Category: Hard times in the land of plenty

The New Normal

Everything old is new again

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A meme or three on the Bai-Ding rerun of Jimmeh Peanuthead’s 70’s fuel fiasco, swiped from Infowars.


Heh. Toothy McBigTits looks as if the disastrous situation has left her downright lubricious, doesn’t she? Best line so far comes from a Friend Of Glenn: “So a pipeline is hackable, but a voting machine wasn’t???” Dude, you should know by now that, with shitlibs, it’s whatever serves their purposes at that moment, regardless of how contradictory, deceitful, or nonsensical it might be.

Thought exercise

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I’ve said I’m all done with 2020 election fantasizing, and I meant it too. However, this one’s opening gambit is amusing enough to make an exception for.

Let me put this in terms even Democrats can understand.

Let’s say a white police officer killed a black man who did nothing wrong. Unlike George Floyd, this man had not committed any crime, did not resist arrest, didn’t have fentanyl in his system and had no record of violent crime. Assume this poor guy was a law-abiding, taxpaying, churchgoing American and that the cop killed him for the crime of “driving while black.”

How do the police react? They say the shooting was righteous. They refuse to investigate. There is bodycam footage, but they refuse to release it. And get this: They refuse to allow anyone to even talk about it. If any cop talks about it, he loses his job. If anyone in the black community talks about it, social media will suspend them or ban them for life.

What would all of that mean to you? Guilty as charged, right? The police must be covering up a crime. No one who’s innocent acts like that, right?

Guess what? That’s equivalent to the reaction (or, should I say, overreaction) of liberals, Democrats and assorted socialists and communists when Republicans make accusations of massive voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

I thought we’re all allowed to have our opinion in America. I thought we have free speech. I thought we have a right to investigate. I thought we have a right to see the videotapes. I thought we have a right to forensic audits.

I was wrong.

Indeed you were, even more so than you may realize. See, your mistake wasn’t in thinking that free speech, free thought, and all the rest were “allowed” in America; in fact, they were. Your mistake was in clinging to the now-defunct belief that this is still America. All available evidence confirms that the country we now live in is nothing of the sort. Once you get your head around that ugly reality, everything begins to come clear. Adjust your attitude and behavior accordingly.

Just great

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It’s a real-life rerun of That 70s Show, forever and ever amen.

A cyberattack has forced the shutdown of a major gas pipeline in the U.S. that supplies 45% of all fuel consumed on the East Coast.

The cyberattack against Colonial Pipeline, which runs from Houston to Linden, New Jersey, began 7 p.m. on Friday night, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency report reviewed by ABC News.

“We proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat, which has temporarily halted all pipeline operations, and affected some of our IT systems,” the company said in a statement.

Colonial’s network supplies fuel from U.S. refiners on the Gulf Coast to the eastern and southern U.S. and transports 2.5 million barrels a day of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other products through 5,500 miles of pipelines, the company said.

It’s not clear how long the pipelines would be shut down. The shutdown will affect other pipeline operations such as the Buckeye and Twin Oaks Pipeline, which runs through the New York City-Long Island area and Maine, FEMA said.

SO, then: everybody ready for gas lines, shortages, and all the accompanying nightmarishness again? Because that’s what’s coming, ready or not. Looks like my forecast of five bucks a gallon at the pump by summer was way too rosy.

The future is now

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Contra Tom Wolfe’s well-known witticism, looks like the dark night of fascism finally DID land here after all.

In America, people who committed a misdemeanor by entering the Capitol without permission are still rotting in jail in solitary confinement without ever having had a hearing. The situation is so dire and un-American that Senators Elizabeth Warren and Dick Durbin, both proponents of total government, protested:

Most of the 300-plus people charged with participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot have been released while they await trial, but dozens of those deemed to be dangerous, flight risks or at high risk of obstructing justice were ordered held without bond. D.C. jail officials later determined that all Capitol detainees would be placed in so-called restrictive housing — a move billed as necessary to keep the defendants safe, as well as guards and other inmates. But that means 23-hour-a-day isolation for the accused, even before their trials begin.

And such treatment doesn’t sit well with Warren or Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), two of the chamber’s fiercest critics of solitary confinement.

“Solitary confinement is a form of punishment that is cruel and psychologically damaging,” Warren said in an interview. “And we’re talking about people who haven’t been convicted of anything yet.”

