out there that could cock up a wet dream, but we’ve got to be for something rather than just against stupidity (nothing wrong with that, mind). Might as well shoot for the stars. I hear there’s going to be a Lunar economy going sometime in the next few years. Who knows? The future ain’t set in stone.

    Liked by 5 people

    1. When you lie to polls, you dishearten the Right and depress turnout.

      This is the problem of before vs after viewing of statistics. When you see polls predicting a left wing victory, and then the Right wins after all, you feel grateful that people lied to polls. When you try to apply that to future races, you start off thinking “lying to polls wins elections”! Then you create a sense of despondency that results in a left wing victory.

      Had you been honest with the polls, we could have banked that race under “certain wins,” and focused on closer races.

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      2. Didn’t say I was lying by calling myself a democrat, now did I? There are any number of other options than “I support abortion 250% and want Trump hanged for crimes against climate.”

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Do not even have to lie to the polls. The polls twist the truth. Best response? Click. If approached in person? Walk away. No response, is the best response.

        I’d almost go as far as the lying polls only polled themselves, if that. Pure fiction, pulled out of their, um, assets.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. If you answer a question like “do you favor starting a new Civil War?” it turns into

          1. Hates all Trump Policies
          2. Believes in open borders
          3. Anything else that the Left thinks might lead to street fighting

          Those asking the questions probably don’t know how their results are being used, but with a few exceptions the results are skewed this way.

          Liked by 2 people

      4. My brother in statistics, no one should be putting enough weight on polls for polling to matter.

        Or at least not polls that you do not conduct properly yourself.

        Providing election services to someone for hire without understanding how deeply funky that situation has gotten is maybe even malpractice.

        And, if you are not selling services, and are not allocating resources, ignoring the polls is a fairly useful rule of thumb.

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        1. The Reader knows that any public poll says exactly what the folks who paid for it want it to say. Polling is so fraught with opportunities to put a finger on the scale that no one should take it seriously. And don’t get the Reader started on the Real Clear Politics ‘Average’.

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  4. I’ve noted a couple of old friends from college–not screaming leftists, I don’t think, but rather people not really paying attention and liable to believe what the media (or other, definitely lefty friends) are telling them who are DEEPLY upset at the “modern day Gestapo.” (which isn’t the black pill, but a different and more frustrating beast)

    For my own sanity, I’ve stopped trying to get them to see reason. (And one of them has four or five kids and is dealing with one suddenly developing very serious health issues, so I’m cutting her some slack for the whole “failing to pay attention” thing, and neither of us needs the additional stress that comes with an argument.)

    I think the saner ones will realize that isn’t what’s happening when things continue to improve. If I see folks who are starting to accept the black pill, I remind them that we’re seeing the death throes of a cult. Yes, they are still HELLISHLY dangerous and capable of doing a lot of damage on their way down (and likely will do a fair amount), but that they are acting like this BECAUSE their cult is failing.

    Liked by 6 people

  5. Unfortunately it seems to be human nature to get hooked on the street drugs (until you get one that’s laced with something more potent).

    Even the street dealers are seldom more than bottom feeders.

    We need to get rid of those selling the black pills.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Which end do black pills come out of? And do they dissolve when washed? You know which end of the chicken eggs come out of, right? There’s a reason I like my eggs washed, even if it removes that outer sealing film. Because a lot more comes off than just that film.

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      2. Supposedly (I have not tried it yet myself) you can carefully dip a washed egg into mineral oil and it acts a replacement for that protective coating–thus extending the egg’s shelf life considerably.

        (Random off topic fact :D)

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        1. I have tried that, it seems to work.

          Of course, I’ve also found that just wrapping the egg carton in a plastic bag while it’s in the fridge will keep the eggs from drying out quite so fast.

          And then you don’t have to worry about any strange tastes seeping through the shell from the mineral oil.

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        2. In what quantity do you get eggs that shelf life matters? I’m a household of two and we go through about a flat a week. They don’t have time to go bad. I’m not aware of larger quantities available.

          If they start backing up, I make a cake or a custard. It happened this week, so Lemon Chess pie (which is lemon custard with a tablespoon of cornmeal). 5 eggs in one pie filling. All gone.

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          1. How long are eggs supposed to last? We be three. When we have eggs, we’ll go through 10 to 12 a setting (with pepper bacon). But I try to keep 18 to 24 available. Never had an egg go bad, or dry out. Eggs stay in the carton they came in (Costco = 24/clear plastic carton great for verifying no broken eggs without touching, Kroger = 18/papery carton). Cartons used to get recycled to someone who played golf, but he moved away to play retired senior farmer nearer where some of his children and grandchildren have landed.

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            1. By the time eggs hit the shelf they’re often several weeks old. Washed eggs (which all grocery store eggs are in the US) should be kept in the refrigerator and may last a month or more.

              I had one hen whose eggs went bad within a week, so I used her eggs first. For the most part, those lines whose eggs go bad quickly have been eliminated. Eggs with weak shells (and thus at high risk for rotting) are eliminated in the sorting process.

              They shouldn’t dry out. As they lose moisture, the air sac just gets bigger. This is why “old” eggs will stand on end in a glass of water.

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          2. We have six hens, and when they’re on lay we can get six eggs a day. They do pile up sometimes, especially in the spring.

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          3. We’ve got 7 people here, and I’ve had a four-egg breakfast habit for years. 16y/o likes one to three, wife indulges at times, recipes call for an egg or two sometimes, and so on. When it’s time to buy eggs, we’ll go to Sam’s Club for the box of 15 dozen if the funds permit. They’ll last about a month, month-point-five or so.

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  6. Excellent post, they are desperate and they’re losing ground with the bulk of the populace. They have been for a while and it’s accelerating as more and more they rub their insanity into peoples faces. Of course they are an organized group, planning, plotting and communicating with each other, they can’t get sufficient numbers to even make a show for their media allies any other way.

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  7. “… the serene belief that all they had to do was astroturf the beginning and then the people would rise up and support them.” Hmmm – straight out of Marx.

    Thanks for the shout-out to Rush. He was our “voice crying in the wilderness.” He deserves more than just a statue – Rush warrants a monument.

    Liked by 4 people

  8. There was a reason why I phrased that original post as a question. Because I wasn’t there and didn’t know all the background. Someone else mentioned something about getting conservatives to act with a united front is like herding cats. The only time they come together at once is when someone opens a can of cat food.

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            1. Ours likes to grab the sheet just as you toss. INTERCEPTION! The opposing team takes the ball!

              If only I could get her to hold the fitted sheet for me when I’m trying to get it on the bed.

