I was going to write about the power of love. Mostly because I’m realizing the depths of depression I’d fallen into and the kittens are bringing us back to life. Little Circe, particularly, really loves her daddy and it’s healing his heart.

BUT– But lately I’m running into the narrative on Jews that is really just anti-antisemitism in glad rags. “All Jews are commies, destroying western civ. Why should we support their war.”

It’s…. interesting, shall we say? Because in the end, it comes down to “we support their war because we’re next on the Hamass menu, regardless.” But a lot of this is, bizarrely, taking organizations like ADL and claiming it speaks for all Jews, and therefore…. Which is like La Raza, or the more deranged (yes, they exist, they’re just small) Portuguese orgs in the US speaking for me. They don’t, just because I come from a vaguely allied culture, if you were wondering. I don’t think that Latin culture is superior to all others, or that the West of the US was stolen from us, and I’m not, of course, a Marxist.

I do have some insight, coming from having acculturated to the US as an adult though. Sometimes I wonder if that’s why I seem to be the only person, even among the writers and artists, who was aware of the political color bar, and what you had to do to succeed, and how you could get cancelled on suspicion of not singing fully in the progressive choir, even back in the eighties and nineties.

It was plain as the nose on my face, to me. Perhaps this was because in Portugal, by the time I hit my teen years, that political color bar was drawn in bright red and the penalties were also very obvious. The fact that some teachers spelled it out, by telling me outright if I wanted to have an A and get into college I’d best get with the program, probably didn’t hurt.

But I could see it even as an exchange student in the early 80s. It was “subtle” in a way, but you could see it. Say something outside the leftist media narrative, and everyone in the room looked at you like you were an idiot. And then it would start circulating how very not smart you were, and how you might be a little nuts. From there to social pariah was a step, though the odder and less sensitive to others’ responses might not get it and just think it’s an unfriendly group or whatever.

Note later, when I was involved in Mensa, a society that is entered by showing proof of IQ, the same mechanic applied. Open your mouth with a non-approved non-leftist narrative, and you “weren’t very bright” at best, and were a potential terrorist/racist/sexist/homophobe at worst.

The line was very clear to me, as was the assumption: All smart people; all educated and well informed people were leftist. Therefore, if you didn’t want to be judged as one of those stupid hicks and uneducated and maybe with a screw loose, you’d repeat whatever. And yeah, a lot of times, you’d end up being more left than you’d otherwise have been, because — look up cults — there is a mechanic to repeating what you don’t believe that’s used in indoctrination.

By this mechanic, most of the US upper class by the 40s (if you believe bios, and also Heinlein’s opinion) had essentially become Marxists, though unaware of it themselves. It was a function of what books were published, what programs were broadcast (radio first) and what memes were deployed. I THINK it started in the colleges, probably around and just after WWI. By WWII the only fight was German Marxists or Russian Marxists. And because of FDR the overclass went all in on the Russian side. (It might have been for the best, too, who knows? I just wish they’d woken up earlier.)

Note this was completely invisible to people who hadn’t come from another culture, be it immigrants or “working class/under class who made good.”

Leftism was a positional good. It’s actually been interesting and surprising how fast that’s falling apart since 16. It’s partly the fact that leftism is no longer holding it together to the extent of sounding even vaguely sane. And partly the fact that the masks have all come off, and the mechanic become incredibly obvious. Partly because we have access to the media of other places, times, and un-gate-kept media too.

I’m hoping this breaks both the immigrant comes in and becomes hard left, and the “lower class who makes good” becomes hard left. Because if you think about it, that’s been true for a long time. And it’s a poison pill. We all want our kids to do well/acculturate. But that means we lose them to Marxism because they want to fit in with their new circumstances. It’s been a meme in the culture forever, and yet people don’t seem to GET it. Not really get it. Makes me feel like the man with one eye.

But I never expected this effect to be held PARTICULARLY against the Jews. It’s all immigrant groups who came in during or after the 20th century. All of them. I always cringe at “oh, Hispanics are hard working, family oriented. They’ll be right wing.” No. they won’t. Because leftism is a positional good. And they want to fit in and sound high class. The effect is so strong that third generation of families escaping Communists: Russians, Chinese, Cubans, are often hard left. (And even the ones who think they aren’t, buy into a lot of the bullsh*t.) The only defense seems to be a strong religion. Hence Muslim immigrants aren’t becoming hard left, though their political culture often allies them with the Marxists. But that’s because their culture is their religion and they tend to stick in tight communities that all police each other on religion.

No, not like Jews or Catholics. Walk away from that religion, and your parents might stop talking to you. They are, however, highly unlikely to slit your throat. So, Italians, Hispanics, etc, all become Marxists to fit in. Yes, so do the Jews. Arguably some of them were Marxist (both kinds, though Jews will read danger when it almost kills them (takes a while) and soured on the German model really quickly) when they came here, because they were European upper class “d’industrie” not of birth, but those lines also blurred because noblemen like money, etc.

All of these 20th century and later immigrants, as well as the organizations that cater to them are all hard left. It’s not a coincidence. It’s because integrating in the culture involved becoming increasingly harder left. Unless you were stubborn enough that what you said out of your mouth didn’t taint your mind (grins in being me) and/or so religious that you wouldn’t go over. (Some Christians were protected, yes, but often not their kids.) It’s one of the risks of massive and uncontrolled immigration. Though to be fair, in the Jewish case, there wasn’t much they could do. They were genuine refugees and terrified. Which made their assimilation more so.

Look, we have a lot of work to do healing our culture. But the bullshit was already in our culture that pushed these people left. It’s nothing inherent in Jewishness, except the twin desire for safety and being accepted to the extent those operate. (Yes, there’s also separatedness, but that is driven from the inside only to the extent that Jews stay religious.)

I was going to paste a screen cap of a comment on Wretchard’s FB page that used ALL the talking points, about how this guy would support Israel, but frankly the Jews, as exemplified by ADL and Soros were responsible for anti-white, anti-Christian, anti-western initiatives, so let them burn, etc.

I decided not to give the asshole screen space, besides the fact I want to set him on fire.

First, Soros maybe was once upon a time a Jewish boy. Maybe. I honestly don’t know how religious his family was originally or if they tried, but he reminisces mistily about selling out other Jews for profit as a young teen. He’s evil, but he’s not Jewish in the religious sense. He might be an “Ethnic Jew” but so are a lot of people. Due to the fact that Jews are not a collective entity with a shared brain, it means nothing for Jews or Israel as a whole.

The ADL is now just a leftist organization. Yes, sure, Jews work for it. Again, leftism is/was until very recently a positional good. And? Other large organizations, including the ACLU that started as non leftist have all become screamingly leftist. This has nothing to do with Jews, and everything to do with “Our culture was already very infected when most Jews immigrated which led to all sorts of pathologies.”

“But Jews have all the power, reeeeee.” Jews in general do well, particularly when semi-assimilated. I have friends who believe it is the effect of generations selecting for who does best at professions that are mostly intellectual and portable. And they might be right. I’d like to point out though, that I think it’s also FEAR. Converso families in Portugal tend to do very well, because there is safety in wealth and position, and family trauma tends to echo through generations. That thing about culture persisting beyond genes.

Take it from the neurotic who managed to stay employed in trad pub for 30 some books, when the average career was 2 when she came in. Scrambling on your torn fingernails out of utter terror can give you a lot of lift.

So, yeah, Jews are more visible than other minorities, in some ways. Some. Though I’ll also point out a lot of people assume we’re Jewish because Biblical names and last name that sounds German (It’s actually British from the border with Wales, originally, but hey. Dan does have a ton of German, via an Amish Great grandmother.) I’ve seen this happen more than once. Prominent person in entertainment or arts, German last name, the finger pointing begins, and then you find they’re Lutheran or Catholic. (Though usually background only.) Bah.

The point here is, yeah, a lot of Jews are leftist. They also suffer from targeting issues. To understand why you need to understand that generational trauma, again. There was a post recently on how the Jewish community as a whole kept identifying Christians as the enemy, instead of the left. That’s partly because they assimilated into the left for safety, and partly because they’re hearing the words not the actions. Yes, it’s stupid. They’re not the only ones making that mistake.

This also goes to “but they exaggerate their victimhood.” Bitch, if you were retraumatized through history every few generations, and always hit when you felt safe, victimhood would also be at the center of your identity. That it is a belligerent victimhood is probably to the good. It’s how Jews survive. That it makes them then try to help everyone who proclaims himself a victim…. well, oy vey iz mir gevalt!

Though the last month and change has made a lot wake up to how they’re being used.

There is a wakening set in motion in 2020 that went further with October 7th, and a lot of masks have come off. We’re seeing a massive realignment across the lines, and not just for Jews. But it will take time, and the results might surprise even you. But these things are always slower than you think in working through.

Right now everyone is still in shock from 2020 and the masks coming off, and stumbling around punch drunk.

None of which has anything to do with the fight between Israel and Hamass. First what Hamass (the Pork Loin Brigades) did was true savagery and horror, a declaration of war not on Jews, but on all of civilization. Their doing what they did and broadcasting it amounted to “We will subdue you with violence and evil, till you bow to us.” The answer to that is always not only no but hell no, preferably with missiles, if you want to keep any civilization and decency.

Second, it’s purely in our best interests. If you think allowing Hamass to do this to Israel and destroy it utterly — which will happen if there’s a cease fire with no surrender first! — won’t result in their trying the same in our lands, you’re out of your mind. And while I don’t think they’d succeed in America, looking at Europe makes me doubtful they wouldn’t succeed there. At least enough to make the rest of the world hazardous to America.

Third, the axis of evil, totalitarian regimes is real. And it doesn’t include Israel. Which is why our evil would be totalitarians much love China, and only reluctantly pay Israel lip-service and play f*ck f*ck games on aid. BTW all the totalitarians are in major economic and other trouble. Part of their recent belligerence is an attempt to save themselves. And like our home grown Bidenmites, the more they try to flail around and fix things, the deeper they dig.