Shocking, certainly, considering the source. But hey, when you’re right, you’re right. Further evidence abounds:

On Wednesday, federal agents flashing open-ended warrants conducted a 6 A.M. raid on former New York mayor and current Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to seize his electronics. The ostensible reason was that Giuliani violated a law requiring Americans who represent foreign nationals to register as foreign agents. This is a law that is enforced only against Republicans close to Trump — and Giuliani is adamant that he’s never represented foreign nationals.

The agents ostentatiously refused to seize copies of Hunter Biden’s hard drives, which Giuliani possessed, even though they were obvious electronic devices. Giuliani contends that the hard drives’ contents establish not only that Hunter and Joe Biden acted as unregistered foreign agents, but also that Joe Biden and his family took millions in bribes over the years and that Hunter Biden was engaged in child pornography. Since Giuliani still has the hard drives, perhaps he should make all the information on the drives public.

On the evidence available, what’s happening to Giuliani looks like typical fascism: an incoming regime uses unequally applied law and a complete absence of due process to purge all political opposition.

And in the perfect public-private partnership that makes fascism a different kind of socialism from communism, the tech tyrants continue to act as the federal government’s censorship arm. 

At the end of the day, unless we want the dark night of fascism to become a permanent fixture in America, we’d better act to stop the Democrats from using the unequal application of our laws and the manufactured fear of COVID (a virus that more than 99% of us will have survived) to gain total power.

Problem is, there’s only one effective means of doing so at this late date—a fearful, desperate last resort which most Real Americans are understandably reluctant to embrace, and in no way guarantees anything other than horror and misery. Not condemning said reluctance, mind. But confronting certain unpleasant realities is much better than attempting to evade them. In fact, our national averting of the eyes, denial of harsh truths, and desire to postpone an inevitable reckoning is in large measure what brought us to this sorry pass in the first place.

No decent or rational person wants war, ever. Even so, just as history teaches that Communism has not, will not, and cannot work as advertised, it also offers another uncomfortable but essential lesson: those who think to avert war via disgraceful, dishonest, or self-deceptive measures often find themselves in a more protracted and terrible struggle than they might otherwise have faced.

FLY, YOU FOOLS!

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Bailing on Blue.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Minneapolis is my home. My happiest memories are here. It’s where I learned to ride a bike, had my first date, received my high school diploma.

But today, I’m too afraid to even walk in my neighborhood by myself.

The ACE Hardware down the street? The one that I used to bike to in the summer? Robbed twice in the past five days.

The Walgreens next to my elementary school? Molotov cocktail thrown into it.

The Lake Harriet Bandshell, where we spent countless Mother’s Days? Homeless encampment popped up next door.

These are the things you don’t read about in the news.

Ten minutes from my house, at 38th and Chicago, there is still an autonomous zone. Police are not allowed to enter. Residents have died because medical authorities couldn’t get through, and carjackers (of which there are MANY) will speed into the zone to escape officer pursuit.

My favorite dinner theater canceled its production of Cinderella because it was “too white.”

My church — my beloved, tiny, Lutheran church — organized social justice marches for our congregation while refusing to reinstate in-person services (they’re still virtual, by the way).

And how about the week of the 2020 riots?

We lived under a curfew for days while looters seemingly roamed freely. Friends fled their home at 3:30 a.m. because the auto parts store behind them was on fire. And then we watched in horror as our City Council members demanded that the city defund the police — as they hired armed security for themselves.

I no longer recognize Minneapolis. I no longer want to live here. We are done, and I am leaving.

Can’t say as I blame ya, kiddo. Sadly, though, what’s been done to Minneapolis is no different than what’s been done to many if not most other formerly-American blue cities and states. And until Americans come to grips with what the Democrat-Socialists truly are and resolve to rise up against them en masse, the Progressivist campaign of destruction and despair will grind on.

Incitement

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The witless baboon should get exactly what she wants. Right on her goddamned doorstep, literally.

Maxine Waters tells Minnesota BLM protesters ‘to get more confrontational’ one day after violent anti-police clashes erupted across US
California Representative Maxine Waters joined protesters in Minnesota  as demonstrations entered a seventh night on Saturday after the death of Daunte Wright.

