I am a novelist with work published in science fiction, fantasy, mystery and historical "novelized biography". I've won the Prometheus award and the Dragon award. I also write under the names Elise Hyatt and Sarah D'Almeida. http://sarahahoyt.com/
She was crying in the copier room when I came in, and she looked up at me with moist blue eyes, like pansies under the rain.
I couldn’t remember her name. Too D*mn Young isn’t a name. Even my name is not that weird. Crying like that, she looked about sixteen. No makeup. Blond hair down to the middle of her back. Very pretty. Maybe one of our high school interns?
And then she grabbed a tissue from box on the shelf, wiped her eyes, blinked at me and said, “Oh, Mr. Rumple, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know– It’s just I don’t know what to do. This promotion.”
On the first weekend of this month, at the meeting with my fans at Pete’s Kitchen on Colfax, a young and enthusiastic fan/friend/adopted nephew got to talking about politics.
He is not a leftist, and he was speaking very loudly.
Pete’s is not exactly downtown, but it’s on the periphery, and area solidly liberal. It is also frequented mostly by people who have been taught they’re down and out because of those evil non-leftists. I never inquired, though we’ve been going there for decades, but it is quite possible, not to say likely, that our favorite waitress is leftist. (Going on clothing, demeanor, tattoos. Which could be completely wrong, btw. G-d knows I dress liberal (mostly through not giving that much of a hang about how I look most of the time).)
I started to tell him to tone it down. And then shut up.
Why?
Sure. It’s “rude” to speak politics loudly enough to be heard in the entire area (though to be fair, he could only be heard in the immediate vicinity which was empty except for busboys and servers.) Or at least I’ve been discommoded by conversations from the next table.
If you search my past posts, about 10? years ago, I went for a writing-weekend away and the table next to us was filled with people our age who should know better, talking about how stupid Americans were because we didn’t wish to give government more power. I HELPFULLY engaged them in discussion by telling them to keep their ignorant mouths shut about things they didn’t understand. Mind you, if instead of being offended, I’d be perfectly willing to discuss it with them.
And here’s the thing, okay? Think about it: of all the times, in every public place where you heard a table/group/party loudly discuss politics. How many times were the politics even vaguely center or the right of Lenin?
“But that’s rude!” you say.
Yes, it sure it. And yes, the left sure does it.
And then we’re surprised they have absolutely no clue who we are, that they buy into the stories the left and their pet media tell, that they think of people who don’t believe in socialism/communism as bigoted evil, and full only of hate.
Well, what would you think if those people were afraid to speaking up, of even mentioning their politics in public, much less defending their opinions.
But Sarah, you’ll say, what can we do? How can we do that if they will just cancel us/take everything we own/destroy our livelihoods/attack our families and loved ones?
You can stand out against evil.
Look, I know any number of you HAVE to stay quiet at work. I know any other number of you keep quiet around your aged parents, obeying the Biblical injunction to respect them.
I’m not saying to break that, not really. Not unless you have a place to fall should they take away your way of making a living.
But this is the stuff communist dictatorships is made of. And now we know — and I want to put this very bluntly to all of you out there who think that voting third party or not voting this election is cute — what waits us if Biden wins.
It’s not just the truth and reconciliation commission, the packing of the court, the destruction of the constitution by writing a “modernized” one. All of that and more is on the way.
Oh, it won’t look like it’s all gone, and my friends who are naive and count on the constitution and the forms of the republic protecting them will be thrown a sop. After all, all the communist regimes had a loyal opposition, who were given crumbs from the table and allowed to exist.
2020 has shown us exactly what is going on, and how far they’re willing to go, both for power and to hide their corruption, their vices, their utter debasement. What they’re willing to do is appalling, not just what the media is willing to do, but the elected democrats in various states, and the FBI and the agencies who took oaths to protect America (I wish on them the hell of oathbreakers.) It also amounts to selling our country out to the Chinese Fascists. Who are actual fascists and will destroy everything of value in the US as they remake us in their image. This will save the rule of the CCP and extend it all over the world.
Will we rise again? Maybe. But none of us reading this now will see it. Do you wish that on your children and grandchildren? Will you throw away your vote on a third party, or not vote, even if it might save us?
The worst part is that I can see this going on, and the right staying quiet. Because we have jobs and families and lives.
Until we don’t. If you give up your liberty, the government can take anything else from you at the drop of a hat. And will. Look at China.
Again, I’m not asking you speak out if it will make you destitute (not yet) or that you speak out if it will break your elderly parents hearts (not yet.) And I’m definitely not asking you to put your name on anything that will target you for reprisal. Yeah, I’ve done it, but at this point in time that’s just stupid. Because they will come for you. At least don’t do it, if you’re not ready to fight back.
But I know more mixed marriages than I care to mention. And the conservative is always quiet, even as the leftist spouse needles, attacks, and snarks on a regular basis.
“Because I love her/him” and “take our marriage seriously.”
No. No, you don’t. And in fact you don’t have a marriage. You never did. And don’t tell me “My wife/husband just thinks I’m stupid.” Some marriage.
It always baffles my friends in this situation when the children of the union then embrace the left. Well, why shouldn’t they? Did you ever defend your point of view? You have moral and justice on your side, why not explain that? Why not explain that we can’t go on like this? that we’re effectively being destroyed/invaded/perverted by people who mouth pieties and are in fact human horrors?
Sure, it might end your marriage. But if it does, how much of a marriage was it?
And that applies to friendships too, at least those that won’t cost you your way of life.
Look, many on the left are knaves, villains, horrible human beings. But a lot of them aren’t. They just never hear the other side of the story.
We’ve allowed leftism to become social signaling for being “good people.”
We don’t speak out against things like addicted ferals taking over our downtowns, because we don’t want to be thought heartless…. even though the policy of mollycoddling the mentally ill and anti-social is destroying livelihoods of business owners and property owners, and just working people who can’t afford to leave.
We don’t speak out against the COVID restrictions, because we don’t want to be thought heartless. Even though this is gutting the constitution and making us effective slaves, preparing us for take over by people who don’t respect individuals at all.
We want to be cool and hip, even as the left is making disagreeing with them unacceptable.
And we censor ourselves in public. In the rare times we don’t, sometimes we get weird looks, like people are going “but he/she is so nice.”
You need a lot of those experiences of reality to break through the indoctrination.
The hour is perilous. Win or lose — and be aware we might lose, because fraud will be unimaginable — it is time to speak up.
Yes, I know the potential costs. I’ve paid them.
They’ve removed their masks. Will you remove yours? At least a little bit?
Will you teach the children now? Before it’s too late?
*As some of you know my husband is a mathematician. What you might not understand is what this means. What this means is that numbers are vitally, incredibly important to him. And when numbers don’t add up, he goes slightly unhinged. How unhinged? Well, he once spent over half an hour trying to give 45c to a clerk who had undercharged us. This wasn’t an unusual occurrence. I only remember that one, because we had a girl both boys had a crush on along on that outing, and she looked near-terrrified, until I pointed out Dan is a mathematician and that’s not so much an avocation as a condition. He’s also far less political/politically aware than I am, so he keeps coming up with a bang against things I’ve known for — I think — my entire adult life, like the fact the media is irretrievably crooked. A combination of these two fueled him to post the following on Faceborg. I’m posting it here as a guest post with his permission. He would like me to point out — and this was said indignantly — that the NYT mostly repeated stuff from other reports, which means — he says — this is an MSM-wide problem. I didn’t meme it with “welcome to the party pal” nor did I say “you sweet summer child.” He is far smarter than I, just not a politics-addict. Which tells you how normal people have missed these things, for how long – SAH*
New York Slimes – by Dan Hoyt
The NYT takes what SHOULD be a human-interest story about how people’s livelihoods are being threatened by the current COVID-19 situation and turns it into a blatant attempt to manipulate voters. For shame!
My favorite passage in there is from a PA guy who is a stunning example of a low-information voter who believes everything the MSM spoon-feeds him without question. Point-by-point:
“I’m not real happy with the way President Trump has handled, or continues to handle, the pandemic. I think what he’s doing is hurting more than helping.”