It is in the best interest of CIVILIZATION to back Israel. Because Hamass is the opposite of civilization. And will take us all down given a choice.

As for the anti-Semites…. they’ll always be with us, I guess. However, before you buy their idiocy, do pay attention to the logic and how this affects other groups.

There is a concerted propaganda effect going on to leave Israel out in the cold. And for various reasons, the right always falls for this. ALWAYS. The right in the US are so susceptible to propaganda it’s a miracle we survive at all.

Again, as yesterday, don’t echo malicious propaganda, and do make an effort to identify what is propaganda and aimed at winning by other means the war started with savagery and horrible crimes against civilians.

Be not afraid and be not stupid. Stay safe out there.

Our hostess is fine, although bekittened (enkittened? surrounded by and engulfed in kittens): I have begged the blog today for a project we are working on.

We’re putting together a memorial. I’m collecting the names of our departed Huns and Hoydens. Would you please post anyone you know of we have lost in the last three years in the comments of this post? I already have some, but I’m sure I’m missing others. I will be also posting this in the Diners: there is no need to add names to more than one post.

Thank you very much,

Holly

Of all the ideas in Heinlein fiction that would be useful, the most impossible isn’t his “sensitives” that can communicate telepathically or otherwise circumvent technology. I mean, those seem impossible, but to be honest, we haven’t really tried for them.

The most impossible, which seemed, I think, back when he wrote them, “just within reach” are things that, though I don’t remember the exact names he used (a sure sign it’s time to re-read) involve making the sciences of psychology and sociology, let alone linguistics into exact sciences, so the number is computable and the outcomes precise.

In a way it is a very mid-century idea for the 20th century. Part of the whole rule by experts, and everything being planned from the top down involved of course exact outcomes that could be exactly computed and calculated.

Well… it’s not like that. And we know that’s a good thing, because it keeps the idiots at the top from attempting to herd us like cattle and create what they think is utopia and is in fact a horror. But it doesn’t keep them from trying.

Yes, the commenter who said something about “10% parasites, all is lost” wrote back. He says — and I believe him, btw. This is not an adversarial response, but one that involves answering the ideas. Because the ideas, obviously, are out there. The fact they’re crazy cakes somehow gets lost even to very intelligent people, which my commenter is. So they need airing — he read something about when there is a minority that is determined not to be absorbed and has its own language and costumes, even just 10% of the population, it will destroy the nation. This made me laugh so hard in “European-raised before highways” that I can’t begin to make you understand. BUT I’ll try. Oh, I’ll try.

I suspect it all comes from — who was it — and his idea that if a minority of as much as ten percent holds its breath and threatens to turn blue long enough, the majority will give in. This, I suspect is a way to explain what the left did to the west in the 20th century all while ignoring the elephant in the room. Which is very human and utterly infuriating. It reminds me of explanations for why the artistic and literary establishments were dominated by the left back in the old days, including “The right just isn’t creative” while we who saw this from the other side knew it was because the establishment discriminated on politics. But this never occurred to the analysts.

Anyway, first, the thing the commenter said he meant. This made my jaw drop and my mind blow. I imagine whoever came up with this piece of brilliance (NOT my commenter) is a dyed in the wool racist, and that this was aimed at the US’s black population, which is around 14% I think, at last counting. Yes, they’ve been indoctrinated not to assimilate, and that’s a problem, but it’s a problem caused by the people who instituted public schooling creating they wanted the opposite — integration, in that case of immigrants — and all the kids knowing the same things. Remember that, because it’s what they always do given the chance.

It is not a natural factor, and absent continuous indoctrination and bizarre forms of governmental discrimination in the name of “helping” it would be gone within a generation.

But would the the black population of the US “fully integrated” and not have “distinctive language”? Look bub, it never was. Nor were any of the other tiny groups. Cultures, even after someone gets fully assimilated, when the population retains a group — not an isolated individual — have…..very long half lives.

Did it rip apart the US? Well, no. Not so long as there was a general culture, a civic set of beliefs that made us American.

If you think that we must all have the exact same linguistic expression, set of beliefs and cultural presentation for the country to survive, the country should be no larger than about a thousand people. And about 15 miles square. And that might be pushing it.

Okay, I exaggerate, because we do have highways and mass communication means. But the local variation is much larger than most people realize. And while I realize I’m ESL (Actually ETL) and deaf to boot, regional dialects might not be their own language, but they might as well be.

And all of us have groups we let our hair down with. I know when I realize new acquaintances that I’m desperately trying to be “normal” for reveal themselves as our brand of geek, I can feel the pressure coming off.

Now, is that the same as say importing boatloads of ENIMICAL culture individuals, like, say, Somalians? Who have a different religion, different language and hate us with a burning passion?

No. Will it destroy the country? No. Mostly it will destroy THEM. Because they are too convinced of their own inherent superiority, and let’s face it, they were brought in as weapons by our idiots. So they’re going to go off. After which, they’ll be gone.

Throughout history, the only minorities like that that manage to stay separate and SAFE are the ones that are brought in to be elites, and protected from the populus. Yes, I do realize that this is exactly what our overlords think they’re doing. Our overlords are idiots studying to be morons, okay? They see savagery and mistake it for a warlike disposition. These are not the Teutonic Knights of the Holy Cross. They are not capable of holding the American population (THE AMERICAN POPULATION!) cowed by their superior war like skills. They’re crazy rebarbarized populations, ululating their entitlement and hatred of the general population. We’ll tolerate them as long as they’re tolerable. And then…

Look, even with populations brought in to be overlords, whose dominion lasted centuries, when they stopped being protected/kept in a superior position to the general population, two things happened: A vast number of them got killed. Messily. The rest integrated, with nary a peep.

Oh, there is a third one: the indigestible minority leaves. Or separates into its own country. But that takes either 50/50 separation or…. well, yes, the Jews didn’t integrate. That could also be what the original proponents of this lovely idea were aiming for. Here’s the thing though: the Jews didn’t integrate-ish. But they did. Spanish Jews spoke a different form of Spanish, not a different form of German. And the genes drifted as well. Yes, there is a genetic marker, but that’s not as strong as you’d think.

And for that it took not just a religion, but a strong religion that appeals to very stubborn people and circumstances that for various reasons selected for intelligence and argumentativeness.

Also, contrary to the delusions of the Nazis it tore no country apart. The Jewish minority, in most countries, functions as a fully integrated part of the whole and brings distinct benefits to the nation. Only crazy people think otherwise, though it’s a popular illusion, mind. It’s also one that, when that minority is killed or expelled, leaves the country a mess and materially and culturally impoverished. (No? Fight me, she says in Portuguese! Do you think it’s a coincidence Portugal never rose to world-power again? Also, FYI Henry the Navigator was 1/4 converso. I said and will stick by it, FIGHT me.)

More importantly, everywhere in old Europe, there were little villages with their culture, customs, ideas, and languages, often the remnant of old languages in that area. I can’t be the only one who learned “Standard” language in school for the first time. Now, what we spoke at home was mostly understandable, but not standard in any way. And I found out later when I opened my mouth without thinking, my college professors could pinpoint my origin to within a mile of home.

Those countries weren’t torn apart. Well, they were but fighting other countries, and the cultures in Europe all still demand that. I’m frankly not even mad, more impressed that the EU hasn’t exploded yet.

They weren’t torn apart, because they had a set of beliefs that held them together. In this case a blood-and-soil myth that the borders held ein volk, ein– You get it.

Myth? Oh, dear Lord. My sons call Portugal “the reservoir tip at the end of Europe” and they’re not wrong, due to the duality of being at the extreme edge, and basically a vast seaport with a tiny country attached. I used to be able to — but would now take a lot of alcohol to perform — sing-song all the people’s who had come and stayed, contributing to the “Portuguese race.” But here’s the thing, children…. it’s not a race. It’s not even an integrated nationality. Yes, even to my eyes now, they all look the same-ish. But I remember when I lived there, and I could tell where people came from by their look. Celtic and Germanic is mostly in the North. The South has a lot of Moor still, and– Oh, I might not distinguish all the thirty or so people’s that contributed to the whole, but I could give you a general “feel”. (Germanic looks, btw, were mostly lower class, and not for the reason you expect. You see, the Moors, which were the large last group deposed and subdued by arms had a bad habit of kidnapping blonds and redheads. So. Add a few centuries and shake well…)

And even when I was a kid there were DEEP rifts, in how you cooked, how you kept house, how you LIVED. But the country wasn’t torn apart.

Nor were the other European countries. Now, some might not be quite so promiscuous as Portugal — and some are more — but look you I remember British friends who could tell the ancestry of someone they met to the area of the country they came from. And you know what, according to my linguistic professors, some of that went back to the teapot-sized countries that the nation originated from.

Cultures take time to mix and assimilate. Centuries. But the countries can be healthy nonetheless, provided there is a set of beliefs in the country. Yes, that can be the blood and soil myth in Europe. Here, our constitution is fine, thank you.

What happened in Germany wasn’t the result of an unassimilated minority. It was the result of a culture in deep crisis crossed with a time when it was assumed the “experts” could design everything from the top down. The fact that they were trying to resolve the problem of a deeply wounded national ego by blaming a minority that was VISIBLE because of their different attire and customs, and trying to solve it by eliminating it and pushing conformity from the top down doesn’t mean it’s inevitable.

It means it’s a danger for deeply wounded cultures, with a myth of UNITY and blood-and-soil. For us the danger hinges more on equality, which leaves us wide open to the politics of envy. But the nation isn’t deep crisis. The elites are. They’re just inflicting their psychosis on us.

Anyway, I’ve spent way too long on what is OBVIOUSLY someone’s racist and anti-semitic hangup. I’d guess someone not culturally American. (And no, not my commenter.)

And the original person decided in the beginning these “minorities” were a problem, and then justified it. OBVIOUSLY. Because otherwise, it’s adding two plus two and getting kumquat, and I recommend Thorazine.

Just like the hangups on “EQUALITY”, if a nation is absolutely uniform (and ten percent is a pretty small minority, btw) in income/lifestyle or language/cultural expression, it’s not a sign of health and strength. It’s a sign of a serious totalitarianism, squishing everything down.