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            2. One cat?

              Novice household over there.

              Minimum of two cats help strip and remake the bed. I can verify where the cats are, not in our bedroom. Shut and latch (no lock) the door. Pull on the sheets. Blink. “How’d you two (three) get in here?” Sometimes the cat wrangler (do not tell her any different), i.e. the dog, has to help. You know, to wrangle the cats. Sigh.

              Liked by 4 people

        2. We refer to opening a can with a can opener as the Kitty Hearing Test. Amazingly all modern canned cat food I’ve seen uses a pull tab. Tuna is about the only canned thing they care about. I often find myself shouting “You idiot cat, that’s (Beets/corn/fruit cocktail/tomato sauce) and cats don’t eat that.”

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            1. Our cats too.

              We have 5 cats. Only one can be found most the time. That is because the large family room, his domain, does not have many places to hide. He manages, in plain sight, only because we do not expect him to be in those spots. He is running out of those spots. Downstairs cats, the remaining 4, have a lot of hiding locations. One in particular likes to bury herself. That lump in the bed. Lump on top of a foldable dog kennel (blanket on top). In one of the dog kennels, buried. Dog’s bed, buried. (Yes, the dog has to have multiple dog spots because the cats “steal” them.) Even a couple of cat toys that she crawls under. Not counting the furniture she can crawl under, or the closets where she opens the doors, and hides. Then, when we need to account for all the cats, she cannot be found. Eventually she will come sauntering out acting all “what?” She’s also the only one we can almost count on to not take advantage of an open door to the outside. She was 6 months to a year old, when found. Our newest feral was 3 years old. I think he’s the same, but we don’t trust him. Attitude comes under “been there, no thank you.”

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            2. Jase can hear the Cabinet of Wonders (where the treat sack is stored) opening from half-way across the house. Alas, he also can hear any sack rattling and assumes “Treat!”

              He is an orange cat of little brain. And the little brain has been on vacation since he joined the Red household, if not longer.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. In our house the daily treats are provided when I’m getting my breakfast, The sound of the coffee grinder running will draw the cats from wherever they are at to line up for the daily treat ration.

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          2. Our first cat, who lived to be 18 and had to be on insulin for a while, and very expensive specialty food could hear a manual can opener all the way from the other end of the house. Didn’t matter if it was fruit cocktail, tomato sauce, can of chili beans … she would materialize. A triumph of hope over experience …

            Now, the current cat, Prince Fluff the Magnificent, is a sucker for water dribbling from the bathroom sink faucet. The instant I walk into the master bathroom – Prince materializes. I might think he has installed spy cameras and a monitoring system, but alas, Prince (although full brother to Indy the Engineer Cat) is the feline equivalent of Sparkle Beach Ken. Handsome and charming, but almost entirely vacant between the ears. Prince had a thought once, but I think it must have died of lonliness.

            Liked by 5 people

            2. How does His Highness feel about dogs? I feel like he might enjoy being friends with our “labrador mix” Jake. Jake’s skull contains four neurons—nose, stomach, play, and good boy—as well as a large sign that says, “This Space For Rent.”

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              1. His highness is quite amenable to dogs, having been raised with two of them in the household. One (alas, now departed) was small and loved cats. I have pictures of him curled up among his cat-friends. The big one is not that cat-loving, but is more baffled and intimidated by them. I also have a picture of him lounging on the couch (well, they call it ‘furr-niture don’t they?) with four small kittens, including Prince Fluff demanding their proper share of the couch.

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                1. It is odd that it is the largest of dogs that find the cats most intimidating. When we were first in our own house my father-in-law needed us to take care of his dog Ginger a red Doberman Pinscher. We got two 10 week old kittens and slowly integrated them into the household. Ginger was absolutely terrified of them, shaking in fear when she saw them. One evening, when the kittens were roaming free, Ginger was at her bowl eating dog kibble. One of the Kittens (a bolder one of the Orange clan, who seemed to often be in possession of the brain cell) walked up to Ginger and bopped her on the nose. She shrank back terrified and he proceeded to help himself to dog kibble that was nearly as large as his mouth could fit. Up to that point, his name had been in flux, but henceforth he was known as Spike. Over time Ginger got used to him and would treat him like a puppy, including cleaning and grooming him. Both were heartbroken when Ginger went back to my father-in-law a few months later.

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                2. Interestingly all the misoites seem to like dogs, courtesy small dog (who was adorable, Celia.) I understand the Wolf and his sister in Idaho are now bossing two very large dogs. We’ve considered adding a walking companion (for me) to the household, but not while Havey is alive. And only if younger son has allergy dessensitization.

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                3. Our German Shepard “raised” a few kittens. She couldn’t feed them. But she could clean and cuddle them. Got multiple pictures of kittens no bigger than her paw, attacking her. No fear.

                  Current pup was raised by our cats. Which is why she thinks she can be the cat wrangler. Not that the cats think that. In addition, she purrs, or tries.

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    2. Or if things get dire enough. When all political leaders but the socialist are in jail, and the socialist leader expects to be arrested at any minute, normal people mobilize. (The Maoists were actually in power. No, they didn’t call themselves that, but in retrospect it was obvious.)

      Liked by 2 people

  9. On the one hand I see people who know better calling for “compromise” (reform, some kind of amnesty, whatever) and I shake my head and wonder whether we’ll actually defeat the Shadow: even temporarily, because I know human nature and I know it the Shadow will return sometime in some form; I don’t think it’s quite a black pill but it annoys me no end.

    On the other, I see the increasingly shrill and desperate outbursts from the left and their paid meat puppets (today’s performers: Giancarlo Esposito and Molly Ringwald) and I realize that they know their Glorious Future is written on water.

    The left have fallen back to Spanish Man’s Grave,*, sure that their Medicine will protect them as it “always” has. If those who oppose them will but be resolutely determined to show them their Magic is no good any more, that their Father Below likewise has no further use for them, they can be taught a lesson in civilized manners they will not soon forget.

    *An absolute must-read story by James Warner Bellah, “Spanish Man’s Grave” can be found in Volume 1 of There Will Be War along with many other great stories. Among other works, Bellah is the writer of the “Cavalry Trilogy;” in fact, Lt. Pennell and Sgt. Tyree appear in “Spanish Man’s Grave.”

    Liked by 3 people

    1. >>found in Volume 1 of There Will Be War<<

      And volumes 1 and 2 were republished in hardback in 2015. Haven’t read any dead-tree books lately, but it’s time, and that’s a good place to start.

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  10. And again I say unto you, focus less on what they are planning to do to us, and more on what we will do to them.