Dude, you need to stop watching the MSM. Just because it’s on TV doesn’t make it true. Trump didn’t order the lockdowns that put you out of work, your governor did. Blame him. And in PA, that would be a Democrat, BTW, not even the same PARTY as Trump.
“First, he started with, “I built the greatest economy this country has ever known,” which is not true.”
Again, stop watching MSM; the Bureau of Labor and Statistics disagrees with you and supports Trump’s claim. The stock market does, too, even now. The 3 years leading up to the lockdowns that were ordered mostly by Democratic governors WERE the greatest economy we’ve seen in the US. Even more so for blacks and asians than whites, BTW. Go look at the numbers (https://www.bls.gov/). There’s some great historical documents there that tell the story. If you’re a hardcore Obama fan, do NOT look at 2008-2016 unless you want your preconceptions shattered, especially when it comes to black employment.
“And now he’s talking about bringing that back, which I think is great, but you can’t do that until you deal with the pandemic properly.”
Oops, didn’t you just say Trump did NOT build the greatest economy that you know want him to bring back? Which is it, hypocrite? Make up your mind. As for how to “deal with the pandemic properly,” Biden is promising to continue the lockdowns and make masks mandatory nationwide. Despite the facts that any doctor worth his salt will tell you that putting a mask on an asthmatic is a really bad idea, and even the CDC isn’t even SURE that masks do any good. From their FAQ (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html): “Masks MAY slow the spread of the virus and help people who MAY have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others.” That’s a lot of weasel words there, all translating in plain English to, “We’re not sure, but it PROBABLY won’t hurt to wear masks.”
“And not only is he ignoring it, but he takes steps to limit and slow down testing.”
Well, now you’re just being ignorant. Trump isn’t ignoring COVID-19; he tested positive, quarantined and recovered well before October 23, when this article was published. The fact that the “journalist” at the NYT included this statement this late in the game indicates clear and present malice, rather than credible journalism practices. As for slow testing, we’ve had faulty tests for 7 months with
“He continues to go to his rallies; he’s encouraging people to gather in rallies. For me, it’s about human life.”
Again, old news, and the BLM continued to gather in protest rallies, too, during that time. AND they didn’t wear masks for WEEKS, until conservatives started pointing out the hypocrisy. THEN they started wearing masks. And burning building, looting businesses and murdering innocent bystanders. But, yeah, it’s about human life. Just not ALL humans; only those who agree with their politics.
“There’s about 200,000 people dead, and we’re still counting.”
Yes, yes there are about 225K deaths under discussion, although it’s not clear WHAT caused the deaths. Do you know what happens when a gunshot victim bleeds out, then tests positive for COVID-19? It’s listed as a COVID-19 death, that’s what. Most of the first 100K attributed deaths were made with clinical diagnoses, in fact. That means no test, just a doctor saying, “Yeah, the patient died of respiratory failure, so it’s PROBABLY COVID-19.” Think about it. The tests just weren’t available in quantity at the time, and the efficacy was suspect. Even the official COVID-19 site for PA (https://www.health.pa.gov/…/cor…/Pages/Symptoms-Testing.aspx) includes the disclaimer:
“No test is perfect. There is a false negative rate and false positive rate that varies depending on the test and the collection modality. Accuracy of antigen tests may be problematic due to poor sensitivity.”
“Some things that may affect the test’s accuracy include: – You may have the virus, but the swab might not collect it from your nose or throat. – The swab or mucus sample may be accidentally contaminated by the virus during collection or analysis. – The nasal or throat swab may not be kept at the correct temperature before it can be analyzed. – The chemicals used to extract the virus genetic material and make copies of the virus DNA may not work correctly.”
So the test results are suspect, even now. And the cause of death rarely gets changed after the fact. That mean those attributed numbers are HIGHLY suspect and should be taken with a grain of salt. Witness the NYC numbers. As of today, there are almost 20K “confirmed deaths” in NYC, but less than 5K “probable deaths” (https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data.page).
So how much of that 225K is actually deaths FROM COVID-19 as opposed to deaths WITH COVID-19? Well, if it’s similar to the NYC numbers, that would be about 50K nationwide. Contrast that with about 35K deaths from flu/pneumonia for the previous flu season (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2018-2019.html).
BTW, the CDC data is fascinating reading, and the NYT “journalist” really should take a quick look, at the very least. Here’s some highlights from 2018 (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db355.htm) with some notes on the current situation:
“In 2018, a total of 2,839,205 resident deaths were registered in the United States.”
That’s an average of 236,600 per MONTH. So, the total number of ATTRIBUTED COVID-19 deaths (see above) over 7-8 months is still less than the number of TOTAL deaths in a normal SINGLE MONTH in the US. So how many total deaths there have been in 2020? CDC reports 2,399,494 through Week 39 (September 26): https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/fluview/mortality.html. The previous year, over the same 39 weeks, the CDC reported 2,123,573. That means that 2020 has resulted in a net increase in TOTAL deaths of about 13% (275,921). Compare that to a 4.4% (86,599) increase in the 2014-15 flu season or a 3.2% (64,531) increase in the 2016-17 flu season.
So, yes, 2020 looks worse than anything we’ve seen since 2013, and nobody’s denying that, despite what the MSM is claiming, but it’s hardly the “we’re all going to die” story the MSM has been pushing.
And don’t forget that the population since 2013 has been steadily increasing, so the raw numbers are less important than the mortality per 100K, which is a COMPARABLE metric.
So how bad is 2020? Go back to 2018:
Leading causes of death: All causes: 723.6 per 100K Heart disease: 163.6 per 100K Cancer: 149.1 per 100K Chronic lower respiratory: 39.7 per 100K Flu/Pneumonia: 14.9 per 100K Suicide: 14.2 per 100K
Flu/Pneumonia/COVID-19: 55.2 per 100K (attributed) Flu/Pneumonia/COVID-19: 13.8 per 100K (probable, based on NYC)
That’s a big range, but if the PROBABLE numbers are accurate, that’s LESS than 2018 numbers for flu/pneumonia alone. And if the ATTRIBUTED numbers are accurate, it’s still about the same as 2018 for flu/pneumonia/chronic lower respiratory combined. And we already suspect that most chronic lower respiratory deaths were attributed to COVID-19, so were does that leave us?
With a lot of questions, still. Only one thing is crystal clear:
Tying COVID-19-related unemployment to an election is irresponsible “journalism.”
My second favorite story, from a Salvadoran in Vegas, deserves a separate writeup:
“The other sad update is that the president got a green light to end the T.P.S. program (which has allowed families who fled El Salvador and other countries to temporarily live and work legally in the United States).”
“Congress created Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the Immigration Act of 1990. It is a temporary immigration status provided to nationals of specifically designated countries that are confronting an ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or extraordinary and temporary conditions. It provides a work permit and stay of deportation to foreign nationals from those countries who are in the United States at the time the U.S. government makes the designation.”
The key word here is “temporarily.” Trump EXTENDED the program for Salvadorans A YEAR AGO (https://www.dhs.gov/…/us-and-el-salvador-sign…) to 2021, ensuring the program DOESN’T end during his first term. The program will end for El Salvador eventually, as that’s it’s stated intent:
“TPS beneficiaries return to the immigration status that the person held prior to receiving TPS, unless that status has expired or the person has successfully acquired a new immigration status. TPS beneficiaries who entered the United States without inspection and who are not eligible for other immigration benefits, for example, would return to being undocumented at the end of a TPS designation and become subject to removal.”
In plain English, that means he’s not at risk of being deported if he’s not an ILLEGAL alien. If he IS, why hasn’t he done anything about that in the 6 years he’s been here (which included 3 years under Obama)?
He ends with:
“If Trump wins, we have no more hope.”
I’m really not following the reasoning here. Trump extends TPS for Salvadorans, and even provides ADDITIONAL time:
“Additionally, the Trump Administration is providing El Salvadorans with TPS an additional 365 days after the conclusion of the TPS-related lawsuits to repatriate back to their home country.”