I’ll tell you the same I tell the people who list inequality as a problem, “You’re trying to solve a feature as if it were a problem.”

An absolutely unified nation WITHOUT a minority that refused to be assimilated has never existed, outside maybe the earliest nation states. And even there, I doubt it. The problems come when the culture is in crisis and tries to make everyone exactly alike. But a culture in crisis exaggerates even the slightest problems. So, you know, them over there, who use clay pots for their stew instead of cast iron, can become a whole “unintegrated minority” at need. But it’s a mirage, really. And what tears the nation apart is something else. The minority is just something convenient to blame.

So much for that. Yes, we do have a problem (fight me on that too) with not only not encouraging people to speak English, but catering to a dozen langages so as not to be “racist” and refusing to let kids be taught to assimilate. I KNOW I had to fight to keep my kids from being put in Spanish-only (of all things) school, and I am not, nor ever was, a Spanish speaker, and am married to someone whose ancestors have been here from the beginning, save for the ones that met them on the shore. So, you know?

We have a huge problem. It’s called a massive and too powerful government with illusions of intellectual superiority. Remove that, and people will integrate or flee. (And keep in mind I still think most of the newest arrivals are here because they were promised benefits, and we’d be better off without them. In fact, a bunch are running the other way when the teat dries.)

Otherwise? People can and will integrate. No? Laughs in Italian and Irish.

Now, on the other one, the “if a minority holds its breath till it turns blue, we’ll give them what they want because we hate to be mean!”

Do I need to point out that’s bullshit? If that were true, guns would already be forbidden, since they’ve been the main push of the proto-commies and commies since…. oh, forever?

So, where did this analyst of social evolution come up with that? Easy peasy. Disregard the fact that every means of mass communication, down to commercialized artistic expression supported the push of the Marxists, and you come up with some strange sh*t to explain the 20th century.

I’ve pointed this before, and it’s only visible now because it’s no longer working as it used to, but there used to be a push on EVERYTHING for whatever their pet cause was at the time. When their push was to get abortion federally legalized… Well, let’s say I’ve read a lot of period novels. Almost all of them had someone die of a botched abortion. So did the movies. Or worse, they had someone destroyed, going insane from having a “bastard”. ALMOST every one. It was a pervasive wall of propaganda.

And with all that, we don’t even know if it convinced the people at large. Why? Because when that level of propaganda is deployed, people who dissent are afraid to say it. Those of you who were recently college students will know what I’m talking about. Step out of line, and you just ruined all your prospects in life, and people will know you as “that crazy person.” (Or in my case, “A little peculiar.” Yes, very proud of that.)

I know in the present day where, despite their stomping, we can still talk around the edges, and more importantly, the information/entertainment is not unified, they deployed the same thing to make us feel like open borders were the bestest thing. And it’s not working. It’s not working with teeth in it. But Lord, they tried. From city-commissioned murals, to the stories that get awards, to the series that are changed to be all about immigration, to– It’s everywhere. And they can’t understand why it’s not working. (Part of the reason it’s not working is because the quality of entertainment/literature and art that pushes the message has got so bad — because they select creators on the basis of conformity, of course — that people are reading older things, and indie things, and foreign things. And they get news from other countries, as well. So the push is not working.)

But yeah, all the remarkable “gains” of the left during the twentieth century is because cancel culture, whisper campaigns, and hiring and promoting for social conformity were already fully on.

So, the dispirited dissenters thought they were the only ones, and kept their mouths shut.

This is not effective in the long run. In the long run, it leads to Romanian Christmas. BUT in the short run, and if the people doing the analysis refuse to see the elephant in the room, it gives the impression of a minority getting all their crazy wish list, because the majority is just so nice, and doesn’t want to say no.

At any rate, these are things that superficially seem to make sense, but not when you really dig for all the factors, or look at similar situations in history.

Sure, unassimilated minorities are bad. They also only stay ABSOLUTELY separate if the government of the land is enforcing that. And even then they don’t. It just takes them MUCH longer to integrate.

And sure, some cultures are utterly toxic and inimical to civilization. (Judaism might be the opposite. As with cats, where they are, there is civilization.) And they’re very hard to eliminate while keeping the people. And only insane people would invite them into their home country. But our elites are bugnuts, and hate us with the fire of a thousand suns.

Still, the problem is self-resolving when the government stops protecting the invaders. And no, I don’t even mean violence, unless it’s getting what they dish out. And my guess is it will mostly result in fleeing while a small contingent quiet assimilates and disappears into the population. Because frankly the overculture doesn’t work well with tribal mentality. And it won’t.

Anyway, this is why social math, or scientific psychology and sociology don’t exist. You can’t set controlled experiments with that kind of system over time. So, it’s impossible to say “Once you reach x number of dissenters, this happens.” Because you can’t experiment to prove it.

What you have is history, which often in the telling ignores the elephant in the room, for the same reason that fish, if they had language, wouldn’t have a word for “water.” (They’d have 100 words, including one for water that smells like poo, but that’s something else. Just go with the metaphor, okay?) Everyone in one of the fields where the left enforced conformity in the 20th century knew what was happening (What, you thought everyone all at once just needed to write about people dying in botched abortions? Thorazine. You need it.) But they didn’t know/couldn’t see it was universal. So it appears in nothing. And trying to analyze from the “history” is a fool’s errand.

As for psychology, though there was some outright crazy stuff done in the late nineteenth century and also by the Nazis, it’s really hard to eliminate all other factors that lead to outcomes in humans, and experimenting is a chamber of horrors I’d like to keep shut, thank you.

So again anyone who comes up with a number, or a population percentage that guarantees an outcome, is trying to sound super-scientific and is just making shit up. Some might not realize they’re making shit up, so I’ll credit them with stupid honesty. But I suspect most do realize it.

And anyone who comes up with a number or a percentage of the population who is tying their belts funny, or speaking with a weird accent, or eating those disgusting onions, or WHATEVER IT IS as a reason why “everything is lost, give up now.” Is an enemy. An enemy of humans. An enemy of civilization and an enemy of America.

No one runs around telling one side of the fight to just give up if they want it to win. And no one does it when the side is ALREADY defeated.

The only reason to run around saying “Give up now!” is a psi-ops by those who want you defeated, and are afraid you won’t be.

Keep that in mind, before you doom. The times being what they are, and the private pressures being what they are, not to mention the psychological fractures of 2020, a lot of us go through black moments. Actually black moments from the pit of hell are not rare.

HOWEVER try to keep your black moments to a few friends. And don’t trust anyone who shouts them in public, and wants to convince you it’s all lost.

Those people are not your friends. And what they want is not the restoration of America.

One of you recently came up with the idea that we have ten percent parasites, and therefore society can’t endure and “it’s over man.”

Honestly, I don’t know who is promulgating this kind of insanity. I know someone is, because these completely unrooted and frankly crazy ideas show up everywhere at once, and whoever it is a) understands very little of the immense abundance in US society, still, despite everything that’s been done to us. b) is very dogmatic and pulls numbers from ass on the regular. c) must be one hell of a persuasive writer, because he bypasses smart people’s pshaw reflex, which should kick up at such absurdities.

Absurdities? Do I maintain we don’t have 10% parasites? Bah. We have far, far more than that. I mean, Pierre Delecto is an idiot, because not paying taxes isn’t the same as being a free loader, but the amount of welfare that flows from Uncle Sugar’s teat is far more than 10%. And a lot of those people aren’t even American. And a lot of them aren’t even here. (But a large number are.)

So it’s absurd to come up with 10% and it’s irrational to say that’s the “terminal condition” of our society. Hell, even if those 10% were all violent and organized. Why? Because we’re all armed to the teeth, frankly. I can see — in fact, I expect — a dozen 10/7s happening across the county, if I’m right on a given, clear-sky day just before Easter next year, but I also expect only one will succeed and not to the same extent, not even close.

Look, there is a reason no other airplanes have been highjacked and flown at high buildings which, if you remember, we all expected on the regular 12 years ago. It wasn’t because our Homeland Security and airport theater are super-effective. And it’s not because it hasn’t been tried. It’s because we’re a pack, not a herd, and anyone trying the same shit would get — has gotten — beaten within an inch of their lives and stuffed in a luggage compartment. Hell, people, before 9/11 was done, the last plane missed the mark the terrorists had designated for it, and went (from their perspective) tragically wrong. Because we’re Americans. And they’d plotted it for people like them.

Something like what happened in Israel, would have to be a lot bigger to make a dent here, and I doubt they can make it as big before someone shoots all their faces in. Even in towns where gun ownership is technically forbidden. As one of my friends in one of those enclaves told me during the summer of love of 20 “Better be tried by 12 than carried by 6.” (No, not ragging on Israel, but hoping they get out of their European mind set on guns.)

So, a 10% determined, organized minority who came out to do attacks? They might succeed …. once. And it would be very bad. But after that– Well. We wouldn’t have 10%.

Beyond all that, though, while Pierre Delecto is not right in 47% parasites, or whatever the hell it was, we do carry a lot of dead freight. A lot more than 10%. Off the top of my head, I’d say 25% counting only human beings, real and imaginary, and not college programs, grants for the arts, and whatever crazy sh*t our “betters” use to give our money away. As I like to say all the taxes I’ve paid and I’m likely to pay the rest of my life, were given to the Taliban.

Are we going deep in debt? Yes, we are. And the current maladministration is too stupid to inflate it away. But it is fiat debt. And while it’s not as if it doesn’t count, it’s also not precisely all it seems to be. For one, China owns a lot of it, which it bought with play money of their own, and which it can’t really collect on.

So the situation with the debt is horrible, but not serious. By definition, since we’re obviously using play money.

Will the bill come due? Certainly. But I expect it will be blood not money. And after that…. who knows? In the end reality prevails, because it exists when we ignore it.