Waters told the protesters at Brooklyn Center that she will fight for justice on their behalf and urged them to ‘to get more confrontational’ – just one day after protests descended into violence.

‘I am not happy that we have talked about police reform for so long,’ Waters said. ‘We’re looking for a guilty verdict,’ she added in regards to the Derek Chauvin trial. ‘If we don’t, we cannot go away.’

‘We gotta stay on the street,’ Waters was recorded saying, adding that protesters needed ‘to get more confrontational’ and they should ignore the curfew in place.

Her comments sparked outrage on Twitter.

‘Of course she’ll get away with saying that while anyone else would’ve been thrown in jail,’ Rick Santella tweeted.

Of course, this is hardly the first time this mouthy oxygen thief has tried to rile her pet Lefty thugs to actual acts of violence.

In supporting the second impeachment of President Donald Trump, California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters said he was “inciting” his followers, and was “trying to create a civil war.”

By her own standards, Maxine Waters should be impeached and removed.

In 2018, she told them to harass Trump administration officials. “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere,” she said.

Of course, she’s not around to see the results. After pouring fuel on the fire in Minnesota, she encouraged everyone to keep protesting — though she herself would not be.

Maxine Waters is trying to create a civil war…

And she should be given one, too. Good, and hard, and all upside her empty head, until she’s left flopping around on the floor like a landed fish. There might be a silver lining to the dullard Waters’s rabble-rousing, though.

The judge overseeing former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s trial hinted at a possible appeal after hearing the defense team’s argument that Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters’ recent call to violence if the trial does not result in a guilty conviction could influence the jury’s verdict.

“My phone gives me alerts on things that just happened. I mean, you can’t avoid it,” Chauvin’s attorney Eric Nelson argued. “And it is so pervasive that I just don’t know how this jury, it can really be said to be that they are free from the taint of this. And now that we have US representatives threatening acts of violence in relation to the specific case is mind-boggling.”

“I’ll give you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in his whole trial being overturned,” Judge Peter Cahill conceded before hearing the state’s position.

While Cahill denied Nelson’s attempt to use Waters’ comments as a reason to be granted a motion for mistrial, the judge did acknowledge the danger of her rhetoric and presence in Minnesota.

“I’m aware that Congresswoman Waters was talking specifically about this trial, and about the unacceptability of anything less than a murder conviction, and talk about being confrontational,” Cahill said.

“…This goes back to what I’ve been saying from the beginning: I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case, especially in a manner that is disrespectful to the rule of law and to the judicial branch and our function. I think if they want to give their opinions they should do so in a respectful, and in a manner that is consistent with their oath to the Constitution, to respect the co-equal branch of government…”

RUFKM?!? You ARE aware that this is Maxine Fucking Waters we’re talking about here, right? “Respectful” and “consistent with (her) oath etc” are things this woman just doesn’t DO. That “rule of law” business is a real hoot though, Yer Honor. After all we’ve witnessed the last several years, I really got a kick out of that one.

As I’ve already said, the verdict isn’t going to matter anyway, in this case or any other. Guilty or not guilty, Chimpout Summer ’21 is nigh upon us, and the rioting, burning, and looting are going to take place regardless.

Update! Will no one rid us of this loathsome hag?

New documents obtained by Townhall show Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters requested an armed police escort to Minneapolis over the weekend, where she called for violent activists to “stay in the streets” during a protest against law enforcement.

I haven’t the words. Just breathe deep and steady on down though, folks, because the Vichy GOPe ain’t gonna let the vile bitchofahagofacunt get away with this.


Oh, I just bet you will. Breath: NOT held.

Showing the RINOs update! While the usual empty threats emanate from the usual GOPe orifices, Uniparty pariah MTG actually goes ahead and does something.

On Sunday Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said she will introduce a resolution to expel Maxine Waters From Congress.

Representative Greene later created a petition demanding Representative Waters be expelled from Congress.

Here is the link: https://action.greene2020.com/expel-maxine-ig/

Please feel free to sign this long-overdue petition.

Yes, please do.

On Monday Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed her resolution to remove criminal inciter Maxine Waters from Congress.

You go, girl. Not that it has a snowball’s chance of happening, natch. Actually, it’s a far safer bet that Republicants will vigorously assist their Demonrat partners in crime in seeing to it that Greene is censured and expelled long before the odious cretin Waters ever will be.