As stated early, the POINT of the program was NEVER a path to citizenship, but some protection for foreigners in the US when bad things happened in their home countries (in this case, El Salvador). This does NOT sound like Trump is planning to kick out the Salvadorans:
“TPS is a legal mechanism to provide temporary status for some foreigners who need humanitarian relief. The Administration’s goal is to create an orderly and responsible process to repatriate Salvadorans and help them return home; however, a sudden inflow of 250,000 individuals to El Salvador could spark another mass migration to the U.S. and reinvigorate the crisis at the southern border. Taking into account these concerns, we have decided to provide additional time to work out that plan. We cannot allow the progress the President has made the past several months to be negated.”
Note the word “progress” used with Trump’s efforts. How does that translate to “no more hope”? Answer: it doesn’t.
It’s a blatant attempt to sentimentalize the story and make out Trump to be evil (the unsubstantiated narrative of the left in general, and the New York Slimes — sorry — Times in particular). Once again, irresponsible “journalism.”
*Note these are books sent to us by readers/frequenters of this blog. Our bringing them to your attention does not imply that we’ve read them and/or endorse them, unless we specifically say so. As with all such purchases, we recommend you download a sample and make sure it’s to your taste. If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. I ALSO WISH TO REMIND OUR READERS THAT IF THEY WANT TO TIP THE BLOGGER WITHOUT SPENDING EXTRA MONEY, CLICKING TO AMAZON THROUGH ONE OF THE BOOK LINKS ON THE RIGHT, WILL GIVE US SOME AMOUNT OF MONEY FOR PURCHASES MADE IN THE NEXT 24HOURS, OR UNTIL YOU CLICK ANOTHER ASSOCIATE’S LINK. PLEASE CONSIDER CLICKING THROUGH ONE OF THOSE LINKS BEFORE SEARCHING FOR THAT SHED, BIG SCREEN TV, GAMING COMPUTER OR CONSERVATORY YOU WISH TO BUY. That helps defray my time cost of about 2 hours a day on the blog, time probably better spent on fiction. ;)*
Spacers Stobbins and McGregor are just maintenance techs at the far end of the solar system, keeping Jotunheim Station running on Saturn’s big moon Titan. The work is hard and the world is harsh, but when a pattern of equipment failures nearly proves fatal, can their efforts avert a disaster that threatens the lives of the whole mission?
New, professionally edited edition! Journey to the country of Jaiya, in a world not quite like ours. Here, humans ride trains, drive cars, and use cell phones, but they share their world with insect people and trollfolk, and stranger things lurk in the shadows… In a place like Jaiya, a woman can’t just back out of an arranged marriage to a bigshot, even if her amnesia keeps her from remembering when and how she agreed to it. Her engagement to a politician makes Itana a target for terrorist attacks, but a former soldier named Marish keeps rescuing her, and gives her a chance at real love. She doesn’t remember hiring him to find out who is stealing her memories, but he is determined to finish the job…or die trying! Note: Itana and Marish are friends with or related to a few characters from Marrying a Monster, the first book in the Jaiya series, but Dreamlost is meant as a standalone with a “happily ever after” ending. The romance is on the sweet side, but there is some violence due to the main characters’ encounters with monsters and terrorists.
Time to rob a god. Having just escaped from the demonic fleet of the strange cult, Einarr and the crew of the Vidofnir are in need of some way to fight the horrors unleashed and eliminate the cult for good. Fortunately, it just so happens that those who are experienced in the ways of magic and story tend to accumulate wisdom as well as lore…
Isabelle had come to the seaside to rest while she suffered melancholia.
But a haunting song wafts over the village one day, ready to lure all to danger.
Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.
So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.
We recommend that if you have an original vignette, you post that as a new reply. If you are commenting on someone’s vignette, then post that as a reply to the vignette. Comments — this is writing practice, so comments should be aimed at helping someone be a better writer, not at crushing them. And since these are likely to be drafts, don’t jump up and down too hard on typos and grammar.
*For the previous chapters, please go here. These are posted first draft, as the brain dictates to the fingers which are remarkably stupid. Also there will be inconsistencies because until September or so, the timing on these is wonky, and I’ll forget stuff between posts. Eventually it will be cleaned up and fixed just before page is made secret/taken down and the book is published. At that time I will take lists of typos or volunteers to proof read. For now, it’s written in a hurry, usually an hour before it goes up. And, let me remind you, it’s free – SAH*
The Language Of Birds
“Fifi?” Lord Michael gave her the oddest of looks. Then looked back at the thing flying nearer.
“It’s a dragonette?
“My brother, Aaron got a dragonette and put it in my embroidery box.” She cleared her throat. “He…. set fire to the drapes.”
“There are no dragons in Avalon,” Lord Michael said. “Our world.”
“I know, but Aaron likes animals.”
And then Fifi was upon them, making sounds of great irritation and exhaling puffs of flame. And Lord Michael did the strangest thing, reaching out, with his hand cupped. She sensed the spell in the hand, but didn’t recognize it. His hand reached behind Fifi’s head and petted it.
The dragonette turned an eye towards him and blinked, and that eye caught all the reflections in the environment, so it looked iridescent. “Oh,” she said. “It’s beautiful. But I thought he’d be grown up.”
Michael looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “Fifi is a he?”
“Aaron likes the name Fifi. He names almost all his animals Fifi.”
“I see.”
“What…. what did you use? We didn’t know how to stop him burning the curtains. Only when he was with Aaron he wasn’t destructive. The rest of the time….”
“I see.” Lord Michael scratched Fifi behind the little holes that Al thought were its ears. Fifi crooned, then perched on Michael’s shoulder and headbumped his chin.
“Is it…. what magic did you use?”
“Just a spell to make him feel safe.”
“Why is he here?”
And then they heard it. It was the trumpeting of a swan, and turning around Michael said, “Geoff?”
But the dragonette flew off Lord Michael’s shoulder to sit on the swan and at any rate, Al didn’t need it to, to know the swan, coming solemnly down the road towards them was, in fact, not Geoff but Aaron. It was the way he moved, the way he squared his shoulders.
And that’s when she realized she could understand exactly what he was saying with his Trumpeting, “Al, thank heavens. I’m starving!”
“Oh, you poor thing,” Al said, going to meet him, and hugging him awkwardly, because, even though he was larger than Geoff, he was still a swan, and so not human sized. “I suppose there’s nothing here you can eat? Or perhaps nothing here you want to eat?”
He trumpeted back, and it was obvious he was saying, “Nothing I could eat. It’s dangerous.”
“I see,” she said.
And then turning to Lord Michael. “Can we give him some of the cake, and perhaps some of the bread, and also, I think some water? He’s hungry.”
Lord Michael blinked. “You understand the language of the birds?”
“No, just my brothers,” she said, and thinking about it. “It’s his expression and…. the way he trumpets, you know….”
They fed Aaron, and then suddenly in the middle of eating, he gave a very startled squawk that made Fifi fly out.
And Aaron ran. He ran behind a tree, and there was some very odd rustling, before he emerged, wearing a suit that looked much the worst for the wear but was recognizably one of the suits the boys had had at home.
Oh, he was also human. Which was a good thing, because if he were a swan the suit would fit really oddly. “Al,” he said, and ran his hand back through hair that was much too long. He also had stubble. Well, frankly, an unruly over all beard. “You shouldn’t have come.”
“Well, that’s some fine way to thank me,” she said.
“No, you don’t understand,” he said. “I came out and I was …. captured by the first task I was asked to do.”
“Oh,” Lord Michael said. It wasn’t a question, but he made it sound like a question, anyway.
Aaron looked at him, then at Al, and Al realized that she had completely foregone introductions. Mama would kill her, if she knew. She hurried through the introduction, and Aaron looked confused. “Lord Michael,” he said. “I don’t know–“
“Too long a story to tell you,” he said. “If I understand you, like your brothers and father are under a spell where only one of you can be human at a time. So. you say you got stymied by the first challenge. Will you tell us what it is?”