Look, I’m not saying we’re not in trouble. Part of the trouble we’re in are institutions and an establishment (including the financial portion) completely disconnected from reality and the nation and the country. So the decisions it makes, and the thing it does have not even tangential contact with what needs to be done. And often, like opening the borders, they’re trying to fix a problem they tell us doesn’t exist (population dearth) by the stupidest means (that assumes people are widgets) and thereby making everything worse.

But in real wealth, in the way we live? We might be feeding a lot of parasites, and our government is certainly trying to kill us/destroy us. But we’re still wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice.

Groceries are swallowing up a lot more of our paychecks than we thought. And we’re trying to help the kids, who are just starting out, of course. And their rents are crazy. To compensate for the lockdowns, they’ve gone crazy everywhere (and that’s not counting properties bought by foreign nationals for reasons of their own brain parasites.)

We’re trying to save a little to buy canned and non-perishable to donate to various charities. And we try to help friends who fall on hard times, which has been happening way faster and more often. Because writers (and musicians, and artists and even small time craftsmen) have no insurance when the bad times come, and we’re often the first ones hit. And it is the duty of every decent human being to help as we’d hope to be helped. It’s sort of what we owe our own humanity. I think. (I don’t require you to believe it.)

But the newspaper headline saying 25% of Americans were threatened by famine made me giggle. We’re so far from famine that the fat geese infesting city parks are considered a nuisance, and deer are an hazard to road navigation in Fall. I wondered if that “journalist” was an AI and maybe Chinese.

Look, when I was little, having parasites was normal. No, seriously. We had intestinal worms, and fleas, and well, mom kept my long, scrupulously clean hair free of parasites and never had to shave my head. This was a bit of an achievement, since at any time in school a little girl or another had a shaved head because it was the only way to get rid of lice.

And some of the poorer kids were probably a lot leaner than they would otherwise be. But no one was starved out.

Sometimes we’d hear of a kitten or a puppy dying due to an excess of parasite, but no humans. As tight as we were on money and food, compared to the US, it wasn’t so much that it killed us.

It’s sort of like that. I’m sure that 10% number being a “terminal condition” was true for some societies, at some time. Heck, even right now, I very much doubt China or Russia could lose 10% of those actually productive and survive. (The thing being that a lot of their population is not allowed to be productive, but that’s different. Same as here, but more so.)

In the Middle Ages, I doubt we could have 10% of people who did nothing. Even among the nobility, there was a lot of work that had to be and got done. They were only “well off” and “idle” in the eyes of historians who don’t understand much. People who actually ONLY consumed and did nothing, in a society that close to the bone, would have sank it. Other people would starve to keep them going.

Though it wouldn’t be that fast, and it depends on the situation and the time. They could afford fighters who did not produce food or consumables directly. And they certainly could afford to set crops on fire, not once but as a routine of war. And the society didn’t dissolve usually, or starve to death, usually. (The whole idea that bankruptcy equals revolution, or even famine equals revolution is quite literally a-historical.)

And in caveman times, where I think our back brain was formed, well, the band that kept 10% of their members utterly idle, would probably die, unless in extremely fertile land. (But we do know they didn’t in fact kill the lamed, the children and the elderly, because the remains we’ve found don’t show that kind of society. However, they’d be weakened, and might all die next hard times.)

But now? Bah. We carry way more than that. And in the US? Well, we’re still pouring money out. And no, not even the Ukraine thing, where we do have an interest in not letting Russia get back to its aggressive paranoiac ways. But we give money to oh, Afghanistan, for transgender causes. (It’s not the only one, or the craziest thing.) We pour taxpayer money out on the craziest shit that a) doesn’t get used for that b) benefits no one. In fact, we should count other countries corruptocrats as our pensioners. Part of that parasite load.

And while the shoe is pinching, and a lot of us are worried about our kids making it in these times, the condition is more annoying than terminal.

Even with the parasite load, what’s hurting our kids is not that, but stupid regulations and ideas designed to hurt us, like open borders, and “environmental” insanity. Stop those, and the economy will roar to life, because we’re very productive gun nuts…. (Two of our best traits.) We’re also inventive and infinitely innovating.

Rumors of our demise are grossly exaggerated.

I don’t know who in hell is pulling numbers from ass, but to believe those numbers requires shutting your eyes to who we are, and how we are.

We’re Americans. The current occupiers have chained us and are beating us. But like an abused wife, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with us that getting rid of the bastards wouldn’t fix.

And they’re not close to killing us. Just bruising us. Badly. And getting in our heads and making us feel beaten and helpless.

That’s the ultimate tell, you know. All these “Abandon all hope. We’re done” wouldn’t be needed, if it were patently and obviously true. In fact no one would be reading them, as we’d each be scrabbling for our daily gruel, and to defend our tiny little patch to sleep in.

But that’s not true. And when you hear this what you should ask is “Who and what wants us to give up? And why? Who would this serve?”

Not our best interests, and not our survival.

Yes, righting this mess is going to suck, and suck badly. And I suspect the debt is going to be paid in blood, not money.

But our situation is not terminal. It might be grave, but it’s not terminal.

Nowhere close to it. And we’ll come back, provided we want to.

Get the parasites out of your head first, before you get them out of our body politic.

And be not afraid.

HamAss, Hospitals and the MSM by Francis Turner

Many of us on the side of civilization have noticed that in the last month and a bit after October 7th that the Mainstream Media has been solidly on the sides of the genocidal Hamass. Among many examples there was the time when much of the MSM credulously repeated Hamass lies about the rocket that blew up in the hospital parking lot. Although it is true that many of them eventually walked that story back, the damage was done because the unanimous repeating of Hamass propaganda without any pushback meant that large parts of the world, from the low information street to world leaders thought the Israelis were to blame and had killed hundreds.

The MSM has sort of learned its lesson from that. They are less likely to report Hamass announcements as fact and some (e.g. the BBC) note repeatedly that the Gaza casualty reports come from the Hamass controlled Health Ministry and so on. But they are still in the tank for Hamass, just not as blatantly.

Take the current fighting around the various Gaza hospitals. One thing that is notable is the plight of Gazans attempting to flee. Often they are unable to because “shots were fired”. For example this BBC update:

Reports people attempting to leave hospital shot in legs

The BBC’s Rushdi Abualouf has heard that no people, or any items of aid, have been allowed in or out of the Al-Shifa hospital for the last 48 hours, according to one of his contacts.

That source – one of the few remaining journalists in the hospital – says four people had tried to leave Al-Shifa yesterday, but were shot in the legs and left on the ground bleeding for around two hours.

Medics had to risk their lives to get them into the hospital for treatment, the source tells Abualouf.

The BBC has been unable to access the hospital to verify this as fighting has been raging in the vicinity in recent days.

That passive voice thing is a dead giveaway. It wasn’t the IDF because we know that if it had been they would have said so. So who is it? Hmmm? A mystery!

Similarly the IDF has surrounded many of these hospitals and gunfire etc. is being exchanged. Well who are the IDF shooting at? And who is fighting back? Oddly this is not mentioned. Indeed MSM reporters regularly say things like “Israel claims that Hamass has bases underneath and adjacent to hospitals” but they seem unable to join the dots. Think about it. If Hamass were not there then the Isrealis could simply drive up to the various hospitals, give them fuel if need be and everything would be fine. For some reason though, that does not get mentioned. Israel is evil for cutting off power and access to these places that are totally neutral, apparently, and is unable to simply drive up to the front door. Could it be that there are Hamass fighters trapped in the vicinity? Underneath perhaps? The MSM is remarkably incurious about such matters.

Indeed just a day or two ago the IDF found the Hamass tunnels under one of the Gaza hospital – Rantisi Hospital. See https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-773085 or various posts on X like this:

#BREAKING #CRAZY #MUSTwatch @IDFSpokesperson Daniel Hagari went inside Gaza Footage showing operations Israeli Navy Seals and the 401st Brigade Combat Team in the Rantisi Hospital: Full Video: Operational gear, ammunition, explosives, suicide vests, some of the motorcycles who… pic.twitter.com/zBUwkGyqCL

— Niv Calderon (@nivcalderon) November 13, 2023

Considering that Israel has been claiming this for years you’d think that having clear evidence would be news-worthy. So I looked at the BBC site where they have an article about the state of the Gaza hospitals. At the bottom of the part of the article about the Rantisi hospital there is this

On Monday evening IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari showed journalists what he said was evidence of Hamas infrastructure at Rantisi – video of explosives, suicide vests and even a motorcycle used in the 7 October attacks, hidden in a basement. He showed video of a deep shaft with a ladder down the side which he said was the entrance to a tunnel that was next to both a school and the hospital, adding it was “nothing else but a terror tunnel”.

No pictures of what the IDF found and up above when talking about Al-Shifa lots of denial that Hamass has its HQ there

Hamas denies it is using the hospital or that it has an operations centre underneath. Doctors inside insist there is no Hamas presence there. The BBC’s Gaza correspondent Rushdi Abualouf said that he had never seen “any military capability” inside the hospital, but acknowledged it was difficult to verify either Israel’s or Hamas’s claims.

There’s a lot of weaseling that they can use later when it turns out the IDF proves the Hamass HQ is under the hospital and no effort to challenge the Hamass claims

I’m not picking on the BBC specifically. When I did a search on google for news about “Rantisi tunnels hamas” I got results like this:

and

Its is notable that Foxnews, the Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel are the sites that essentially accept the IDF findings as essentially true. The BBC I’ve already covered. ABC and CNN are if anything worse. The ABC article (which shares quite a lot with an AP article reprinted in the Wapo) first talks about Al-Shifa hospital where it says

Shifa is Gaza’s largest and best-equipped hospital. Israel, without providing visual evidence, claims the facility also is used by Hamas for military purposes. It says Hamas has built a vast underground command complex center below the hospital, connected by tunnels, something Gaza health officials and Hamas deny.

Only much further down the article do we get mention of Rantisi

Late Monday, Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, showed footage of what he said was a Hamas weapons cache found in the basement of Gaza’s Rantisi Hospital for Children.

Hagari said he entered the hospital with Israeli troops on Monday, a day after the facility’s last patients were evacuated. The hospital ran out of fuel last week, and Israel had ordered people to leave as it conducts its ground offensive.