    As note American philosopher Josie Wales once said: Now remember, when things look bad and it looks like you’re not gonna make it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. ‘Cause if you lose your head and you give up, then you neither live nor win. That’s just the way it is

    Liked by 4 people

  11. The black pillers make me laugh. Seriously. There is absolutely nothing serious about what the few radicals on the left are doing, because all they have to support their cause is dunderheaded idjits like Pretti Good. They make a lot of noise, they get a bunch of themselves arrested and a few of themselves shot and think they’re martyrs (until the truth comes out, which happens in hours or days if it takes that long, because we have X now).

    If you’ve got the black pill in your mouth, spit it the hell out. Jeebus.

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    1. “until the truth comes out, which happens in hours or days if it takes that long“

      –

      Goode hasn’t quite dropped off the news, except included in a list as an example of bad choices. I had to find out who were (don’t remember) and what the most recent Darwin-awarded-shot-by-being-stupid recipients did, here on this blog. Because the blip from incident to usual-suspects-shut-up, went so quick.

      Part of the problem is I now turn on the TV. “Breaking news”. Watch what is scrolling. Reaction – “Oh, another idiot.” Was LEO hurt or killed? No. Click. Check back in occasionally. Same incident? Yes? Click. Repeat and rinse. They stumble on a true martyr, the incident will not drop off the news cycle.

      Oh. They can’t get a pregnant believer upfront in the lines, because their true believers kill their babies.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Oh … yup. There is.

          Zappa’s version has the distinction of being the Theme Song of my church youth group from childhood.

          You had to be there.

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    3. The script is, when something actually damaging to “the cause” occurs, they start pounding wedges to try and split the opposition. The black-pilling aimed at the right is basically proof of being over the target.

      Ben had the best response strategy to wedge pounding: “We must all hang together or we will all hang separately.”

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  12. Occupy Wall Street happened a couple of years after the start of the Tea Party. Both have faded away from their peaks, but there are still occupy types around and my local Tea Party group still has a monthly dinner with guest speakers. We have some difficulty keeping a venue big enough for the hundreds of people we attract on a good month. When we have someone like Liz Collin of Alpha News or Derek Chauvin’s attorney the place is pretty packed. I think February will be some folks from the american experiment podcast (part of John Hinderacker’s group).

    The left has all the headlines lately, but the right isn’t dead, even in as difficult a place as Minnesota. One thing we meed to overcome is the number of people who think someone else needs to fix things for them. The way forward is for people to show up for whatever group is available in their local area and do what they can to help choose good candidates and then get those candidates elected.

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  13. I’m tired. I’m tired of all the division, all the hate, all the vitriol and bombast.

    But most of all, I’m tired of beating blackpillers over the head with a clue-by-four.

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  14. Your quick reminder that Bezos is facing a revolt at his newspaper because he thinks the Washington Post should be more moderate. And Bari Weiss is seeing similar reactions to her work in moving CBS closer toward the center.

    The ground is changing, and people are realizing it. Weiss wouldn’t be where she is, and Bezos wouldn’t be leadhing the Post if it weren’t

    Liked by 2 people

    2. They leaked a letter to, “Dear Jeff,” begging him to insert more money, I gather. Something along the lines of, “If the king only knew…”

      And of course they leaked it, so everyone would know they wrote it and what it said.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. If it’s the letter that I’m thinking about, the person who put up the comments I saw about the letter noted that the people writing the letter called Bezos the “caretaker” of the Washington Post. This is wrong. He’s the *owner*. And the sooner his rebellious employees get it through their skulls, the better (for them).

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        1. Magic Words Redefined!

          Now the so-called “owner” is a servant (“Caretaker”), obliged to take orders of nincompoops, and to work actively against his own wants and interests. Because, Magic Words!

          Nope.

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  15. ”Ignore pollsters”

    Absolutely correct. But the interesting thing is, right in the middle of the jskool media chanting “everybody wants ICE to give ice cream sandwiches instead of deporting those child rapists” they pop a poll that says north of 60% of Americans support the deportations.

    If that’s what they are saying in public, the real numbers must be even worse for them. And that right there is heartening.

    Liked by 4 people

  17. The Reader thinks they can do a heck of a lot of damage in their death throes. Keeping your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark is more important than ever.

    “For now, Walz, Frey, and Ellison are upping the rhetoric, fanning the violence, and talking openly about how best to nullify federal law and impede federal enforcement. They are convinced that they have galvanized national opposition to the hated Trump, smothered the Somali fraud scandal, and stopped ICE deportations of their constituents.

    In all of those assumptions, they have little idea they are following the Confederate script to the letter. And like their spiritual forefathers of 1861, they grow ever more cocky, boastful, and defiant as they create martyrs, spread narratives of victimhood, and daily slouch toward another Fort Sumter.” https://victorhanson.com/slouching-towards-fort-sumter/

    Liked by 1 person

  18. I feel hopeful, I usually do actually, but I feel very hopeful now. The left can only fill a vacuum and, finally, there’s people at the top willing and able to fight. That’s why the left is pushing for a civil war now, to build a vacuum for them to fill. Trouble is that they’re failing. Sure, they’ll accelerate but I don’t think k it’s working.

    Liked by 1 person

    3. The progs are coming very close to the point where they will have to act on the threats they have been voicing, in louder and louder voices. Either fish, or cut bait, as the saying goes. I’m reading as nerving themselves up for a fight … meanwhile hoping that the rest of us give in to the threat.

      I don’t think we’re going to give in, this time. The illegal aliens, especially the criminal ones, have done too much damage, to too many people. Everyone has stories of how they have been impacted, even if it’s only in a small way, like having to pay a bit more for auto insurance. (Because of accidents caused by near-illiterate, rotten drivers who are — surprise, surprise, surprise – illegal aliens.)

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Yeah, the Resistance doesn’t work nearly as well with an enemy that can win battles and force concessions. When Walz blinks and deploys the state police to keep order, do you keep fighting without cover or turn tail and run? They’re 0 for 2 on attempted riots so far (LA being the other major effort). That can’t be great for morale.

        Liked by 1 person

  19. One of their most insidious weapons is what Ayn Rand called “the argument from intimidation.” Basically, it’s saying that anybody who says what you’re saying is a racist/sexist/’phobe/badthinker.

    “You support deporting Somalis? You must be a racist who wants black people to die!”

    My favorite response is “I’m not a (whatever kind of badthinker they said I am). I’m a misanthrope. To me, you maggots are all equally worthless!“

    Liked by 2 people

  20. (What can I say? Mom was political to her fingertips, and a force of nature besides, and if she’d been born in a civilized country, she’d probably have shaken the world.)