Aaron bowed, then shrugged, then led them down the road, at a fast trot. A path led off from the one they’d started off on. He said “This is how you know you can leave.”
Al was conscious of Lord Michael doing something she wasn’t sure what, but she knew it was to determine that Aaron was who he appeared to be. He seemed to be satisfied, as he followed after Aaron.
The path climbed a steep hill. At the top of it, there was a castle. “In this castle,” Aaron said. “There lives a king, who has no servants and who is trapped in this pocket universe. He cannot return to his own world until all the wheat in these fields,” he gestured to acres vanishing into the distance. “Is bread in his larder. Until all the fish in that river,” he said, pointing to a creek running by. “Is smoked and stored in his pantry. And until all the game in that forest,” he pointed to the other side of the mountainn. “Is also smoked and salted and stored.” Aaron’s shoulders slumped. “I tried. I really did. but I could not do it. I kept changing into a swan, and I couldn’t even eat any of the food from here.” He looked on the verge of tears. “So, I’ve been stuck here, and unable to go on and save our father!”
Al looked around, and then she too felt like crying. “I don’t think it’s possible,” she said.
But Michael smiled. “Oh, I don’t know,” he said. “I have an idea.”
This is going to be a very religious post, and you’ll have to excuse me. I normally don’t talk about my religion, partly because more and more, like others who belong to mainline churches I feel betrayed and besmirched by what those institutions have become.
Partly because though I am religious, I believe we’re supposed to live in this world in the light of reason and facts. If it were not so, we’d be given other perceptions and other ability.
I don’t mean to imply that only the material matters, obviously, since humans are far more than material. Sometimes it’s almost as if we’re stories being moved around by all too fleshy bodies. But we are fleshy too, we are…. well…. great (or pretty darn good) apes. And it’s important to remember that.
But sometimes, living in the world, you can’t help the feeling something else is going on. Something you can’t quite put a finger on. Oh, perhaps it’s all the deceit of our hindsight, our flawed natures. And perhaps it’s not.
I’m going to start by telling you that when I first heard Obama talk about how we stood “on the precipice” of great achievement I felt that. And it wasn’t good.
You see, a precipice is a great chasm, a bottomless pit. Though the establishment immediately went into overdrive to picture precipice as summit, and I’ve seen other people use it that way since, I believe he meant it exactly as chasm. He meant to take us down a deep hole from which we’d never recover.
Did he mean to say it?
Well…. Let’s be real, shall we? What else would we expect? He was raised in hatred of the US both by his mother and his grandparents. And he wanted to “undo everything Reagan did.” He told us so. No matter how much he dissembled, or what he said to try to woo people (and honestly, he didn’t, really. Our media just lied, lied and lied again, same as they’re doing for their current great hopes.) he hated America. What he wanted to undo was Reagan winning the cold war, which bruised the ego of his family, who had thrown their lot in with the USSR and viewed themselves as superior because of it. Out of that wounded prided, he wanted to revile America and extol and elevate the communist dictatorships of the world. Remember his fan-girling at the Venezuelan dictator? The Reset button with Russia? Or– well, in China he just continued the policies that Clinton started and Bush helped along. (And perhaps it is time to remember that Bush’s own daughter says Bush and Clinton are “like brothers.” The media also doesn’t report much on that.)
I believe when people are possessed of a strong feeling, a strong belief, it comes through. Precipice was the word it came through.
Biden and Harris are just the continuation of that. They want us reviled and dragged in the mire. In Biden’s case, I suspect because “he’s so far gone over” that he can’t stand that everyone else isn’t embroiled in betrayal and filled with rot. He wants to destroy the country, because there is just enough goodness in us to make him feel bad about what he’s become, what he is.
Harris… I confess when Amanda Green read her book and reported on it, just reading the excerpts filled me with a sort of creepy crawly feeling at the back of my spine.
There is in her the same feel there was in Obama. In her, in fact, they have chosen the form of America’s executioner.
And they can’t help in telling us what they intend for us. The Green New Deal, something of no value whatsoever to ecology or the Earth (all the predictions of the global warmists have been as accurate as the predictions of the covidiots. I’m not impressed. Science is predictive, or it’s garbage.) but which they’ve confessed will allow them to bring America “under control.” Specifically, under their control.
And then there’s Trump….
Four years ago, at this time, I was still not sure I could vote for him. Part of it was a great big disinformation campaign which appeared to support him, while writing the most vile things in comments on blogs I frequented. There’s a lot fewer of those, I suspect, because it didn’t work last time. But also possibly because last time he attracted the support of a lot of Bernie bros who just wanted to see the world burn, and who thought that they could get that by endorsing Trump. And who, bizarrely, tried to impersonate conservatives by saying the things the media tells them we believe. I knew a few of those. Most have grown up and become mature human beings who actually see hope now.
I’m not going to tell you Trump is a wonderful human being. Though he seems to be far cleaner than we could expect anyone ever engaged in 20th century business to be.
I heard from very religious (not to say offbeat and cultish) that Trump had been sent from G-d to save us, and I snort-giggled. Partly because, surely G-d could have chosen someone more accomplished?
And then I spent four years watching this man, this flawed, not very suave man, endure things I can’t even imagine. I broke, for the last six years. I broke under far less pressure than he’s taken, and for far smaller stakes.
He was betrayed by our deeply infiltrated governmental apparatus, reviled by all our organs of communication, survived two coup attempts, and over the last year has presided over a nation that the media and the left (but I repeat myself) have driven insane, deliberately and with malice aforethought. They’ve done this for the sake of no greater good than taking control of us, and our wealth, and hiding their own deep evil and shame. He’s survived at least two coup attempts engineered by his own government, and the deployment of Antifa, Obama’s own brown shirts, in an attempt to destroy everything he accomplished.
And yet, he keeps on.
Steve is a friend. He was also, like me, profoundly ambivalent four years ago.
I must apologize to my very religious friends. You were right. I was wrong. Partly because I didn’t realize how far off course we had gotten, how badly wounded the nation I loved was, how penetrated by those who hate her, and who will betray everything in her for the sake of…. I don’t even know? The respect of the left, who command the heights of money and academic/intellectual power? Surely those of them who are not completely stupid can’t help seeing how hollow both of those are.
Anyway, this morning, thinking about what Steve said in that post, I remembered other men who were deeply, deeply flawed but who brought their country through as it should be, and survived as Trump has. Because His hand was on them. (Solomon and David, to be exact.)
They weren’t perfect, but they fought greater evil.
What Trump is fighting is nothing less than a world plan to have us all under the foot of one hegemon: China.
China, with the help and cooperation of disappointed communists and those they corrupted with money (not mutually exclusive, btw. Ego will cause people to do things even money won’t.) has been taking over the world while America slept.
And China is… China. With an added flip of Fascism. Frankly, in China human life has always been cheap, and there’s no such thing as regard for the individual. They took to fascism like ducks to water, and everything Nazi Germany did, they’ve done more of and worse. And are still doing it, while the trained seals in our press, paid by them, applaud in unison.
I don’t know what the never Trumpers expect. Yesterday, on Facebook, I was tagged in the post of an idiot saying Hunter Biden didn’t matter, and repeating a lot of Trump “scandals” which are mostly scandals in the left’s mind.
I don’t know what they expect. I don’t understand how people who can tell the struggle we’re engaged in, can, nonetheless, say they won’t vote for Trump. There is “principled” and there is insanity.
Sure, Trump is flawed. Deeply so. Although to my knowledge he’s never had a woman’s husband killed so he could marry her, which frankly I think people who consider themselves Christian would recognize.
We are fallen beings and live in peculiarly fallen times. I realized sometime ago, that though I believed, I behaved in daily life as if I didn’t. I’ve been trying to change that with mixed success. It is not easy.
People get twisted by the times they live in. Frankly if Trump were a flawless saint, or an inspired prophet, I’d want to know who was playing us.
But he’s not. He’s just right on the main struggle of our times. On the fight between the idea of human liberty, individual freedom, and the regime that butchered Hong Kong, that rapes women, kills people because of their beliefs, and generally despises anyone not of a specific ethnicity.