Hagari entered a room decorated with a colorful children’s drawing of a tree, with weapons lying across the floor. He said they included explosive vests, automatic rifles, bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.

“Hamas uses hospitals as an instrument of war,” he said.

He showed another area that he said appears to have been used to hold hostages.

It included what appeared to be a hastily installed toilet and air vent, a baby bottle and a motorcycle — scarred by a bullet hole and apparently used to carry hostages. One windowless room had curtains on the wall that he said could be used as a backdrop in a video. Hagari said forensic experts were examining the scenes.

Yet despite this evidence, the article goes back to skepticism

Israel says these claims are based on intelligence. However, it has released no visual evidence to support the claims. Hagari last month unveiled maps showing where Israel believes Hamas’ underground command centers are located, including one next to hospital’s reception area and another next to the dialysis department.

Indeed it then goes and gets a Hamass quote, which it repeats without any questioning or skepticism:

Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, rejected the Israeli claims about Shifa as “false and misleading propaganda.”

“The occupying forces have no evidence to prove it,” Hamad said. “We have never used civilians as human shields because it goes against our religion, morality and principles.”

This is clearly bias given that reports about Al-Shifa being Hamass HQ have been common over the last decade – including a mention in a WaPo article in 2014 (via Hotair) – and that Hamass has regularly been accused of the use of human shields as “martyrs”

The CNN article is just as bad. Despite a CNN crew actually going into the tunnels they repot the IDF clams remarkably skeptically and have quotes from Hamass sources denying what is seen

A CNN team embedded with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and was shown guns and explosives in one room located beneath Al-Rantisi children’s hospital on Monday, which IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari termed an “armory.”

He also pointed to a chair with a rope next to it and a piece of women’s clothing, which he said would be tested for DNA, and a makeshift toilet.

Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas locates its operational bases in tunnels under hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. The access provided by the IDF provided Monday was an effort to back up those assertions, which are denied by Hamas, as well as health officials and hospitals in Gaza.

…

Speaking by phone to CNN on Tuesday, Mohammed Zarqout, who has responsibility for all of Gaza’s hospitals, said the basement at Al Rantisi had been used as a shelter for women and children – not to store Hamas weaponry and hold hostages – as well as being the location of the pharmacy and some of the hospital’s administrative offices before rainwater made it “impossible” to use.

And then there’s the excuse for a tunnel leading to a Hamass commander’s house

CNN was shown a shaft, about 200 meters away from Al-Rantisi, which Hagari claimed was located next to a Hamas commander’s house and also a school.

Wires leading into the shaft provided power to the tunnel from solar panels fixed onto the roof of the Hamas commander’s house, he also said.

“We [put] a robot inside the tunnel and the robot saw a massive door, a door that is in the direction of the hospital,” Hagari said.

Zarquot said “the tunnel they claim to be a Hamas tunnel is actually an electrical wire assembly point. We raised the wires to prevent any electrical shocks caused by floods.”

The rest of the article goes on about how bad it is to attack hospitals and so on, though it does grudgingly note that  

While hospitals are protected in times of war under international humanitarian law, that protection may be compromised if they are believed to be sites of military activity.

It also mentions that the hospitals are full of patients with absolutely no curiosity about whether these patients are civilians or Hamass fighters.

I could go on. The most notable thing is that the Rantisi discoveries, which would seem to be important verification for what Israel has been saying for years are simply not being reported as important news. They aren’t generally a separate news item, they aren’t on the front pages (or web equivalents) and so on.

It is worth comparing this to events in Ukraine last year. Then, when the rape rooms, torture cellars and so on of the Russian invaders were discovered in Bucha and later Kharkiv Oblast. In those cases the discovery of such things that go against “the laws of war” and the like were headlines. This is not happening with Hamass’ war crimes and so on. For some reason.

It seems obvious that the answer is that the MSM are completely in the tank for Hamass and against Israel.

Note that for various reasons, relating to my having forgotten to post early today, this post will bridge today and tomorrow, when there might or might not be a post, depending on a bunch of things I don’t know/can’t know yet – SAH

Book promo

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. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE.*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving led”,) and apply the usual cautions to buying. I reserve the right not to run any submission, if cover, blurb or anything else made me decide not to, at my sole discretion.– SAH

FROM CAITLIN WALSH: Mama Bunny #2: Daddy’s Home

Mama Bunny is back, and this time she’s got backup!

In this brand-new Papa-focused collection, follow the Bunny family as they perform unwise science experiments, operate heavy machinery, and disassemble anything that stays still for long enough.

Being a stay-at-home mom has its challenges, but with your husband at your side, anything can be managed—no matter how ridiculous.

FROM NATHAN C. BRINDLE: AI Is Love

The Japanese word Ai (愛) means “love”. The English acronym AI means “artificial intelligence.” But they both use the same two Roman alphabet letters…and the author loves making puns.

Thus, AI 愛 is Love is a collection of 65 images made using Artificial Intelligence tools and methods. Each image is the author’s loving re-imagination of his wife at various stages of her life, using old photographs and digital models and post-processing software, not to mention plain old-fashioned skull sweat coming up with prompts to feed the MidJourney AI in the first place. While the author cautions his readers that his wife actually doesn’t look entirely like the lovely ladies depicted (mostly because they all have long straight or wavy hair), he does wish to make clear that all of his love for his beautiful lady wife has been poured into the present book, which he humbly recommends for your consideration.

BY ROBERT J. HORTON, REVIVED BY D. JASON FLEMING: Three Riders (Annotated): a pulp western omnibus

iktaPOP Media proudly presents three classic westerns by pulp author Robert J. Horton!

Rider o’ the Stars

When he was hired on to the Diamond H Ranch, the stranger gave his name as Dane. After seeing his skill with rope and gun folks started calling him “Lightning Dane”.

Was he a gunman? An outlaw? Why was he here? Nobody knew except Dane himself. And he wasn’t talking.

The Prairie Shrine

Annalee Bronson and her mother left everything behind when her father died, setting out to homestead in the prairielands of Montana. But being from the east, they simply don’t have the experience to cope with all the circumstances they find themselves caught up in.

Luckily, prairie poet and loafer Andy Sawtelle and mysterious gunman Silent Scott are more than willing to lend a helping hand.

The Man of the Desert

It starts with a stampede, and never lets up from there!

• This iktaPOP Media omnibus includes introductions by indie editor and author D. Jason Fleming putting the book into historical and genre context.

FROM SANDRA MEDLOCK, JOHN SHOEMAKER, AND MORE: Tales of the Oil Patch

Stories of men and women who looked for oil under the land they call Texas.

To those who brought the ‘Black Gold’ to reality with their blood, sweat, and tears, and left their legacies for us.

Twelve authors use their imagination to bring you these stories revolving around the oil patch in Texas in the early days.

FROM BLAKE SMITH: The Hartington Inheritance (The Hartington Series Book 1)

Almira Hartington was heir to the largest fortune in the galaxy, amassed by her father during his time as a director of the Andromeda Company. But when Sir Josiah commits suicide, Almira discovers that she and her siblings are penniless. All three of them must learn to work if they wish to eat, and are quickly scattered to the far reaches of the universe. Almira stubbornly remains on-planet, determined to remain respectable despite the sneers of her former friends.

Sir Percy Wallingham pities the new Lady Hartington. But the lady’s family will take care of her, surely? It’s only after he encounters Almira in her new circumstances that he realizes the extent of her troubles and is determined to help her if he can. He doesn’t know that a scandal is brewing around Sir Josiah’s death and Almira’s exile from society. But it could cost him his life, and the lady he has come to love.

FROM SARAH A. HOYT (LOOK, IT’S A SNAZZY NEW COVER!): Draw One In The Dark (The Shifter Series Book 1)

Something or someone is killing shape shifters in the small mountain town of Goldport, Colorado. Kyrie Smith, a server at a local diner, is the last person to solve the mystery. Except of course for the fact that she changes into a panther and that her co-worker, Tom Ormson, who changes into a dragon, thinks he might have killed someone. Add in a policeman who shape-shifts into a lion, a father who is suffering from remorse about how he raised his son, and a triad of dragon shape shifters on the trail of a magical object known as The Pearl of Heaven and the adventure is bound to get very exciting indeed. Solving the crime is difficult enough, but so is — for our characters — trusting someone with secrets long-held. Originally published by Baen Books.

FROM KAREN MYERS: The Ways of Winter – A Virginian in Elfland (The Hounds of Annwn Book 2)

Book 2 of The Hounds of Annwn

TRAPPED BEHIND ENEMY LINES, CAN HE FIND THE STRENGTH TO DEFEND ALL THAT HE VALUES MOST, OR EVEN JUST TO SURVIVE?

It’s the dead of winter and George Talbot Traherne, the new human huntsman for the Wild Hunt, is in trouble. The damage in Gwyn ap Nudd’s domain reveals the deadly powers of a dangerous foe who has mastered an unstoppable weapon and threatens the fae dominions in both the new and the old worlds.

Secure in his unbreachable stronghold, the enemy holds hostages and has no compunction about using them in deadly experiments with newly discovered way-technology. Only George has a chance to reach him in time to prevent the loss of thousands of lives, even if it costs him everything.

Welcome to the portrait of a paladin in-the-making, Can he carry out a rescue without the deaths of all involved? Will his patron, the antlered god Cernunnos, help him, or just write him off as a dead loss? He has a family to protect and a world to save, and little time to do it in.

FROM LAURA MONTGOMERY: Simple Service: A Science Fiction Lost Colony Adventure (Martha’s Sons Book 1)

They’re stranded beyond the known stars. Will Peter Dawe’s perilous mission with a brother he despises end in death?

A lost starship’s settlers, isolated on an uncharted alien world, manage to terraform a mountain-ringed valley into a rich replica of Earth. Despite their success reproducing the environment they need to survive and thrive, only tenuous forces hold together the human colony on the world of Not What We Were Looking For. The governor’s appropriation of the western settlers’ weapons for the city strains those bonds to breaking point—and then beyond when Peter Dawe’s father sends him to get the weapons back.Twenty-year-old Peter Dawe’s restless nature easily endures the lost colony world’s rigors. His genetic modifications make it even easier. So when Peter retrieves the family weapon, he also brings back a motorbike, a piece of technology no longer available to everyone.