Time has come today

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Or has it passed us by?

Liberty activist Ammon Bundy of Idaho is warning Americans that there’s little time left to turn back the tyranny that’s taking hold from authoritarian COVID-19 dictates.

Party affiliation seems to mean little across the country as, whether Democrat or Republican, few are willing to stand up for liberty, according to Bundy. Idaho Gov. Brad Little is a Republican, and the state is one of the largest GOP states in the nation.

“I’m getting tired. I’m about ready to say to hell with everybody. Literally, to hell with everybody,” Bundy said. “I’m tired of going to jail and standing up, and I’m grateful for the small amount of people who have stood up with me, but why can’t people see the danger of what is happening. I wish I would have never ever read a history book or the Constitution. That’s how I feel sometimes because then I could feel like ‘well, there’s no problem you know. I’ll just put on a mask. I’ll just comply. There’s no problem here.’”

Bundy added: “But no, these are serious things that have happened before over and over. These are not the beginnings. We’re in the middle to coming up to the end of basically when people lose complete power over themselves and over their freedom. And people just don’t seem to care. I’m not trying to be pessimistic or a downer, but we have to wake up. We have to wake up. I don’t want to live in a dictatorship any longer. I don’t want to pass this on to my children.”

Although a local story, Bundy said every American is facing similar tyranny.

“We’re in trouble, and Idaho’s not the only one doing this. Idaho’s not the only state doing this,” Bundy said. “Either I’m completely crazy or we’ve got a really, really big problem.”

Bundy added: “I’ve been trying to do my best on warning people and showing people and exposing people what this COVID is all about. It is about force. It is about taking the rights of the people away, you and I. They use it for everything, an excuse for everything. An excuse not to have a jury trial. An excuse not to have hearings. An excuse to completely trample on the rights of the people. An excuse to arrest you here and arrest you there. An excuse to destroy the liberties of the people of an entire state and then try to get immunity out of a special legislative session, and then an excuse to arrest people who show up, peacefully show up and just trying to make a difference.”

Whatever your opinion of Bundy may be—and there seems to be a fairly wide variance among ’em out there—he’s right about all this, and you know damned well he is. Supporting evidence:

In August of last year, Bundy was arrested and charged with trespassing twice within two days at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise. He, along with other liberty activists, were seeking to offer public comments during a special legislative session to oppose Little’s effort to “make himself immune from the COVID decisions and all the terrible things he’s done to Idaho,” Bundy said.

This came after Little gave himself control, via an executive order, over all federal dollars coming into the state concerning COVID-19 after the CARES Act was signed by former President Donald Trump. Bundy stated that Idaho has received at least $8.1 billion from the federal government, and Little has effectively declared martial law by stating “all the government of Idaho is under the governor, and then he did exactly what the federal government wanted him to do.”

One of those trespassing charges has already been dropped because the Director of Administration, who made the charge, did not have authority to trespass anyone. Bundy is still awaiting trial, along with a co-defendant, on the second charge.

After the arrests in August, Bundy was arrested last month for “failure to appear in court” on the other outstanding trespassing charge. However, Bundy and his co-defendant did show up to court but were denied access to the building because they refused to wear a face mask.

Fast forward to yesterday, Bundy was arrested on trespassing charges at the state capitol and again by the Director of Administration who the court’s already ruled did not have authority to trespass citizens. After bailing himself out, Bundy returned to the capitol and again was arrested for trespassing, this time by Sargent Blake Higley of the Idaho State Police who Bundy said told him “I don’t have to have authority” when asked for authority to make the arrest.

Lots of people in my circle are fond of lamenting that America is now “a joke,” but that’s not so. What it actually is, and has long been, is a lie. The powerlessness to see things put right again that we all feel, the frustration and despair that burdens Bundy right along with every other Real American, is no accident. It’s just another part of The Plan, and it seems to be working quite well so far, thanks.

Now tell me again all about how wrong and unhelpful it is to say that they’re evil, whydon’tcha. That one’s my favorite.

Questions, questions

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James asks one which is incorrectly constructed due to his use of the wrong tense.

Will America Survive Joe Biden?

Wrong choice of protagonist as well, I see. Here’s a better version, corrected for phrasing, tense, and nomenclature: Did America survive Barrack Obama? The answer is all too obvious at this late stage of the game, alas, so I see no need to further belabor the point.