At the crossroads of humanity, Trump, such as he is, is the champion for the side of the Light. I’ve mentioned before the Author has a sense of humor, right?
It doesn’t mean if he wins, he won’t put a foot wrong. It doesn’t mean I’ll agree with everything he does. It just means he will give us time, a little bit of time, to see things clearly, to survive a little longer, to perhaps get through this.
But the choice is stark, unavoidable and clear. I have no patience whatsoever with anyone who sees it and yet thinks they can’t vote for Trump. Because to them is not worth it to save us from falling down Obama’s bottomless precipice, if we’re not going to be transported immediately to paradise with trumpets and angels.
Perhaps Trump can offer us no more than blood, sweat and tears. But what is the other side even CLAIMING to offer?
If you didn’t follow the link above, read this:
The people who claim to be “saving” “the soul” of America do not believe in the values that made America the beacon of the world. They do not in fact believe America is good. They look around at the horrors of human history, the horrors of the rest of the world, and wish they could make us more like THAT. Because they see themselves as the fat, catered to overlords of that hellish landscape.
We don’t have a functional press, or America would recoil from the corruption, the vile sewer of betrayal, of graft, of grosser indulgences of the left.
We haven’t had a functional education system for a long time, so our young people believe in “democracy.”
And e have an army of fraudsters ready to do what they need to install these corrupt serfs of an enemy power (note they don’t go to the countries they admire. Their goal is to bring us down.) and a bevy of complacent utopians, both right and left, who think they can throw in with the corruption by omission and commission and that their lives will go on, pretty much as it’s been. (Among the many things our schools don’t teach is an understanding of economics. Or for that matter of cause and effect. And they haven’t a long time.) They choose not to vote, to vote third party, or to vote for Biden, even as though this were a game. 2020 and the lunatic lockdowns and casual takings of people’s lives and livelihoods by democrat governors have revealed nothing to them. Some, poor sheep, are disappointed the government hasn’t “done more” to somehow make them perfectly safe.
I don’t want them to find out how wrong they are, or how swiftly they can tumble down that precipice. I don’t want them to, because it would mean the loss of everything I love and unending hell for those I care for and who do not deserve this (and even some who do.)
Against this precipice, with arms outstretched, stands a very unlikely band. Trump, and maybe a half dozen other people. And us. And there isn’t hell of a lot we can do, you and I, which has been eating at me since March, since I realized the left was willing to destroy the country to rule it. Not piecemeal destruction, as they’d been doing, but utter, irrevocable destruction. Just for power.
I can’t convince you the situation is as dire as I say. Nothing can. I can only say if we fail to defeat the left this time, if we fail to defeat the margin of fraud, you’ll find out. But I hope you don’t.
All I can say is all our petty disputes are dwarfed by what these people intend for us. Kind of like the troubles of 2019 are dwarfed by the river of sh*t poured on us in 2020.
And yeah, I wish we had an angel come from heaven to defend us. We don’t. We have, for the love of heaven, Donald Trump. And honestly, I’m starting to believe he is far, far better than we deserve or have the right to hope for.
If of G-d’s kind mercy, we get another 4 years, use them as best you can in fighting at whatever level you can: educating, speaking out, working.
It wasn’t like her to have a wild hair day. It simply wasn’t.
Rahel had been a compliant child and was a well behaved adult. And if sometimes she was a little impatient with herself, if she felt lonely or locked into a life that was predictable and ordered and dutiful, at least she was safe.
Being safe had been her goal since she was very young, and since mom had told her what happened. And what her father had been.
So the last thing she expected herself to do was dye her hair a strange and artificial gold. And she’d never be able to explain it. It was, she supposed, a combination of things. For one, two days before, she’d found a white hair amid her mousy brown mane. Not that it mattered. Why should it matter? She supposed at 28 she was not so young. Women in the middle ages would be dead by her time of life, right?
But the white hair had bothered her. Like it was unfair. White hairs should come when one had lived a long life and done a lot of things, not when all one had done was study and work, live at home, and then in a very clean apartment in the big city.
So she’d put her hair up, as she always did, and pinned it, but it seemed to her like it screamed for attention from the mirror.
It didn’t, of course, and even if her hair went white overnight, like Marie Antoinette’s was said to have, it didn’t matter, because she worked from home. She’d moved to the city mostly …. well, mostly because it was easier to be alone and to keep to herself in the city than to be alone and keep to herself in the small town she’d grown up in.
If what mom had said was right, sooner or later, people back at home would notice. They had already noticed that she had stopped dating in 10th grade, and distanced herself from all her friends.
As most of you guys know for many years now, Glenn Reynolds, of instapundit (where I post as the “night DJ” most nights) had done a weekly column in USA Today for years.
Frankly in light of a few off-putting moves over the years, the fact they still published the boss was one of the things that I held onto as a sign there was still some sanity at the USA Today, and it made me less p*ssed off whenever I got a “free” copy at my hotel room.
Needless to say, it involved the Hunter Biden story. Which is, of course, something we peasants can’t be allowed to know in detail, because if we did, we’d also know the Big Guy is snugly kept in Fascist China’s pocket and that a vote for Biden is a vote to subjugate the US to China.
I find it interesting they decided to do this to Glenn, who has more than once proved the power of the New Media. Not the social media, not the mass media, but those of us, tyros, and independents who do this because we care about the truth. We also care about reality. Let’s show these would-be-aristoi there are unintended consequences. Let’s Streisand Effect them.
So, below I’m reproducing the full text of the boss’s column. And I ask you, all of you who have blogs, to do the same. Sure only one or two people might see it on your blog. But it’s not the size of the pebble thrown into the ocean: it’s the size of the ripples.
In my 2019 book, The Social Media Upheaval, I warned that the Big Tech companies — especially social media giants like Facebook and Twitter — had grown into powerful monopolists, who were using their power over the national conversation to not only sell ads, but also to promote a political agenda. That was pretty obvious last year, but it was even more obvious last week, when Facebook and Twitter tried to black out the New York Post’s blockbuster report about emails found on a laptop abandoned by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter.
The emails, some of which have been confirmed as genuine with their recipients, show substantial evidence that Hunter Biden used his position as Vice President Joe Biden’s son to extract substantial payments from “clients” in other countries. There are also photos of Hunter with a crack pipe, and engaging in various other unsavory activities. And they demolished the elder Biden’s claim that he never discussed business with his son.
That’s a big election-year news story. Some people doubted its genuineness, and of course it’s always fair to question a big election-year news story, especially one that comes out shortly before the election. (Remember CBS newsman Dan Rather’s promotion of what turned out to be forged memos about George W. Bush’s Air National Guard service?)
But the way you debate whether a story is accurate or not is by debating. (In the case of the Rather memos, it turned out the font was from Microsoft Word, which of course didn’t exist back during the Vietnam War era.) Big Tech could have tried an approach that fostered such a debate. But instead of debate, they went for a blackout: Both services actually blocked links to the New York Post story. That’s right: They blocked readers from discussing a major news story by a major paper, one so old that it was founded by none other than Alexander Hamilton.
I wasn’t advising them — they tend not to ask me for my opinion — but I would have advised against such a blackout. There’s a longstanding Internet term called “the Streisand effect,” going back to when Barbara Streisand demanded that people stop sharing pictures of her beach house. Unsurprisingly, the result was a massive increase in the number of people posting pictures of her beach house. The Big Tech Blackout produced the same result: Now even people who didn’t care so much about Hunter Biden’s racket nonetheless became angry, and started talking about the story.
As lefty journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote in The Intercept, Twitter and Facebook crossed a line far more dangerous than what they censored. Greenwald writes: “Just two hours after the story was online, Facebook intervened. The company dispatched a life-long Democratic Party operative who now works for Facebook — Andy Stone, previously a communications operative for Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, among other D.C. Democratic jobs — to announce that Facebook was ‘reducing [the article’s] distribution on our platform’: in other words, tinkering with its own algorithms to suppress the ability of users to discuss or share the news article. The long-time Democratic Party official did not try to hide his contempt for the article, beginning his censorship announcement by snidely noting: ‘I will intentionally not link to the New York Post.’”