It would be a fine prize to keep to himself. He won it. He earned it. He quickly learns that his brother Simon lies in wait to take what isn’t his. Simon wants more than just the motorbike. He wants Peter’s glory.

But when Peter’s father forces him to take his hated older brother on Peter’s next mission, the pair must not only navigate the city’s perils and politics but learn to work together—when neither thinks the other should be in charge. Their success—and their very lives—depend on it. Or will Peter be proven right that he should have faced this task alone?

Simple Service is the first book in the immersive Martha’s Sons science fiction series. If you like gripping action, insurmountable odds, and alien worlds, you’ll love Laura Montgomery’s tale of a man determined not to let family ties sabotage mission success.

Buy Simple Service to pull off the impossible today!

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: Love in the Time of Campaigning

As Frank Correra brings his family to a lunar settlement to get them away from a worsening political situation on Earth, he reminisces about how he and his wife met.

Frank had always dreamed of the skies. As a clone of an astronaut who subsequently became a US Senator, Frank thought he had a clear path ahead of him. But when it comes time to apply for the Air Force Academy, it is an election year. His ur-brother can’t promise a nomination until he’s won another term, and this year promises a hard race to run. When the other side puts up an ugly attack ad, can Frank find a way to discredit it before it destroys his ur-brother’s chance of re-election, and with it Frank’s slot at an Academy appointment?

A short story of the Grissom timeline.

FROM MARY CATELLI: Sorcery and Kings

Tales of wonder and magic.

A fire master must find a magical starter of fires.

A mysterious queen holds a ball in a city filled with magic.

Magic of roses and gold are needed to fight a dreadful war.

An oath keeps a ghost captive.

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.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Your writing prompt this week is: Flaky

FAKED PHOTOGRAPHS, A CONSPIRACY THEORY a guest post by FoxFier

A “conspiracy theory” mind you which has been confirmed for over a decade.  Almost two, actually.

When it was known as either “Reutersgate” or “The Adnan Hajj photograph conspiracy.”  Or more likely “Oh, wait, you mean when they had to be told that the really bad photoshop jobs were fake? Zombie Time has very nicely organized writeup that came up in the discussion, broken down into types of fraud– digital manipulation, staged events presented as spontaneous, photographer staged scenes, and inaccurate captioning of real photographs.)

Oops.

This came up because of trying to find the name of that photographer who admitted to carrying around a red tricycle and other brightly colored toys in his vehicle to help “give focus” to his photographs.  This was, per him, not considered Pallywood.  Which doesn’t exist, and is probably racist, and how dare anyone question things like how many people are supposedly killed in strikes that turned out to not happen.

Ignore a French journalist saying things like“Karsenty is so shocked that fake images were used and edited in Gaza, but this happens all the time everywhere on television and no TV journalist in the field or a film editor would be shocked. This has become more about him than anything else.” in a 2007 article.

Unfortunately, due to search engine “improvements,” I was only able to find mention of the planting-toys “conspiracy theory on right wing blogs” via an old New York Times article interviewing a photographer about the amazing popularity of Mickey Mouse toys in the middle of bombed streets in Lebanon. “It Was All Started by a Mouse (Part 1)”, Errol Morris, NYT archive for Jan 3, 2010. That’s mentioned in the Zombie Time article, at the bottom of section 3.  (Note, that would be Hezbollah, not Hamas; as best I can tell, Hezbollah does back Hamas, including publicly.)

I only found that mickey mouse article (in both meanings of the phrase) because of mention of a photographer, Abid Katib, who has amazing fortune in finding brightly colored shoes in dark places. (Being from nearly fifteen years ago, most of the links have died.)

This conversation came up, of course, because of the whole ops Hamas had paid reporters with them during the terror invasion revelation.

 Which brought up the church that’s been leveled twice, now, with major casualties, but is amazing (as of the last time I heard) still standing, or the “Israeli strike” on a hospital that set off secondary explosions on video…and turned out to be a Hamas rocket that fell short and blew up their parking lot, and oops not actually the mass casualty event reported, and it’s a well known Hamas command center anyways.  Which came up when the UN Secretary General threw a fit about reports Israel had targeted ambulances, and got called out for completely ignoring the systematic destruction and slaughter targeting Israeli emergency responders on October 7^th.

Which brought up other claimed attacks, like the Red Cross Ambulance Bombing, and worse the debunked Human Rights Watch debunking of the same.

But, to get back around to the point… does anyone remember something about the guy who actually admitted to having the toys and packing them around?

Or have some really good examples of Pallywood?

A friend said that the right is addicted to losing and to self-flagellation.

He’s right on the second. The first is a by-product.

It never fails to astonish me the chest beating, the “how did we fail” when things don’t go according to plan and its twin, the ridiculous and rage-inducing “I guess people want socialism/communism now.”

The number of people humans have willingly voted for and wanted communism and socialism since the end of the twentieth century is not zero. But it’s not far off. And in the US it might very well be bloody zero.

Oh, sure, your crazy aunt Marge. Have you checked that she’s actually human? Kidding, kidding. Yes, there are groups of people among us, usually the exquisitely indoctrinated, who willingly vote for socialism/communism. Note that a lot of them have no clue what such a regime would do, or what the consequences would be for them personally.

Yeah, I know they exist. The fools shall always be with us. That’s written in the good book, somewhere. Well, a good book, at least. And it’s not, I’ll be sure to write it in one, and make it as good as possible.

They are nowhere near a majority and they’re a minority more and more with each passing year, and yeah, I can prove that, but hold on, okay?

First let’s talk about the right receives news that they failed at some election. They never look at the things going into it, which more and more are massive, obvious fraud dancing naked and brazen in front of our eyes.

The right immediately says something like “Oh, yeah, well, sure there was fraud, but still, we shouldn’t have lost. It was our message. It was our candidate. It was the fact that everyone out there really wants socialism.”

Twice, I stopped writing for a “right” site after elections. In 2012 I stopped writing about politics, because it was decided we really were all socialists now, and so it was needed to work on the soft culture. In 2020 I stopped writing altogether, because I was told we weren’t going to do what the left had done, and spend four years screaming “fraud.”

Both times I was shocked. Both times I knew the amount of fraud is extraordinary. (Yes, 2012, already.) I do understand the impulse, to an extent. You see, if it’s fraud, there’s nothing we can do. If it’s not fraud, then we might be able to reach a crucial number of people and–

But what this results in — and I have reason to think this has been going throughout the second half of the 20th century, though it wasn’t so perfectly sewn up. The person who said the last true presidential election was JFK does deserve to be laughed at though. Loudly — is losing. It results in losing, because the right is trying to “meet the culture” that doesn’t exist “in the middle” that is halfway to the left that largely exists only as electoral fraud. So, being addicted to self flagellation lends itself to losing, and my friend is right, but in a sideways way.

Now, how do I know it was fraud?

Well, first of all, you know, the reason to prove there was no fraud, is to allow investigations.

While both sides claim fraud when they lose, the left officially, and the right from the grassroots, the right obsessively allows investigation and investigates its own fraud. (Which is why we know that save for two or three very particular local races in the last 20 years or so, the right doesn’t fraud. It’s not a “both sides” problem.) The left always claimed there was no fraud on its part. (I have a theory they actually believe this. Or at least believe they only fraud as much as the right. You see, I don’t know what’s in their heads but they don’t believe the grass roots EXIST. They were sure the tea party was astro turf. And they’re sure people on the right MUST be frauding, particularly when we beat their fraud.) But more and more, increasingly, they also try to criminalize the claims of fraud from the right. And they try to stop all investigation.

This is the most crucial point. A left that was triumphant and ascendant (yes, middle 20th century) had no need for ever-tighter censorship. They had a vision of the future (more on that later too) and an attractive “culture” that catered to the educated. They were a positional good. If you were “smart” and educated you were leftist. (Yes, they’re trying to hold onto that. It’s been fraying badly the last 20 years.)

Now, they are trying, increasingly, to censor everything. They don’t want you to question elections — and that’s the most important thing, which is kind of amusing — but more and more they don’t want you to know what your friends and neighbors think about anything at all. The pinnacle of this, I swear was the lockdown and masks. They wanted us isolated, so people didn’t know how vast the fraud was.

Biden’s election, too, has two hallmarks of “fraud so vast that we don’t think legitimate votes for him were needed” (Though undoubtedly your aunt Marge and her ilk did vote for him): First, he didn’t even pretend to campaign. And as far as he campaigned, he issued a series of threats. “We’re going to stop you drilling for oil.” “We’re going to open the borders.” “We’re going to tax you more.” (No, other than your aunt Marge — have you really checked she’s human? — these aren’t popular ideas. They weren’t back then, either.) Second, after he “won” he turned DC into “fortress capital” and mobilized state guards to come and defend him from the “right wing extremists” whom they were sure were about to storm the white house, drag them out and shoot them. This is because they knew they’d performed a coup d’etat, and they knew what they so richly deserved.

But the nonsense has been going on for a long time, way since before 2020. Roughly, the right wins when it surprises the left enough to have more votes than the left counted on. (Particularly when the left is trying to keep it plausible. They might or might not have given up on that. We’ll see in 24.)

Motor voter was an attempt at making fraud too massive to circumvent. As was machine voting. Note the left accused machine voting of fraud, which is typical of things they intend to do, because they know the right won’t then do it, because, well… “We’re not like them.” (Laudable, but dumb.)

As were a ton of other measures, from voting without an id, to “early voting”, to mail in voting. At this point, at my estimation, a good 80% to 90% of the left’s vote is fraud. Yes, your aunt Marge exists. As does her ilk. But a lot of them don’t even vote, because they’ve gone off the deep end, to “But the left is also capitalist” and would only vote for someone promising to stop all agriculture and herding because plants and animals want to be free.