    What you mean she’d have shaken the world?

    She did shake the world. She raised you, didn’t she?

    You don’t get much more world shaking than THAT?

    Am I right, Huns, or am I right?

    Liked by 4 people

  21. (Laughing darkly.)

    Folks, consider that blackpilling someone like -me-, or worse yet some folks I know, is the Worst Possible Mistake. Do not, not, not, convince me or those like me there is no hope, no win possible, nothing to lose. Just don’t.

    (grin)

    Don’t go there. Br’er Marxist, don’t throw me in -that- briar patch. For there shall I truly be freed, of anything resembling restraint, or rules, or even simple mercy. From a monster I reformed. As you value life itself, don’t presume to return me to that state. Even monsters can be ….. selective.

    (Kzin grin)

    Oh very selective indeed.

    ….

    (resumes sharpening heirloom fighting knife)

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Wasn’t it Sun Tzu who said something like (paraphrase) “always leave a defeated enemy a way out so they will not fight to the death.” I don’t think the Left understands that. I hope somebody explains it to them before it’s too late. Because the most dangerous person in the world is one who has nothing left to lose and nothing left to hope for.

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Yes. There’s a reason one should never corner a mama cat, or other animals. They will fight with a terrifying desperation. Always, always leave an out.

        Likewise an enemy army, or an 11-B Mailclerk.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Writing a character who got stuck in that corner ATM, in fact.

          One enemy camp on fire and a released giant tiger later….

          (Because if there are no allies in range, and your enemies are going to kill you horribly if they catch you, might as well take your chances with the tiger!)

          Liked by 1 person

        2. And the folks to whom I refer don’t post warnings in online forums. They just smirk and go about their business as if disinterested. I don’t hold a candle to those folks.

          Like

      2. This, exactly – threats about treating MAGA adherents and Trump voters as traitors, collaborators, war criminals when the Dems get into power again — well, then, an excellent reason to never let them get into power by any means, ever again.

        Liked by 3 people

        1. The exact reason Julius Caesar marched his legions across the Rubicon; the political opposition made it very clear they were going to criminally prosecute him and destroy him and his family, and left him no choice but to accept destruction or to fight it.

          A republic that depends on peaceful transitions of power after free and fair elections, and the losers of elections accepting those losses , cannot survive the winners using their power to destroy their opponents and to criminalize opposition, as the Democrats have done. Of course destroying the constitutional republic so they can “fundamentally transform America” into a Marxist totalitarian state, wherein they are the USA”s version of the CCP, is the entire point of what they are doing.

          They are using the tactics aspiring totalitarians have story to gain and maintain power. Unlike those past examples, or parts of Europe today, USAians have ample ways to circumvent the effort to control what people learn, and most importantly, are able to defend themselves, if need be, an ability that has been stripped from people in most of the rest of the world. There is a reason that those who seek to be overlords work first to disarm the populace.

          The biggest concern is not who ultimately wins, the left can’t. The concern is the price it will cost to defeat them, as they get more violent and more unfettered and unhinged, with their street “useless idiot” thugs acting as their brownshirts/red guard. They appear to actually want a civil war, being too stupid to realize they would be destroyed, because they are so narrow minded and so convinced that they can’t lose because of their belief that they are on “the right side of history” that the possibility of losing is something they are simply not capable of.

          Liked by 1 person

          2. I’m impressed at the Trump administration’s trigger discipline. The areas where they’re being the most daring (tariffs, Maduro raid, etc.) are the ones where the public likes the direction and doesn’t particularly care about the legal details. They’re being cautious in areas that touch on the peaceful transition of power. They’re making the case to the public, gathering evidence, and starting with the little fish before moving up the chain.

            If they can keep it up, we’ll have justice without the appearance of vengeance, and we get to keep the norms regarding the peaceful transition of power that the Dems tried to scrap.

            Every skirmish in this war makes Trump look more reasonable and the Dems more unhinged. That’s remarkably powerful when you’re trying to keep a nation together.

            Liked by 3 people

            1. Who had

              “Donks fiercely defending Second Amendment, Carry, and AR-15s”

              on their 2026 Bizzarro Bingo Cards?

              ….

              Next, he will have them quoting Rush Limbaugh as a hero.

              Like

        2. It is important to remember that the ultimate goal of the Left is the -destruction- of the American Way, including our way of government.

          If they goad us into destroying it for them, they have still achieved their primary goal. And they are -quite- confident, arguably with very good reasons, that they can manipulate or hijack any dictatorship or thugocracy we can create to oppose them.

          “Dictatorship of the Proletariat” is their goal. They care not one whit who creates it, although they prefer it to be them first.

          They have no real power to overthrow our way. Thus they goad -us- to do so.

          Don’t.

          We can defeat them without major restructure of our system as planned and written. The later add-ons of insane levels of do-gooder busybody is the part to excise.

          Now does it make more sense, their seeming insane efforts to goad an Orange Dictator Caesar, whom they assume they can then stabby-away to leave them running the result.

          Like

          1. One weird side effect of Trump’s victories is that some people can’t fully process them. By which I mean people nominally on the Right who recommend extreme solutions after they’re no longer necessary. We saw this with the push to adopt identity politics after Trump’s win in 2024, which removed the main justification for them in the first place. Recently, I’ve seen some people pushing for the Insurrection Act in Minnesota after Walz bent the knee, making it unnecessary.

            I realize bots/plants like to push this stuff too, but in some cases, it’s a genuine reaction to political realities…that no longer apply. Like someone so worked up about breaking the glass over the fire extinguisher that they miss that the fire is already out.

            I can’t wrap my head around it. It’s not so much misdiagnosing the problem as being late to the solution. Fortunately, it’s just around the edges, but it shows just how tricky this is. There are tools that would be appropriate in certain contingencies (e.g., the Insurrection Act), but should only be used if necessary to preserve as much of the American Way as possible. And some people don’t get the memo…

            Like

            1. Speaking as somebody who occasionally falls into that category in my more black-dog moments…for me a lot of it is just revenge. We’ve watched what the Left has done to this country, to its people, in many cases to us *personally*, over the decades. It’s a natural spinal reaction to want a crackdown, arrests, perp walks, and want them NOW because it’s payback. Sometimes I control it better than others. I’ll admit, seeing what’s happened in my beloved home of Virginia, how easily they frauded the election there, how they’ve overwhelmed the electorate with illegals and imports, the incredibly hard left turn that the Mother of Presidents has taken at Warp Eight in the past few weeks, that’s got me angry and back in the mood for some public humiliation with brute force of those who did this.