Nevertheless, Kunstler has a larger point to make here, involving not only the extravagantly sordid and venal Biden famiglia felonosa but the entire execrable FUSAn political system of which they’re such pluperfect representatives. Although it’s neither new nor surprising, it remains a point worth revisiting.

If you want to understand the complete failure of moral authority in America, seek no further than the gothic doings of the Biden family, especially now that the President’s degenerate son, Hunter, has been rewarded with a $2-million advance-against royalties (i.e., money up-front) from Simon & Schuster, and a gala publicity tour of the national news media designed to conceal his criminal culpability in evidence contained on the “laptop from hell” that he stupidly abandoned in a Delaware repair shop while lurching through his daily doings on one of countless drug jags he’s enjoyed between rehabs since his dad stepped back into national politics.

The failure is shared by a national news media that refuses to scrutinize the obvious financial crimes documented on the laptop, the FBI, which sat on the laptop through the months of Trump Impeachment No. One — while the computer contained evidence of Hunter’s grifting and money-laundering directly benefiting “the Big Guy,” Joe Biden, at issue in the impeachment — and the Department of Justice, which has been sitting on its hands pretending to conduct an investigation into all this.

The moral darkness of the family is beyond Shakespearean. It ranges from fantastically sordid personal indecencies like Hunter posting drug-fueled selfie sex videos with whores on the PornHub website, to intimations of lewd consort with his teenage niece, to the admitted fact of him bird-dogging his dead brother’s wife, Hallie… and into financial misdeeds that suggest Hunter sold out his country by peddling Joe Biden’s favor to agents of the Chinese communist party and other foreign nations. This body of unresolved allegations haunts the House of Biden like some stinking dead animal decaying under the Oval Office floorboards that everyone pretends not to notice.

The gross failure of federal authority, and abuse of authority, in this land is an ongoing process. You can date it back to wherever you like — say, to all the confusion and deception around the JFK assassination, or even further — but it had never been so broad, so deep, and so blatant as when Donald Trump became a candidate and all the resources of the CIA, DOJ, and the FBI were marshaled against him in the phony operations that became RussiaGate. Now, under Joe Biden, the system is entirely poisoned and corrupt.

Hunter is supposedly under investigation by the DOJ for tax fraud. Is that all? Are they not curious at all about the imputation of Chinese influence over decision-making in Joe Biden’s White House? Apparently, China paid for the influence it now enjoys. Millions of ordinary American citizens have seen the actual record, screen-captured from Hunter’s laptop, of email correspondence that details the many deals and payments made by Chinese companies run by the CCP to Hunter’s various shell corporations, as well as the memos between Hunter and his partners breaking down the payment schedule among Biden family members, including “the Big Guy.”

Is there not some larger — very large — question as to how this Manchurian Candidate with failing mental capacities, seemingly run by other figures in the shadows, came to be installed at the head of our government? The USA will not survive as a nation unless we seek to find out.

It appears less and less likely that the FUSA as currently constituted will survive whether we do or we don’t. Either way, the question is past its sell-by date, as is the mouldering mess of a nation it refers to. A far more cogent question now is whether it should survive—and whether Real Americans ought to hope that it does, or instead try to do whatever they can to help speed the process of collapse along.

Springtime for psychotics

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Land of the Woke, home of the insane.

All social hysterias run their courses. They run out of new gags, and out of new recruits. Their tropes grow tiresome, even comical, such as the Woke mainstays of “racism,” “misogyny,” and “white supremacy.” Their promptings reveal themselves as obviously dishonest. The punishments they seek seem increasingly warped and sadistic. The behavior they induce begins to look patently insane. That’s where America stands now.

To keep the flywheel of hysteria spinning during the Covid year of 2020, the Dems turned the death of George Floyd into a new-and-improved second coming of Michael Brown in order to juice BLM for the fall election. This time there were video cameras galore on the scene to capture what turned out to be an ambiguously deceptive storyline. Half the world flipped out at the sight of Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck at that Minneapolis intersection. It sure didn’t look good. Now that former officer Chauvin is on trial for Murder 2 and 3 plus manslaughter, the prosecution spent a week demonstrating indeed how bad that looked, with one witness after another who described how bad it made them feel to watch George Floyd die. Of course, watching anything die can be horrifying. It was, in essence, a wholly sentimental case for the prosecution.