And yes, the youth is largely still indoctrinated (they do snap out of it at around 45 give or take ten years) but the thing is mostly the youth vote fails to show up. At least when it’s not frauded in.

Note that the left defends each of the dubious voting measures to the death every time we try to stop one. Note also that things like mail-in-voting are typically instituted the moment they get hold (however marginal) of a state, and that it never after that goes right. EVER. It’s like it’s magical, right? If it’s not fraud, it must be that the sight of envelopes makes people socialist. (Bah.)

A small note on this is stuff like Long Island going red, even while we ‘lost’ everywhere else. How could this happen? Well, it could happen because they didn’t expect it, were busy frauding elsewhere, like Virginia and Kentucky, were it was grudge matches. This is why in 2024 the two states most at risk of being “swept by a blue wave” are Texas and Florida, both of which are grudge matches. Because it’s the fraud stupid! Colorado earned itself the massive frauding by passing ammendment two, which DARED make raising taxes something that had to be asked for every single time. Oh, and by saying that gay shouldn’t be a protected hiring category at state level. (TBF I think freedom of association should rule. But back then “gay” was the important thing to the left, their proof they were on the side of angels. Now they’re underbussing gay people at speed, in the name of trans.) So, it was the “hate state” and HAD to be turned. It was a grudge match.

So, the fraud is massive, pervasive, and the fact that it can be done “by computer” (So futuristic, so progressive!) means it can now be done in small elections as well as large, in mid terms as well as the national elections, etc.) what can we do?

Very little. Or very little individually. This won’t last, because it can’t, and I will explain why. In fact, in the history of ideas that are so fricking bad only an idiot would try it, thoroughly corrupting the voting system of the US so the input doesn’t matter to who is elected might rank up there with China’s one-child policy or little Kim ordering his people to eat pine-needles.

But on the individual side, there is pretty much almost nothing we can do. Except one thing: We can refuse to buy that there was no fraud, or that “everyone is socialist” now.

Because if you buy that, you’re trying to adapt your mind to something that doesn’t exist, and trying to reach across the isle when there’s nothing there. And then you become Pierre Delecto, wondering why no one loves him.

Also we can refuse to shut up. Make them ramp up the censorship to absurd amounts, and still keep talking. Because frankly, as with the fact the population is not in fact exploding, the fact there is massive and pervasive fraud is beginning to win the war of ideas. The left can try to shut it down, but it keeps cropping up, because it’s obviously true.

Besides, turning on our candidate, our own platform or our voices is stupid and counterproductive. Look, Trump might be what he is — eh, you know, I wouldn’t date him. But that’s not required, is it? — but he’s put everything — EVERYTHING — on the line to run and oppose the left. Turning on him only signals to anyone else brave or foolish enough to do it, that we’ll hang you to dry as soon as the left frauds you out. It’s stupid. Most people don’t have his resources or his ego. They can’t withstand that abuse.

As for our platform….

Yeah. Yesterday I already heard “Maybe we need to ditch opposition to abortion.”

Look, abortion is a legitimately divisive issue, for a million reasons, and I know a lot of social libertarians, legitimate freedom lovers, who will support it. I don’t for a ton of reasons, among them because I believe “you’re human if mommy says so” is a lousy way to run an ethical system. And after all personhood is at the basis of everything in a society based on the rights of the INDIVIDUAL HUMAN.

Should it be part of the GOP platform, one way or another? Nationally? Probably not. But candidates who are anti-abortion should be able to say so, and regionally of course being anti-abortion and on the right is a thing. For one, it’s also a sizeable voting block, and one that for some reason terrifies the left.

Actually I know the reason. It’s because it’s an issue they’re losing on. And it doesn’t matter if they put it in every state constitution (Except the way it’s written in Ohio it will turn into “permission to trans children.” BUT that’s something else, and will be figured out right quick.) Abortion has been falling, in total numbers, year over year. The opinion n the street is turning against it. John Ringo is absolutely right as to why, and it’s not something political, nor something laws could do.

Look, for centuries, murdering children was illegal, and children got routinely exposed. (And murdered, sometimes creatively. The number of women who “rolled over” on their infants is amazing. No, seriously. Do you sleep with a cat? How many times have you rolled over on him/her? Because I can count …. once in 35 years, and even then I stopped halfway through.) You see, the abstract morality was up against the fact that people simply couldn’t afford another kid. Or there was something wrong with the kid. Or–

And humans aren’t ideal creatures. No matter how wrong something is, people will do it. Oh, there were all kinds of dodges, including the belief they would, after all, “go straight to heaven.” Or you exposed them, and hoped someone would pick them up.

Then the exposing of children stopped, because…. well, a wealthier society. We could afford more kids. But eventually abortion picked up.

I know you kids will have trouble believing this, but my generation really believed that until like six months, it was just a clump of cells, or a tube with two openings. (In retrospect, that later is true. For adults too.)

But now abortions are falling, year over year, in absolute numbers, and John Ringo is right. It’s not the laws. It’s ultrasounds. It’s the pictures on the fridge. “This is my baby at ten weeks!” It’s giving them names before they’re born. “Little Jason is very active today!” It’s the fact that long before they’re born they’re becoming part of the family, and that you can’t deny they’re human.

I suspect, just in the trend of the culture, in twenty years people will look with horror at “they allowed abortion till birth!” and might very well do it on “they allowed abortion till fifteen weeks.”

The law will follow culture. And it will be obeyed. Save for extreme circumstances, which yeah, will happen.

BUT meanwhile? Yeah. It is allowed to be part of someone’s platform. And it is not why people are “voting left.” Sure, any number of young people have been scared by the left’s crazy ads. And a lot of the old, bitter left will turn out to vote for abortion if for nothing else, because they did it, so everyone should. And a number of civil libertarians will vote for, because they think people should have the option. (They’re not wrong, except for the fact that it’s a multi million dollar industry, and that it enables the abuse of women and the de-personalization of the individual. But that’s an argument for another time.)

Mostly the “abortion” thing is being used as a cover for fraud. “Look, people are voting left, because they love abortion so much.” It’s all. The main issue is not abortion, it’s fraud. Diagnosing it otherwise is stupid and counterproductive.

It’s like, I can tell you they’re going to use RFK’s candidacy to explain why Trump will lose in 24. I’ve already seen articles that RFK is pulling 30% of voters away from Trump. On right wing sites, at that. I don’t know what they imagine they’re saying. Sure, RFK resonates with the right about COVID and a hatred of the CIA. And? He also believes in open borders and socialism. And if you’re going to say his “style” is more appealing than Trump’s, it’s because you never heard him.

Yes, I can see him being appealing. mostly to your aunt Marge and her ilk. Old hippies, crazy left, Kennedy fans. About 0.5% of whom are on the right.

It is however a great excuse to reelect the zombie. (Yes, they want the zombie to quit, because that would be more plausible. except I doubt he will. You see, if he quits — if Dr. Jill lets him — he’ll be exposed to have all his own personal corruption exposed, and his family destroyed. The Bidens won’t do that.)

So, that’s something you can do, you can believe there’s fraud. You can believe it happens. You can scream about it.

What else can you do? Well, you can wait.

You see, I said this is a stupid idea, and it is.

Elections are a safety valve. Yes, the left has frauded for a long time. But there used to be fraud on the right too, before the twentieth century. And except certain places and times, the fraud was at the margins. You still had to appeal to the public to an extent. You still had to be careful and not totally stomp on things people wanted/didn’t want. You had to stay responsive.

This is why having people elect their government spread and became popular. Absolute kings suck absolutely. Even with the best of intentions. And most of them didn’t have the best of intentions.

Sure, in the early twentieth century, the left cheated their way into power to usher in “progress.” I stand by my belief that the only two things that government does well are to steal from their own people and kill them in batch lots. But national highway systems and electricity and such, did help the people. Probably. And would have taken longer without fraud getting “progressives” in.

But now? Now the fraud is out of control, and “elections” are as completely divorced from voting as in the old USSR (or the new Russia) or China, or…

You can see why the oligarchs love it. They can rule forever and ever, undisturbed.

This means they learned nothing from the fall of the USSR, or the dire straits China finds itself in. This means they’re very, very, very stupid.

What they’ve done is break the fire alarm, and now think they’re safe from fire.

Yeah, this means they’ll “win” elections, just like they “win” elections in states that are all vote by mail.

And in other times and places, it might secure power for them for …. sixty or seventy years.

The problem for them is this is not another time and another place. The problem for them is that tech is moving to the more distributed level, no matter how many happy-slappy executive orders the zombie signs.

The problem for them is that people are communicating in newer and more complex ways every day, so their screaming and propaganda, their blatant censorship, their command that the arts echo their message?

It’s all for nothing.

Things like “it’s the fraud” keep propagating. As well as knowledge that it’s not in fact overpopulation causing our problems. Or the knowledge that global warming is a crock.

Their crazy attempts at getting us locked up again are ridiculous, and have failed in amazingly obvious ways.

Their attempts at making us give up our guns just cause us to buy more guns.

Their attempts to start world war three have failed, mostly because no one else can do it, and they haven’t — yet — decided to nuke one of our own cities. (The danger they’ll do it is still there.)

They had a vision, once. No, they really did. It was hippie dippie and utopian, but they genuinely believed in it. You catch echoes of it in classical science fiction, yes, including early (mostly) Heinlein.

You see, if only humans didn’t “want” — if there was nothing to crave — if food, and the necessities, and even sex were all freely available, then there would be no greed and no striving, Humans would be perfectly happy. It would be utopia.

Most of it was based on Freudianism, and the Margaret Meade’s fraud, and propaganda from the Soviet Union. But the young really believed, and it was a positive vision. If only they destroyed the stodgy, restrictive society, everyone would be free and equal and HAPPY.

Turns out it was all bullshit, between pseudo-science and outright lying. Heck, the only thing that pushing sex as ubiquitous and fully available seems to do is make people not want it, though they might still be bitter about not getting it, since “everyone else is.” I mean, honestly, I suspect — impossible to know for sure, but the testosterone levels tell a tale — the young are having less sex than even my generation. And we were the ones reacting against our parents’/older siblings’ crazy coupling. I suspect for the thirties and unders, the biggest issue is loneliness. And the crazy war between men and women that the left loves so much is helping none of it.