              Then I see something like Don Lemon being arrested, and Walz caving, and Trump outlasting his opponents with steady pressure, and I calm down a little.

              Like

              1. For sure. And if things get bad enough, that gut reaction is useful. It’s just that we’re actually doing better than we had reason to expect. On a couple of different fronts, we’ve swerved away from the part where we have to really have to fight.

                You can see everyone collectively go through the same process in the wake of each new affront. 2020 election, COVID, 10/7, jailing Trump, nearly killing Trump, actually killing Kirk, etc. The calls for blood abate, and we quietly get back to winning. It’s not a full reckoning by any stretch, but it’s sustainable and it’s working.

                (Which is also why the people who don’t trust the switch vs. thermostat model freak out all the time: So far the switch hasn’t flipped, and they don’t trust that any affront will be enough to flip it. I’d just as soon not have to find out if there’s any other option. Winning the battle for the political center helps a ton on that front.)

                Like

      3. The “Golden Bridge” Theory.

        Sun Tzu, Art of War, Ch 7 – Maneuver:
        “When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.”

        But from Tu Mu’s commentary, you just show it to them, but you don’t actually let them use the exit:
        “A surrounded army must be given a way out. The ancient rule of the charioteers says, ‘Surround them on three sides, leaving one side open, to show them a way to life’. Show them a way to life so that they will not be in the mood to fight to the death, and then you can take advantage of this to strike them. After that, you may crush them.”

        Like

    2. Ignorance is, indeed, bliss.

      The leftys, the most of them, they truly don’t get what they’re playing at. Oh, they have their LARPing fantasies. They have their paid protestors and rent-a-thugs. Sure. The rank and file? Hardly even a thought about it, if it’s not a fever dream of “we win 4evah, peace and love commence, get paid UBI, permanent vacay!”

      They believe that their bliss is but a few more short strokes away. Just a bit more pushing of the envelope, a bit more taking of power, the whole bit. That desperation is real. But what they don’t consider is their opposite number. The ones on the other side that just want to be left alone. The ones with skin in the game, something to lose, and invested in what they have.

      Take all that away?

      Ye blobs and leetle fishies, don’t dream that dream. It ain’t a good one.

      It’s not just the currently serving that will be the problem. It’s not the agitators and the quiet voices online. Not just the cops and the firefighters, the soldiers, sailors, marines, and the chairborn warriors. It’s Bob the truck driver. It’s Jenny that works in the office. It’s Dave at the plant. It’s Sally the cashier at the bank. It’s umpteen bazillion little folks that just want to live their lives, be left alone, and care for what is theirs.

      Take away what is precious? That’s a fool’s gambit. The Republic would not survive such a betrayal of the people’s trust. Such things are what tear apart the foundation of nations. And know this well, there are dozens of hungry vultures with unblinking eyes hoping for just that chance.

      Best we do what we can peaceably, within the lines. Best we protect what’s our own. Best we keep our trusted neighbors and friends in mind. Let the ones what just want to be left alone, be. We and I, we don’t want to become that kind of man.

      Liked by 3 people

  22. I get so tired of Politico, CNN, and other left-of-center sites going on and on about how the administration is doomed, and the Republicans are collapsing and the American people are fed up with the administration and the Dems and “good” Republicans will save the day, and …

    Because I have to read it for work, and it gets so overwhelming. They are whistling past a graveyard, trying to persuade themselves and their audience that “any day now, really” they will win. The damage they’re doing doesn’t matter, of course. It’s the eventual “any day now!” victory that counts.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. They have had years of practice writing the same stuff in those neverending “the walls are closing in!” stories since before DJT’s first inauguration.

      It’s pretty much the Tinkerbell Protocol: Just wish hard enough and it must come true!

      Like

  23. This isn’t happening in every city that ICE, CBP are conducting operations in, just the Democrat controlled ones the worst, Minneapolis, not Chicago, not DC, or they made some noise and went away, especially after the people saw who they were taking away, LA, Seattle Portland are trying but they can’t get it together. They can’t get the ground support or money for more than one city, New York doesn’t count, they elected a socialist/Marxist they’re about to learn what that means, get out while you can. New York Jews are about to learn what the Warsaw Ghetto was like, I kid you not. It’s not that they won’t be allowed to leave, they just won’t be safe anywhere else. Most Democrats are only as Liberal as their voters say they are, plainly that is the easiest way to plunder the treasury at this time. Because the love of money is their only real God.

    Like

  24. Things are not perfect, but holy crap are we in a white pill moment.

    1. Iran’s theocracy is about to fall.

    2. It really looks like the CCP may lose power in China before the end of the year. At the very least, it looks like they have managed both to castrate and hamstring themselves at the exact moment that outside world events are cutting the ground out from under them.

    3. Hollywood is dying.

    4. The secret communist networks of disruption have been largely defunded, and are getting exposed to the light of day.

    5. The media are faceplanting over and over again, revealing themselves to be nothing but propagandists for the communist worldview.

    Things are never perfect, and there is always the next battle to fight. But things have not looked this good for individual liberty since 1989.

    Liked by 2 people

      2. There are a lot of things, none of them good for the commies. Venezuela and Iran were two major external allies, and both are gone. Their population numbers are coming under scrutiny, and being found to be vastly inflated. Their economy, which has been teetering for a long while, looks about to collapse. And there has been a purge of the military leadership, which can be interpreted a number of ways, but here is mine (keep in mind, this is pure speculation):

        I believe that when Venezuela fell, Xi told his military to start going full-tilt boogie on invading Taiwan. (At some point, the CCP has to take control of Taiwan to maintain legitimacy, but that’s a long and deep dive on Chinese culture. Just accept that it’s something they’ve had to do since taking power, and have thus been putting off for 77 years.) The leaders of the military went “um, we can’t, given what we just learned about how badly our tech performed in Venezuela, but how do we tell Dear Leader?”. Then, one of two things happened. Either a coup started to be planned, and the purges are a reaction to that. Or Zhang Youxia stepped forward and said “I’ll fall on the sword; use what happens to me to create a legitimacy crisis” and told Xi it could not happen, leading to the purges.

        And the purges are being handled very oddly by the state media. Zhang’s arrest is covered in a very tepid way. Not blaring headlines about how he’s the newest Emmanuel Goldstein. Not memory holed. Either of those would be some kind of normal. Nope, reported, quietly and without fervor. Which means, probably, that people making decisions in the state propaganda outlets believe Xi is losing control, are unsure what happens next, and are whistling past the graveyard.