“Twitter’s suppression efforts went far beyond Facebook’s. They banned entirely all users’ ability to share the Post article — not just on their public timeline but even using the platform’s private Direct Messaging feature.”
“Early in the day, users who attempted to link to the New York Post story either publicly or privately received a cryptic message rejecting the attempt as an ‘error.’ Later in the afternoon, Twitter changed the message, advising users that they could not post that link because the company judged its contents to be ‘potentially harmful.’ Even more astonishing still, Twitter locked the account of the New York Post, banning the paper from posting any content all day and, evidently, into Thursday morning.”
This went badly. The heads Facebook and of Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey, are now facing Senate subpoenas,the RNC has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, arguing that Twitter’s action in blacking out a damaging story constituted an illegal in-kind donation to the Biden Campaign, and most significantly, everyone is talking about the story now, with many understandably assuming that if the story were false, it would have been debunked rather than blacked out.
Regardless of who wins in November, it’s likely that there will be substantial efforts to rein in Big Tech. As Greenwald writes, “State censorship is not the only kind of censorship. Private-sector repression of speech and thought, particularly in the internet era, can be as dangerous and consequential. Imagine, for instance, if these two Silicon Valley giants united with Google to declare: henceforth we will ban all content that is critical of President Trump and/or the Republican Party, but will actively promote criticisms of Joe Biden and the Democrats.
“Would anyone encounter difficulty understanding why such a decree would constitute dangerous corporate censorship? Would Democrats respond to such a policy by simply shrugging it off on the radical libertarian ground that private corporations have the right to do whatever they want? To ask that question is to answer it.”
“To begin with, Twitter and particularly Facebook are no ordinary companies. Facebook, as the owner not just of its massive social media platform but also other key communication services it has gobbled up such as Instagram and WhatsApp, is one of the most powerful companies ever to exist, if not the most powerful.”
He’s right. And while this heavyhanded censorship effort failed, there’s no reason to assume that other such efforts won’t work in the future. Not many stories are as hard to squash as a major newspaper’s front page expose during an presidential election.
As I wrote in The Social Media Upheaval, the best solution is probably to apply antitrust law to break up these monopolies: Competing companies would police each other, and if they colluded could be prosecuted under antitrust law. There are also moves to strip them of their immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects them from being sued for things posted or linked on their sites on the theory that they are platforms, not publishers who make publication decisions. And Justice Clarence Thomas has recently called for the Supreme Court to revisit the lower courts’ interpretation of Section 230, which he argues has been overbroad. A decade ago there would have been much more resistance to such proposals, but Big Tech has tarnished its own image since then.
Had Facebook and Twitter approached this story neutrally, as they would have a decade ago, it would probably already be old news to a degree — as Greenwald notes, Hunter’s pay-for-play efforts were already well known, if not in such detail — but instead the story is still hot. More importantly, their heavy handed action has brought home just how much power they wield, and how crudely they’re willing to wield it. They shouldn’t be surprised at the consequences.
It’s All a Grand Plan (swallow this post after you read it!) – A Blast From The Past From November 4 2013
So two days ago a friend sent me this “quote”:
“America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.” – Josef Stalin
It appears it has been all over face book. It seemed wrong to me. I mean, it appeared on the order of “Ninety percent of quotes on the internet are wrong,” George Washington.
What appeared PARTICULARLY wrong was, so to say, the “psychology” of the quote. It’s clearly how some Americans view America, but is it how Josef Stalin would see it?
Let’s leave aside the whole question of how much he believed in communism or whether he did. He was a psychopath, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t dress his wishes in some form of ideology, and if he did it was communism. If he believed in communism, the idea that America was “moral” is right out. In fact, we know he had this idea that America just pretty much was promiscuously commercial from his quote about selling us a rope. (And that one sounds real.)
In any case, whether he believed in communism or not, he would not say that aloud if he believed it. Think how bad it would be for someone continuously denouncing us for that criminally evil regime – capitalism – to say we were moral.
Besides, children, veddy bad news, but despite our puritan streak, no one in the rest of the world views us as moral. Mostly because we’re more open at our weirdness than they are. It’s like a friend tells me the Japanese are in general very straight-laced, which is why their porn is so wild. But HERE we get the porn and the tentacle anime and… and we assume that Japanese is a seething mass of bizarre and sex. That’s sort of how the rest of the world sees us. If you start an internet rumor that a fad of putting goldfish in your ears for sexual satisfaction is spreading in America, they’ll believe it. And they would probably even more so when murderous uncle Joe was alive.
The “America is a healthy body” is also something he would not say aloud. Because again, whether he believed communism or not, that was what they were selling to the masses, and in communist doctrine no capitalist country is healthy as such. (It’s in conflict, in contradiction, just waiting to be transitioned, you might say.)
Then we have “its spiritual life” – oh, BROTHER. Let alone that communists are atheists, and that there is a good chance Stalin saw his god in front of the shaving mirror every morning… Even if he subscribed to the idea that a spiritual life of some sort was good, he would look at us and think we had none.
Look, it’s unfair. It’s like our being the prudes that everyone else thinks are the class sluts, because we wear makeup and our skirt is a bit short (meaning we don’t pretend to be holier than thou) but as much as America is more religious than other Western countries, measurably, statistically, this is NOT how the world sees us. They see our multitude of religions. If you’re devout, how can you be friends with people who believe differently? Clearly, you’re not devout. They see our crazier manifestations – and that’s mostly what they see there, the snake handling sects, the spiritist sects, and then the fake churches like the idiots who picket soldiers funerals. It’s mostly what they see because it’s what their media finds “interesting” – and they think of our religion, here in America as somewhere between a carnival and a freak show.
Why would someone viewing that think of it as a strength? It would be more “Keep those crazy Americans busy with their crazy religions, they’re less likely to believe we’re infiltrating.”
Of all of that only patriotism makes sense, since communism is an international creed and us such believes that undermining patriotism is essential to its spread.
So, yes, I went to snopes and the quote is fake. Or at least “likely fake.” (Trust me, it’s fake.)
Which bring us to why I spent so much time analyzing it. No, it’s not to inure you about future bad quotes. They will go around, and all of us will fall for some of them sometime.
The reason I spent so much time introducing this is that when I went to Snopes, [it’s adorable that back then I still believed Snopes – SAH 2020] I found this listed under one particular kind of lie. The “The enemy is so clever” lie.
We’ve seen this with the Russians far too much and all through my life. “They’re so clever, that they engineered this and that and the other thing.” “They’re so brilliant, this is happening just according to their plan.”
Guys, take a deep breath, step back. If this is all according to their plan, it’s the only plan of theirs that ever went right. I mean, seriously, they couldn’t feed their own homeland with all those five years plans, but they can do a near hundred year plan to take over the rest of the world?
But Sarah, you’ll say, you say we’re still suffering from the effects of Soviet agit prop!
Oh, sure we are, but agit prop is not a careful plan. Look, communism is very good at proselytizing. Arguably it’s the one thing it’s good at. It hits, like all other communitarian doctrines, the part of the human brain that’s both looking for “fair” and longing for a return to childhood, with benevolent overseeing parents.
Put enough agit prop over there (and they put a lot) and some of it is going to hit and corrupt the vision of other countries. Besides, communism is so tailor made for intellectuals, explaining how things would be better if the intelligentsia ruled us.
BUT that is not a plan. Not unless it’s in the sense of “we do this, and this just might happen.” Witness for instance, that a plan would have come to fruition much earlier – like, before the USSR collapsed. Also, people that good at planning would have made sure that their system worked. (It is one of the funniest things about communism that they are central planners, but their plans never work. Okay, funny in a bitter way. I’m not laughing at the mass graves their delusions have caused.)
There is a tendency to look at trends we don’t like in society and things that aid ideologies we don’t approve of, and think that it’s all a fiendish plan.