So, now, they don’t have a vision to sell. Okay, they’re still trying to sell it, particularly in the “victimhood is sanctified” sense. But it’s a negative vision. It’s a “don’t you dare think/say/do that” vision. It leaks out in lists of things that people can and cannot write about or think. You live in danger of excommunication if you forget Lisenkoism is in this week. Or out.

There is no glittering vision to aim for.

And Trump — ah, why they hate him, likely — did people see a very humble “vision” to aim for. You know, almost no unemployment (yes, I know the numbers now. They’re wonky. I know a lot of skilled people desperately looking for work), thriving economy, cheap energy, world peace.

Sure, it’s not everyone gets sex and three meals and a state apartment. But it’s — for most of us — enough.

The left can’t match that. All they can is guilt, scold and censor.

And that doesn’t hold. No, listen to me, that doesn’t hold.

It has held, sort of, in other countries, but remember, even Venezuela sends us (and other countries) their malcontents.

There is nowhere for Americans to go.

More importantly, the people they keep frauding in start at incompetent, and rapidly head to bloody insane.

Their ideas can’t and won’t work. For one, they’re not a coherent whole, but a collection of screaming slogans. They’re already experiencing that whole sanctuary city thing not working as they thought it would.

And there’s a lot, a lot of other chickens already on the wing, coming home to roost.

Yeah, I know we’re locked in here with them. But listen, we are also getting ready for hard times. They, by and large, are not. And we have basic competence. The “left” to the extent it’s your aunt Marge and her friends, really don’t.

More importantly, when the wheels come off in America, there is no one to feed us and look after us, in our socialist “paradise.” There is no one we can invade and steal from, as the USSR did for decades. Come on. At our size? No other country could. More importantly, we’re not Chinese peasants used to being trodden upon.

Yeah, the right will sneer at “urban” people, and use all of the Freman myth to tell itself that people really want/vote for this. it’s still bullshit.

What’s more, the left KNOWS it’s bullshit. They’re flailing wildly and insanely more and more. And they’re actually scared for 24. Which they shouldn’t be, given their ability to fraud. But they are. You can see them sweat. They’re like the crazy person compulsively checking all their security systems.

And trying to stomp us into giving up our guns.

My guess is that their own fear will make them do something incredibly stupid right about next Spring. I have no idea what that will be, but I get a feeling of something as stark, stupid and suicidal as Hamas did on 10/7.

And all it will do is wake up people.

If they can avoid that, people will still wake up. Because the zombie enables the enemies of freedom — like Hamas — and causes them to do stupid things. And then your aunt Marge and her friends — and their college students — think victory is at hand and take the mask off.

This means some group — probably a lot more than one group — that the left relies on for their fraud machinery is going to take a look at the hideous face of what they’re supporting between now and the elections in 24. The ones in 26 at the latest.

The preferable end to this is that those suddenly red pilled expose everything, and the machinery of fraud is bloodlessly dismantled.

And maybe we’ll be lucky. Maybe we’ll get very very lucky.

Of course, they call it getting lucky because the chance runs against it.

So–

Keep your powder dry. Keep your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.

The map is about to get very arrowey and pointy indeed.

And what emerges on the other side is anyone’s guess. I think it’s running the way of freedom, but it doesn’t mean that there won’t be attempts at totalitarianism from the other side. After all, I was born and raised in a country that careened from anarchism (what commies called themselves before WWI) into national socialism. It’s not unheard of.

Except that national socialism, like its red sister, doesn’t really have a vision anymore. Not much beyond “Our country is wonnerful, our genes are a racial division, we are pure and stronk, do as we say.”

It might work for Europeans. But that’s not the way of America. And when in crisis, countries go back to their fundamentals. Our fundamentals not only aren’t but can’t be “blood and soil.” (Can’t be, because it makes no sense, logical or illogical. Hell, the only place it might work is in the West, if Mexican origin people claim it. And dear Lord, I hope not.)

So–

So, call off the circular firing squad. Have the courage to call fraud fraud. Trust the rest of the country to be incredibly silly, but not evil or self-harming. Because all the signs are still fraud. (And that Long Island thing makes me believe the people who think NYC went Trump in 2020 might be right.)

And stand by. Because one way or another, we will need to reinstall the fire alarm. Elections will need to be cleaned.

It’s going to hurt like a mother, because there’s a lot of people whose LIFE depends on fraud and theft.

But fraud and theft can’t win. Not “won’t be allowed to”. Can’t. Long run they destroy everything. And the world is used to America at least semi-working. They can’t live without us functioning.

And we can’t live without functioning, either.

Take a deep breath. The next decade or so will be like eating live frogs. But once that’s done, nothing as unpleasant will happen to us. (Right?)

And the future belongs to free men and women. Because we’re the only ones who can create it. Be not afraid.

For The Times They Are A’Changing a blast from the past from August 2016

Blame this on the head cold I’m almost over (truly) and the mild fever that accompanied it.  Blame it on the change of weather, that had me getting up in the middle of the night to close windows that had, sudden and inexplicably, become openings to the arctic.

Blame it on my dad giving me all the books of legends of the region that he could gather on short notice.  Yes, I also got books on the history of the City of Porto and surroundings, but when it comes to Fantasy it is easiest to dip into the legends.  And these legends are full of changing times and changing circumstances, of the tumultuous succession of Romans and Swabians, Moors and Christian crusaders, absolutist and parliamentary monarchists, republicans, French invaders and British liberators.

Most of the legends are just that, legends, though I suspect a lot of what the guys writing these books ignored is that that type of popular memory might be wrong in the particulars (So it wasn’t that particular Caliph, but something happened here, perhaps a hundred years before or since.  I know from my own experience it’s very easy to confuse stories your grandmother told you for things that happened in her life time and that you find, once you look into it, had to have happened in the time of her grandmother’s grandmother, and which she told me as had been told to her.  — Confusing how many grandmothers ago is particularly easy since her introduction was always “My grandmother told me that once upon a time, this street–“) but is often right in the details, particularly when various local legends chain on each other to form a coherent whole.  (A Moorish defeat in one place, leading to a Moorish route passing through the next village, leading to–)

Anyway, legends seem to cluster around times of great change, times in which lots of things were happening, times of turmoil and movement.  As did, I’ll admit, my grandmother’s stories.  Humans seem to have an innate predilection for stories in which stuff happens.  (I know.  It’s astounding, right?  It’s almost like there’s a difference between stories and sermons.)

My favorite — I’ve been crashing early, but having trouble sleeping, so chain-reading these little one to two page stories, until I physically can’t hold the book up — was the story of Wellington taking the city of Porto and eating the lunch originally cooked for Soult.  While Soult wasn’t waiting around to eat it, and had prepared to leave the city in the morning, it is easy to believe the servants of the house he was occupying went around preparing lunch, as they would have done, anyway.  And of course Wellington would have eaten it, and probably toasted his victory, as befits the gallant spirit of the age where being seen to do something with flare was even better than “just” doing it.

Then this morning, I woke up and caught up with Mad Genius Club, where Dave Freer has written a post about the changing state of our field. (Last Monday.) Changing Spots.

In it he notes many things I have myself realized, including that it’s d*mn hard to plan for the future in this time of turmoil we’re entering.

And it’s not just in publishing, of course.  If it were just in publishing it would be easy.  One could after all fall back on the rest of the “stable world.”

It’s not just in publishing.

It’s everywhere we look, and part of this is that we’re in the middle of one of those macro conceptual changes the human race goes through now and then.  You know, nomadic to agriculture, agriculture to cottage industry trade/cottage industry-trade to industrial/ industrial to mass production/mass production to personal-individual-small scale.

All of those are accompanied by equivalent turmoil: political, scientific (as the conceptual change spreads), territorial.

All of them.

So, things to remember:

-It is only beginning.  Someone on Facebook said we’re living through the period of history summarized under “causes leading to” before the map gets all arrowy and scary.  And they’re not wrong.  What I have a feeling though, is that we’re living through “Factors contributing to” the “causes leading to.”
Things are still working themselves out, and the economic fall out of what seemed like the relatively simple innovation of instant communication around the world and portability of data hasn’t fully worked itself through yet.  When will it work itself through?  When you see land in “states with no jobs” pick up on sales.  You’ll know we’re halfway through the transformation when pay scales start to balance between KS and NYC. (Not quite.  Very large cities will always have a pull of their own.  It’s the mid range cities that will balance and empty. But you know what I mean.)  You’ll now we’re almost done when telecommuting is the ASSUMPTION for any job that can be done this way.  I don’t expect it in my lifetime.

-The very beginning is enough for craziness and dislocation, war and rumors of war.  Trust me.  So, we’re living through that.

-The Future won’t look anything like those people who think history comes with an arrow think it will look.  It also won’t look like the dreams of those who wish to hurtle back intot he beginning of the 20th century.  (No, seriously.  They’re the romantics of the present day, wearing their retro chic opinions like people who built “ruins” on their estates.)  It’s an hysterical reaction of scared children in either case.

-It is entirely possible that the future won’t look like anything any of us CAN conceptualize.  Start working through the consequences of a truly decentralized, not-space-attached workforce.  Real estate? Dating? Family structure? Education?  If you really think it through it will make your head spin, particularly as you get into the consequences of the consequences.

So, what to do?  Try not to get too excited.  Stay flexible.  Be able and ready to jump.  Don’t try to define the present based on the past: it’s likely not to work too well.

In practical terms: take care of yourself.  Make connections. Teach your children well.  Don’t let yourself be gaslighted. Learn.  The more options you have the better.  And stay awake. Falling asleep is to fall behind and lose touch with what’s happening.

Most of all don’t give up.  There is a good chance the future will be better than the past (though some disgusting interludes do occur.) and if we don’t live to see it, other humans will.

May you thrive in interesting times.