        Oh, and there have been student protests nationwide, not just in one city, but EVERYWHERE, for more or less a year. Which is somehow not getting reported by our commie media. Weird, right?

        So, in summary:
        – China’s international power base is gone.
        – Its domestic situation is near crisis, economically and socially.
        – Its internal politics are apparently in crisis Right Now.
        – Their hole card of invading Taiwan and rallying the populace around the invasion (which rallying would almost certainly work) suddenly turns out not to be possible.

        Liked by 2 people

          2. Also, I should have added: The current situation is more or less unprecedented. So not only should nobody take my word as gospel, nobody should take any “expert’s” word as definitive. Nobody knows what’s going on right now, we’re only seeing fragments, and giving our best guesses. And we’re probably all wrong. (I mean, I hope I’m not, but probably I am.)

            Liked by 1 person

  25. Iran’s presidential aircraft is in Moscow after an unscheduled trip. Might be nothing, might be something. There are now three aircraft carriers in the area or on the way and the USS Abraham Lincoln has “gone dark”. Again, might be nothing might be something.

    And if that wasn’t enough, Trump declared a national emergency and is putting tariffs on countries supplying:g oil to Cuba.

    Black pills be d-mned.

    It’s starting to feel like the Godfather finishing up the family business.

    In addition, You have to wonder if a quiet word was had with (e.g.,) Waltz and what dirt they might have on him and how DoJ is right here and China is far away, All their suitcases ful of cash, blow, and hookers won’t do you much good in Allenwood Federal Penn. The mayor idiot is still mouthing off, but he’s still running for office so he has to. I’ll bet you start to see cooperation very quietly, but there.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Word is that suddenly the Minnesota government has gotten a lot more cooperative with ICE, supposedly with Ellison promising that Detainer Requests will be honored (which really is the *big* deal, since it means ICE doesn’t have to go into neighborhoods to find the worst of the illegals). And people noted that right after the “productive” phone call between Trump and Walz, suddenly the State Police were helping keep the troublemakers away from the hotel where the ICE people were staying. While the local cops are under the control of the local city, the state cops answer to Walz and his government.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. As of this afternoon, Frey was bigmouthing The Resistance. I don’t want to recheck the news tonight, but I wonder if the powers That Really Be are [going to|have told] him to stick a sock in it.

        I’m waiting for POTUS to start dealing with Oregon’s clown-pool. Soon, I think.

        Like

        1. “I’m waiting for POTUS to start dealing with Oregon’s clown-pool. Soon, I think.“

          –

          Same.

          Though I did read in the news somewhere that Oregon is purging 130,000 out of the voter rolls, immediately. Working on another 800,000.

          Mom didn’t get the ballots, but would not surprise me if dad, and grandparents, aren’t still valid voters. They’ve been gone (died) since 2007 and 2009.

          Liked by 1 person

          2. Though I did read in the news somewhere that Oregon is purging 130,000 out of the voter rolls, immediately. Working on another 800,000.

            And that’s good. The question is, what are the controls in place to prevent restoring them for Election Day, and once they are, can we detect that and not certify people’s election to office (removal and reversing any actions they took when detected a must).

            I know, I’m just black-pilled…. but I’ve also seen just what laws on the books vs facts on the ground produces.

            https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/sep/7/voter-fraud-alert-over-5000-new-hampshire-presiden/

            Like

            1. I would really like a regular complete clean-out of voter rolls. As in, every 4, 6, or 8 years, you have to go in and re-register to vote. Valid ID and bill statement, which is honestly no worse than getting a freaking library card.

              It would honestly be easier to start from scratch on a regular basis than to do the partisan fighting.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Or driver license renewal. Which locally varies from paperwork barely getting glanced at to freaking impossible. Apparently the paper your renewal came to you with your address of record on it, does not count as proof of address. Makes sense if the address is “PO Box” even if that box is at your house. But when it is the same street address is your street address? Neither does your still valid, but expiring your driver license. Naturally, this is “some of the time”.

                Liked by 1 person

            2. That’s like telling an abuse victim that she’s “black pilled” for wanting no relationship with the abuser.

              Recognition of patterns and acknowledgment of past behavior is just prudent.

              Like

    3. could it be that Trump does ply 5d chess. I’m reading the rumors — just rumors — around Iran and it’s almost as though the traditional alliances are working exactly as they always have despite all the sound and fury. Could it all be another bit of misdirection?

      In other news, China’s takeover of the Panama Canal looks to be entirely over as the Hutchinson Wampoa contract was found unconstitutional by Panama high court.

      It’s getting hard to keep up with all the winning.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I’m finding the N-d chess metaphor a bit of a perception trap with Trump.

        The point of MAGA, I infer, is that the large brain strategic big picture types have been actively terrible. The smartest men in the room have had models of morality and of causality that are, basically, opposite of predictive. If the bad things were a result of work done, and on purpose, fixing is a relatively ‘easy’ matter of swapping people.

        2017-2020, was a trial run that proved Trump was pretty wedded to conventional thinking, and nobody was radical enough to make the swap cohere.

        2025- is maybe just a case of getting people onboarded who are able, and willing.

        There is not a specific genius masterplan being executed on, but the team hit a critical mass of doing less awful, and there is a synergism to the opportunties that they are acting on. Opportunities potentially available to Bush, or to Obama, but neither really wanted them.

        But maybe I’m just past my bedtime, and silly.

        Like

        1. Anyone who claims 5d Chess is and idiot. Chess is a game of perfect information and, while complex, is still finite and, most importantly, rational. The real world is too complex, and humans are involved; I say the same about anyone who actually pretends to have a high degree understanding of economics.

          What we have is a master opportunist who does at least some second and third order thinking, who has assembled a team that can work without a Grand Plan. He has some goals in mind and is actively looking to create and exploit opportunities to get there, but an actual plan? No, that would be far too brittle.

          Liked by 2 people

            1. I can believe it. I certainly wouldn’t want to take him on in any game where dealing with people and chaos is essential

              Like

            2. Yanno, I bet part of being a good poker player (not the only part, of course) is not caring, emotionally, about whether you win or lose. Intellectually, you’re trying to win, of course, but if it truly makes no difference to your life whether you win or lose, then you’re not going to have to suppress excitement when you have a strong hand and the pot gets large. And so your poker face will be a lot more natural and harder to read.

              Meaning that guys rich enough that winning or losing one million dollars wouldn’t make an impact on their lifestyle, and would just be convenient to win or inconvenient to lose… guys so rich that playing for thousand-dollar stakes feels to them like betting peanuts… those guys will naturally have a big advantage over the others at the table in terms of having a strong poker face. And the higher the stakes, the larger their inherent poker-face advantage would be.