Both sides do it. The left looked at the tea parties and panicked, because it doesn’t fit their conceptual universe for people to protest high taxes. So they invented the boogey man of the Koch brothers (rather libertarian old bachelors whom a friend who worked for them assured me are very nice.)
Soros is not on the same level – because, well, we KNOW he finances all sorts of left causes (and given his history, anyone who thinks he’s one the side of angels and works for good causes he endorses, should think again. Once you sell out your own people as a kid, well… you’re done, morally speaking. Particularly when you still brag about it as an old man.) And he has more money than the Kochs ever did.
But does that mean it’s all his “plan”? Is it all going according to his plan? Oh, please, guys – OWS. No, seriously. OWS. Yes, we all saw the ads on Craigslist, but nowhere did it say “must poop on police cars” okay?
He’s a man who wants to see the world burn and to that end tosses a lot of money at various disruptive causes. But he does not have a detailed plan, and everything does not go according to his plan, or you’d be looking at his face in a big screen every morning, while you did your mandated exercises. (Big Soros is watching you. Ick.)
Here’s the thing and the reason I don’t believe in the “conspiracy theory of history” except in the sense that some humans will look for power, and that the way they do it is always predictable: humans are strange.
No, seriously, humans are strange. There has never been a satisfactory enough theory to the way the individual human mind works. Oh, somewhat… but each school of psychology has hold of an end and no one has the full elephant. Which is why psychology remains a semi-soft science.
This simplifies somewhat when you have a crowd, but it’s still not conclusive. And when you have something like a country, which is a conglomerate of crowds… well…
History takes sudden turns, precipitated by events and one or two odd individuals in a crowd who don’t react the way you expect. “Scientific history” is poppycock. If it weren’t, the United States wouldn’t exist.
Yes, it is all explainable in retrospect, how we came to be. It’s easy to make up just-so stories about the past.
I doubt there’s ever been a human plan that worked, throughout history, and those of us who believe in a divine plan also believe it has taken some weird turns to accommodate us. Or as grandma would say “G-d writes straight on crooked lines.” (Or for those of you don’t believe, yes, those could be “just so” stories too, but if it’s all the same with you, I’ll throw my lot in with grandma. You see, I knew her, and I trust her judgement.)
We’re not G-d. Yes, I know. Very upsetting. But we’re not. This means that any plan that takes more than a generation will take some very weird turns, go sideways, and slide upside down, in the game of telephone that’s multi-generational belief.
Take for instance old Joe’s supposed quote above. Even if it had been true, could he have predicted the effect of a massive demographic bulge on American culture which did most of the loosening of said culture? I doubt it. I think the man had a talent for killing and terror, but no demonstrable intelligence otherwise.
Then why are we attributing G-d like intelligence to him?
Well, both because it puts the other side in the light of traitors and because it means we can’t do anything – see how comfortable that is? We can’t do anything, so why try? We can be absolute lumps and lecture all our friends still trying to turn things around and save us from a crash with “You fools. It’s been planned for decades. There’s nothing you can do.” Which is very comfortable and morally superior.
I see it all the time, even now, even from respectable thinkers, about the debacle that is Obama Care. “They planned this all. It’s all incredibly smart. Game over, man.”
Oh, please. You don’t need to drink their ink. No one in their right mind could have planned that insanity. Did they plan for the plan to collapse into single payer? Surely. But not by the sheer incompetence of governmental administration.
We’re well outside their plan, guys. They’re the gang that can’t shoot straight. No, this doesn’t mean they’re completely ineffective. They’re very good at destruction and destruction is half of their job. BUT it means when their plan goes wrong (and it always does) there is an opening for us to come in, to save things, to fix things, to make things work the way we want.
Will it go exactly according to plan for us? Oh, heck no. BUT we can push it in the right direction and keep working.
We’re good at working and at building. That’s what we do.
This morning, I got up and I cleaned poop from the hallway. Our geriatric cat is having diarrhea.
Being a conservative/libertarian is sort of like that. You’re always cleaning poop you didn’t make. And you don’t want to, because you have no interest in power over others. But if you just leave it there, someone will slip on it and make a bigger mess.
It’s not a plan. It’s just that you know where the spray cleaner is, and the paper towels, so you do it. And you change what would otherwise have happened. Most of the time for the better.
Be of good cheer. Destruction is not a plan and incompetence is not a destination.
Giving up would be premature and despair is a sin. In the long run, destroyers always lose, and you always need the person who knows where the cleaner is kept and how to use the paper towels.
Square your shoulders and be alert. You, those you love, and perhaps the entire country depend on you. This is no time to go wobbly.
To the idiot children screaming and tantruming because they want democracy. No, you can’t have democracy. “Democracy” for any group larger than a family (and even in those, you might want to research the concept of designated scapegoat present in abusive families!) is an evil system.
A purely democratic system is simply rule by the majority, something that our founding fathers went a long way to avoid and the reason why our Republic has been stable and prosperous enough that you can afford to be a totally ignorant dumbass and not starve in a corner.
“But democracy” you’ll say, remembering this from something your equally dumbass college professors said “is simply government by the people. And the only reason the founding fathers didn’t like it is that they were well to do, privileged white men, and racist, sexist, homophobic.”
Yes, I know you heard all that in high school and college. Which is why the cost of your “education” should be refunded in its entirety and if they can’t give you (or the taxpayers) the money back all your professors should be thrown into debtors prison. Except that likely, they’d have to get back the cost of their education, and eventually we’re going to find the bastards who dumbed down the teaching of civics and history and started corroding the republic are dead, the cowards.
At this point the reason you idiot children — some of which are older than I — are running around with your hair on fire dreaming up “intra-state popular vote compacts” and screaming at everyone on the internet that you want your “democracy” is a perfect storm of stupidity, indoctrination and refusal to think.
Yeah, the founding fathers were imperfect men. There are no perfect men. Or women. Or beings who self identify as an ornate building and a yellow wingless dragon at the same time. To be alive is to be imperfect, to have imperfect knowledge and make imperfect decisions.
Yes, I know I’m committing the ultimate sin of telling you over-educated morons that you’re not perfect. Too bad, so sad. Most of you could pose for the dictionary definition of Dunning Kruger. You’re so provincial and mal-informed that you don’t even know how provincial and mal-informed you are.
Yes, democracy was rule by the people in Ancient Greece. But “the people” had some rather narrow definitions, that didn’t hinge on “lives here” or even “was born here” and “is breathing.” For most of the ancient communities, “the people” meant a few of the “right people.” Mostly, honestly, people meant the tribe, the center of the city state, the “good families” or whatever. And even giving the vote to those only, and considering that most of these communities were very, very small, democracies tended to be highly unstable.
Why?
Well, because in practicality, democracy means “government of the majority.” And if you think about it for a second, a gang rape is a democracy. Who cares if the victim doesn’t like it? There are multiple rapists, and they each get a vote. Or as someone more eloquent than I put it, a democracy is a sheep and two wolves discussing what to have for dinner.
“But that’s silly!” you say. “Those are crimes.”
And? They’re crimes here, partly because of our Constitution — that “outdated” document you’d like to supersede — and partly because it’s the law of the land. They’re not necessarily crimes or not the way we view them elsewhere. Note that in Islamic countries, a gang rape is the woman’s fault, or at least she’s the one who’ll get executed for it. And in many of the socialist/communist/progressive lands of the world, taking everything someone owns is considered virtuous, not a crime. Curiously, these places tend to call themselves “Democracies.”
And what your idiotic and fervid minds have come up with with these “the president should be elected by popular vote” or “We should just all have the same value for votes, and ignore how each state votes” (Yes, I know, children, what you actually mean is “I want everyone to do what I think is right.” Because you’re infants who were never given a modicum of civilizing influence) is just that type of democracy. What would end up happening is that you’d despoil the land WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING YOU WERE DOING IT.