              Like

  26. Nick Freitas is right again:

    He’s dead-on about the Leftroids. A bunch of toddlers that were given what they wanted when they threw tantrums. “Oh, well, they’ll grow out of it.” No. They don’t. Their tantrums grow with them. Now they are violent 35-year-olds that are still 3 years old emotionally, carrying guns and running over people with cars.

    Liked by 1 person

  27. Technically off-topic, but on-topic for a week or two ago. This post just made the front page at Hacker News (which usually focuses on such geeky topics that even I am lost half the time): https://davidoks.blog/p/a-lot-of-population-numbers-are-fake

    Though he concludes that a lot of countries undercount their population, for reasons that aren’t clear to me, he at least is asking the right questions about “How do you know these official numbers are accurate?” and realizing that in many cases, they simply can’t be accurate.

    And the fact that this showed up on the front page of Hacker News is important, because it means that the idea of inaccurate government statistics is starting to spread.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. The data existed, if you knew where to look, back in the late 80s and 90s. Kind of an open secret in the anthropological community what was clued in, as it were. And not just the undercount, they have varied wildly all over the scale. From China’s exaggerations to Africa’s not-even-scientific wild-arsed-guess to SA shenanigans all over the board.

      Basically came down to “what numbers get us the best bennies” is what was counted. Everybody knew they were lying, kind of nodded at each other and kept the game going. Because money that’s why. Climate shenanigans were the late comers to the grift game that was already in play by then.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Amusingly, I posted a reply on X the other day noting that we really have no idea of the gender imbalance in China because everyone who cares knows that China’s population growth numbers aren’t accurate. And someone jumped in to contradict me and claim that “everyone knows” that they’ve only been inaccurate since 2018 (which is apparently when Beijing started to make more births a goal in the various provinces).

        /rolleyes

        Liked by 2 people

      1. According to https://theconversation.com/south-africas-2022-census-may-not-be-accurate-enough-for-official-use-demographers-explain-what-went-wrong-234087, South Africa undercounted by 31% in 2022. I haven’t dived into the weeds to see if their estimate of 31% more people than the official census is accurate, but that’s the link the guy gave.

        … Wait a minute. Second paragraph of that link, emphasis mine. “While the results from the 2022 South African census, released in October 2023, were adjusted for the undercount, it means the results are more estimates than counts, producing a number of anomalies in the census data. These call their usefulness into question.”

        You’re right. Nobody undercounts their official results. What happened in South Africa was that they got their official census results, went “That can’t be right,” and adjusted it upwards by about 30% to match the number they wanted to officially publish. The author of that “a lot of population numbers are fake” article read the words 31% undercount and thought it meant “the actual population is 31% higher than the offical number”, when in fact it meant “the official number is 31% higher than what the census reported”.

        Liked by 3 people

  28. And while I’m posting off-topic things I found on Hacker News, here’s another one. A webcomic I’d never heard of had a backstory involving AI-controlled weapons going badly wrong. (No, it wasn’t Skynet). It’s actually really funny, in a black-humor sort of way. Let me copy and paste the relevant paragraphs from the backstory, as written up by the author:

    You see, the United States in 2061, as now, had powerful military bases scattered throughout the world, and they worked using TIARA, the Threat Intel Analysis and Response Algorithm. This highly sophisticated program used Deep Learning (which is programmer-speak for “this built itself, and I’m not entirely certain what’s under the hood, but it works”) to analyze intercepted enemy communication, pinpoint threats, and launch drone strikes at terrorist targets.

    Now, the Powers That Be wanted to make sure they wouldn’t be accused of prejudice, so TIARA was specifically designed to be colour-blind. It was hard-coded so that it wouldn’t pick targets based on their gender, ethnicity, religion, nation of birth, or level of melanin. And yes, for years, it worked perfectly well and never blew up the wrong person (or, at least, everyone it blew up could be, retroactively, declared to be the right person)… until the millisecond that Gordon Smith put his hand on a Bible and swore to defend the constitution.

    Unbeknownst to its programmers, one of the factors that TIARA had taught itself to use in determining whether or not someone could be a terrorist was commonness of surname. (You may have noticed that Muslim communities often have a lot of people with last names that are all variations of “Mohammed”.) Thus, when the POTUS changed from Vanderbilt to Smith, a switch flipped. TIARA was now aware of an individual with 1) a common surname, 2) a lot of money and resources, 3) the allegiance of thousands of armed soldiers, 4) many alternate aliases (like “POTUS”), 5) frequent travel, 6) bases of operation around the world, 7) mentioned frequently in terrorist chatter, etc, etc, etc.

    And yes, of course, when TIARA launches a drone strike, it notifies a human operator, who can immediately countermand it. This is, unfortunately, not useful when the drone strike mission has a travel time of zero seconds.

    Thousands of intelligent weapons, finding themselves right on top of a known terrorist’s assets, immediately did their job and detonated. In less than fifteen minutes, over ten thousand people lost their lives, and the damage was estimated in the trillions of dollars.

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  29. Posted a comment that got auto-modded, probably because it had some scary words in it. It was about the backstory one author wrote for a webcomic, whose (dark) humor I had greatly appreciated. If someone wants to fish it out of the moderation bucket, that would be nice. Thanks.

    Liked by 2 people

  30. Minds are partly habit.

    Two things, a dooming habit predicts or biases towards dooming.

    Second, the set of problems possible to study is matter larger than the set of problems that one’s current habits equip one to just chew through with no problems.

    It feels like there are several non-enemy-action explanations for blackpill, but if there is any real synergism between Minnesota and Iran, there is a chance of going all out to push black pill, in a gamble it could stop something.

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      1. Basically, people subset our monkeysphere in various ways to do various estimates, some of them intuitive.

        A dude with some engineering school may get a lot from learning how narrow the positive or useful effects of that schooling are, exactly. That is an example of limits of academic thoery, but not one that is necessarily very portable, or general audience. It may work very well for sum other dood who is a very experienced engineer, with a lot of experience in narrow applications, who put a lot of work into developing some machines. That other guy knows that he has a ton of very specialized knowledge, that he might not have for trains or for concrete or for the casting of aluminum alloys.

        Professional theory, or skills such as strategy from long term service in certain communities, are a subset of the total set of problems that a person can worry about.

        Day to day health skills and practices could have a lot of overlap.

        But, there are a ton of possible situations, or weird problems that may not be solve by this unrelated but will understood body of ideas. Research in pure mathematics would imply as much, I think. (I am not a mathematician, but I somehow have an inference that the new mathematics which can be created is literally infinite, and can eat any amount of time spent. (Useful mathematics, or mathematics that a math bro is personally most interested in, are much smaller subsets.))

        Anyway, Trump seems to be outperforming Obama now. However, the means that both have are very chaosy, in fairly different ways. People are effective where they have applicable experience, or where things are predictable and they know what is going on.

        On politics, there are two parts of our monkeysphere that will be louder to us junkies. One, the established network sources, some of whom sample deliberate blackpills, or are clickbait merchants. Two, the walking wounded among our friends and colleagues. Some venting is pain, and it draws the attention of someone with empathy who desires to help.

        Anyway, filtering badly can be pretty natural. And, there may be a hundred opportunities to fuss over a politics per year, and we may react to the walking wounded emoting over this opportunity with a heavier weight than the guy who notes it, and moves on.

        (A disordered appetite for actually trying to help or to be productive may literally be something that I genetically inherited. I don’t really know. Could be simple small numbers and anecdote.)

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  31. “Ever since the deep-set organization and by-the-numbers programming to the circus in Minneapolis came out, people on the right have been blackpilling.”

    I’m going to suggest the strong possibility that people living in Mumbai and Beijing while pretending to be Conservative Americans are blackpilling.

    What’s happening is that the #Dems are LOSING. They are losing HARD.

    The governor of a very big, very blue state is not seeking reelection this year because a kid with a YouTube channel made a video.

    The #Dems entire dirty-tricks network has been -busted- by some disabled lady named #DataRepublican. Their funding is exposed. It’s a catastrophe.

    You know how the guy screaming for action at the back of the room is always a Fed? The guy moaning “all is lost!” when you’re winning is always an enemy agent.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. three factors can be overlapping in truth.

      Blackpills strategically located at feed points for conservative including networks. Bad conservative habits of thoughts that are not adjusted generally, but which specifically might be an improvement over left mindset in a few ways. Conservatives being uncomfortable whenever something new or different happens.

      (Social media is the dense pack or ARCLIGHT to the single guided munition of hiring a David French or a Tucker Carlson to be an idiot. So blackpill feeds do not necessarily mean any actors have a good map of networks, but the noob trolls here speak to some level of effort at mapping influence networks.)

      So we have had different occupations, or trained for them, and not all of them thrive on the same types or amounts of analysis and or chaos.

      Historians, soldiers, investors, etc.

      I fairly often say that performing is dangerous, and that I am fortunate that I did not career-lock myself into some of the media or trolling jobs. My best work is going to be low volume, and in a relatively controlled environment familar to me, but not one where I get bored doing nothing, or have hidden myself away from the entire world.

      I’m definitely some of the time mainly having insights directly from my own screw ups. Like, my skill of some of the time going “I need to not make X decision now, because Y thought pattern feels hinky, for Z time.” Some times it really helps, and some times it does not at all mitigate problems from /persistent/ delusional mental patterns.

      Definitely, dooming can be mental skill issues, exacerbated by mental habits.

      Anyway, it is good not to be confident that we can wish our way to success by feeling hard. But, we can go part way in avoiding that left failure mode. To not think we can just wish our way to success, but also not be confident in ignoring stimuli, and to feel that the negativity must be productivity in some way.

      The rest of my point, I know it is there, but I am unsure how to reach it. Can just stop, and nap, or move on with my day.

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      1. Well, we know there are well-funded bot farms and sock-puppet factories run by enemy nations. By our own nations too. Fred the Fed didn’t go away, right?

        And we know that the social media algorithms are, to put it mildly, not arranged for the good of the user.

        So, it seems reasonable to assume that 90% of what I’m reading every day is probably suspect.

        The one glimmer of sunshine is that all these agendas conflict with each other. They don’t get it all their own way, like the newspapers and TV used to.

        So I look for those spots where the Old Media is grinding up against the New Media and both are grinding against foreign sock puppets. Then at least I can see the different agendas and decide accordingly.

        Basically I think everybody is lying constantly about anything they can. I’ve had to re-examine a few deeply held beliefs in the last five years, I’ll say that.

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  34. Blackpilling???? You mean those people have access to pharmaceuticals? The same type who put the sex in Dyslexia? I keep my arms and clothes close, like on my bed, so check. Dual loaded spare mags, check. Attack cat ready, check. 4 months of food, check. Electronic equipment fully charged every night, check. Stealth pogo stick, check. So I lied about that, it doesn’t have a muffler, but it’s a 2 stroke, so….

    We are winning, and getting ready to keep winning. The marvelous thing about the left not having significant presence in “Flyover Country” is that living in cities on the coast isolates them in ways they don’t understand. Those of us within the rational world (RW), defined as the world where people actually work for a living and understand what work really is, can see a series of groups having tantrums about nothing rational at all. Vary few have ever heard of Austrian Economics, let alone Praxeology. There are way more people in RW that live it each day, and teach it to their children each day, than the coasties could dream of. It should give them nightmares.

    I only ask that people not back into a reverse theocracy. It’s fine to point out the failings of the other side, but Iran is the end result of the theocrats getting enough power to start Mme Guillotine, although they just used posts and firing squads. It’s faster. The War of the Roses was a teaching moment, as was the 100 years War.

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  35. I’m not blackpilled, exactly. I agree that we’re seeing a monster in its death throes. We are winning and I am encouraged by that.

    What makes me sad is the death of the last little bit of faith I had in the system. It’s been eroding since the halcyon days of my youth and now it’s just gone. In a way, I’m obviously wrong. A change at the top is revealing all the rot, which that means the system still at least somewhat functions or change at the top wouldn’t matter.

    I’ve lost the ability to trust people. That’s also obviously wrong. There are plenty of good people out there (and plenty just here). If there were not, we wouldn’t know about any of the corruption and there would be no riots because there would be no ICE people to be rioting against.

    I learned something obvious and profound at the British Museum. They had some letters home from Roman legionnaires (translated to English) that read exactly like a letter from a US soldier. “Dear Mom, send money and dip. Love you.” It cast “human nature doesn’t change” into extremely sharp relief.

    I think about what’s been going on for so long and how difficult and lengthy the cleanup will be and I wonder if Mr. Smith is right. Does the galaxy really deserve to be infested by humans? Of course, it doesn’t deserve anything, being the inanimate object that it is, and having uncounted zillions of humans running about – even doing bad things – is better than them not having lived at all.

    So, my brain is working, but my emotions are all over the place. The Marco Rubio, first of his name, memes cheer me up immensely.

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