Because states are not run according to a Republican form of government but more like direct democracies, for instance, your congeneres in the big cities run the mentally handicapped glorious bearflag people’s republic. Which is why your hairspray-model governor, from the Pelosi crime family, thinks that it makes sense to ban the internal combustion engine and throw money at trains to nowhere, even as his state budget crashes and productive citizens and businesses leave his state in droves (and u-hauls, and shank’s pony if nothing else is available.)
Why? Because Governor Hairspray is governing according to the priorities of his set, the people he lives among all the time. They all obsess about global warming, (mostly because the models on that are as credible as the computer models for Winnie the Flu) to the point of being convinced that fires are due to that, and not forest management; they all obsess about the plight of the homeless, even though the only homeless they have any contact with are the people they buy crack from; they all think that poverty and crime is due to lack of material goods (that good old, insulting and obsolete Marxist model), they all can either walk to the deli-on-the-corner or be driven there, but they imagine the peasants can take public transport.
So, why would anyone need internal combustion vehicles, except that they are hating haters who hate? Or, you know, perhaps they’re long haul truckers, or people who farm, or even someone who lives 20 miles from the nearest grocery.
In other words, the problem with direct democracy is a problem of knowledge.
Voting is a way to allow everyone to vote their own best interests. Which means, for instance, that knowing what life is like for the self-employed writers, I’d be unlikely to support measures that punish self-employed or gig workers.
This would work great in a democracy, supposing the majority of the voting pool were self-employed, gig workers. Since they’re not, a lot of states have tax penalties on the self employed because to the man (and woman, etc) on the street and for reasons known only to their psychiatrists, or perhaps the writers of sitcoms, “self employed” means doctors and lawyers, and those — again in the average person’s head — are all “rich” and “deserve to pay.” (What the actual deserts are of people making it in professions that have arduous and near impossible to finish training, much less succeed at is complicated.) So, a lot of us writers pay an extra tax penalty, because the knowledge we even exist (and not as millionaires, again, thank you TV writers for that bit of insanity) much less are self-employed is not widespread.
In the same way, a popular vote election would work really well, if the US were a completely homogeneous country. You know, people were evenly distributed and all had the same resources and capabilities.
I don’t know? Maybe it’s possible to model such a country in minecraft or another computer simulation. But that’s not the world we live in.
Ultimately, our founders, faced with what to them — and compared to European countries — was a vast territory filled with disparate cultures and disparate people conceived of a way to maximize the knowledge of the voter about the relevant issues and the people the voters would trust to represent them.
And partly because the disparate territory (much larger and more disparate now) was already separate states, they decided to emphasize the power of the states, instead of the power of the federal government. Yeah, that got a bit blow out of the water after the civil war. I do realize that. And frankly a lot of the cure for what ails us would be curbing the power of the federal government. Not that any of you cartoon characters want to do that. No, you just want people to do exactly what you think is good and right.
Fortunately the founding fathers were smarter than you are. Don’t feel too bad. They were smarter, better read and better educated than just about anyone.
So, instead of making it one man one vote across this great land, they had the states have so many “electoral votes” and created the electoral college.
We can go into how that has been manipulated, etc, but you don’t want to hear my command of swearing in seven languages, particularly because I’ve forgotten the grammar for most of those.
All you need to know, though, is that if it were one-man-one-vote (and for man read woman, wingless dragon, red-hair-dyed problematic gender, etc.) we would be ruled by five cities. Because those cities contain the majority of the population in the country.
And then we too could be just like Europe — spit — where the urban “elites” think they know what’s good for everyone. So, you know, being obsessively worried about how farting cows are making everything burn up (in 12 years! This time we swear it’s real!) they’ll order farmers to dispose of herds of dairy cows that took generations to perfect. Or tell people who live in the middle of nowhere they can’t drive.
In Europe, because people don’t always obey the government, the collapse is very slow (though rather obvious in the fact that most people have chosen not to have children. That’s the ultimate vote.) Other places, where the “elites” were even dumber and running in possession of Marxism (much much more dangerous than running with scissors) the crash is much faster. See, Venezuela, or Cuba, or even (though they won’t let you see it, until it bursts like a boil in the face of the world) China.
Given that all of you little Dunning-Kruger-rands are convinced that this time you’ll do communism right, and that you have the answers to everything, you’d probably manage to crash us even faster than Venezuela.
We’ve seen what you in the big cities and the government (BIRM) got up to with COVIDiocy, for instance. The idea all restaurants must be half of capacity, for instance, makes sense in NYC (maybe) because I’ve been there. Their restaurants set tables on top of each other. Note the rest of the country already is double that distance, NATURALLY. Or consider mask mandates. They make sort of sense if you must ride the subway, carrying groceries in both hands. I mean, if you sneeze, it’s going to go all over. I hate to tell you, but we don’t even have subways. And I go up in an elevator maybe once a month, and can avoid it if I so wish.
Which means your mask mandates do NOTHING. Absolutely fricking nothing. Except cause those of us who are asthmatic or have issues getting enough oxygen to be hypoxic on the regular.
However, perhaps the Covidiocy that’s most illustrative or your rank (and it is rank) and aggressive stupidity and provincialism, is the number of you who keep insisting we can stay locked up forever or until there’s a vaccine.
Cupcakes, even if this were half as deadly as you seem to think it is, even if this were for real small pox or the bubonic plague, you only think eternal lockdowns are possible because you can do your job just as well from home, or you have enough resources to stay home without requiring the earning of more money.
That means you are something less than 20% of the population, and mostly a knowledge-worker. There’s no shame in it. So am I. And my life has changed very little because I was already a semi-recluse introverted geek.
But the people who grow your food, make the things you use, and transport them, for that matter, need to be out there, and need to be working. And before you go into upper-class-white-knight mode and tell me I can’t require the poor and less educated (note, many aren’t) to risk themselves, what you are actually saying is “I don’t believe people need food or material goods anymore. We can all live on air and airy ideas.”
Because these people need to work, so they feed and clothe themselves and others. No amount of money printing or subsidies will cause food to appear out of thin air, nor add an ounce of fabric to your frozen back.
So, while the knowledge-class votes disproportionately and also disproportionately thinks they’re capable of running everyone’s lives, it ain’t necessarily so. They mostly know their own set and the conditions pertaining to their own set.
Oh, and since you think you’re so smart, consider that most people aren’t. There is no such thing as a place where most people are smart. For whatever your definition of “smart” is. (You ain’t, kiddies. You’re just well indoctrinated.) By laws of reality, about half the people are below average. And honestly, because of the way intelligence works, 10% of the people think the other 90% are morons. (Regardless of how you define smart and intelligence.) Also, even the 10% can be brilliant in their field, specialty or area of interest and total idiots in all others. (As much as I read, study and research, my commenters routinely catch me in elementary mistakes in THEIR areas of expertise.)
You are not a perfect person. No matter what your mommy, daddy and professors told you, you can’t and won’t ever know everything. And IF you did, you’d be an extreme minority.
This means “democracy” as in letting everyone vote and having every vote count exactly the same means truly, bizarrely stupid decisions will be made. And the most productive, smarter, best motivated, and most willing to work will in fact be the sheep in that one sheep and two wolves. We’ve seen that story over and over again.
Which is why we don’t care if you’ve thrown yourself to the floor in the grocery store and are screaming and sobbing “but I wanna wanna wanna democracy.” We’re not going to let you have it.
Because the founding fathers created an oasis of prosperity and innovation in this land of ours, and that’s not common in history. To quote a man who was much, much smarter than you even think you are:
“Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as “bad luck.””
Robert A. Heinlein
If you want that “democracy” bad luck, I will personally help you pack. I think there are still flights leaving for Venezuela, but if not, we’ll be glad to arrange for drive-through rights for you to go and join their brilliant experiment. (Well, they SAY they’re a democracy. And they’re ending the way democracies usually do.)
Until then shut up, wipe your nose, and learn to live in a democratic republic.
Because we’re not about to let you destroy it.
See, we know history. And using that knowledge, we know your wish for democracy is like the dog’s wish to catch a car. He wouldn’t know what to do with it if he caught it, and it would probably kill him.
According To Hoyt 