The defense is ready to present facts that tell a different story: of a multiple violent felon and drug abuser hopped up on dangerous levels of narcotics and stimulants, with an impressively dire array of medical problems including Covid-19, who refused to follow police instructions, and in a manner that appeared deranged, leading to his being subdued by an approved police procedure to prevent harm to himself and others. The Minneapolis city council already queered the trial before it started by granting a $27-million settlement to the Floyd family, officially imputing guilt on Mr. Chauvin’s side. BLM has made it clear that they will not accept an acquittal.

Even a conviction is liable to inspire riots as the victory dance revs into the warm spring nighttime. Judging by last year’s BLM uprisings in city after city, the precedent has been established that mob violence is justified and holds no consequences. Something tells me that this particular error in political thinking will not be indulged this time around. The Woke hysteria and the hustles that grow out of it have shot their wad. Something else has awakened in this land: a recognition that we are in serious trouble, that our adversaries are having their way with us as we act stupidly, that we have become our own worst enemies, that being insane is not a virtue.

Was it ever? It would give me the warm fuzzies if the string-pullers behind the Harris-Biden junta decided to shock all hell out of the BLM/AntiFags and shut down the upcoming orgy of rioting and destruction on opening night, with extreme prejudice. I don’t seriously expect it to happen, but who knows. The Democrat-Socialists’ ruffian army have served their purpose and aren’t really needed at the moment, so maybe this summer we’ll see some real entertainment to compensate for all those shuttered movie houses, bars, and concert halls.

Ready for the Great Reset?

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As the ones our masters intend to be Resetting, we’d better be.

As is the custom among our big thinkers, the blather is very generalized. “Now is the time to think about what history would say about this crisis,” says the head of the IMF. If you say so. Personally, I was thinking that now is the time to eat a meal in a restaurant, if they weren’t closed.

But, why is it history’s job to say something about this crisis? Why, don’t you “world leaders” of the here and now say anything about it? “It is imperative that we reimagine, rebuild, redesign, re-invigorate and re-balance our world,” declares the UN Secretary-General.

That’s almost a full set, but he forgot “redefined”. “Possibilities are being redefined each and every day,” says the chief exec of British Petroleum, who as is his wont sounds like he’s in any business other than petroleum.

Lot of that going around nowadays; see my previous post for more.

There is, of course, an inscrutable Oriental, who is chairman of something called the “China Green Finance Committee”. He’s there as a not so subtle reminder not even to bring up the subject of China, whose lies amplified by their sock puppet at the WHO are the sole cause of the present crisis – and whose death-grip on our future is the thing that most urgently needs to be reimagined, rebuilt, re-balanced and redefined. As I’ve mentioned many times over the spring and summer, twenty years ago we were told to forget about manufacturing – from widgets to “These Colors Don’t Run” T-shirts, that’s never coming back; from now on, we’re going to be “the knowledge economy”. Yet mysteriously, with the 5G and the Huawei and all the rest, China seems to have snaffled all that, too.

So what’s left for citizens of the developed world? Retail, restaurants, theme parks, low-paid service jobs… In other words, everything that the Covid has clobbered. Cities that grew in the age of manufacturing transformed themselves into giant shopping malls for an indolent post-industrial west – cheeseburgers, Macy’s, multiplexes, sports stadia, concert halls, Miley Cyrus – The Musical …all gone. A few years back, I took my daughter to a bankrupt shopping centre in Reading, England that had been converted into a “Zombie Shopping Mall”, wherein for a fiver or so one could battle zombies through abandoned W H Smith’s and Boots’ and Tesco’s. In Seattle and Portland and Chicago they’re recreating the experience city-wide. In Minneapolis, as in that Zombie Shopping Mall, the rubble is being left in place: the city won’t let storekeepers clear away the ruins of their incinerated businesses unless they pre-pay their end-of-year property taxes. America’s cities are a whole new kind of business model: Zombie Shopping Mall With Paperwork.

It’s hard to see what’s in front of your nose when you’re so far-sighted all you can glimpse is the distant horizon, so the Davos crowd have nothing to say about any of that and instead retreat to their comforting tropes – mostly the “climate emergency”, with a little light slathering of social justice, just in case the #BLM crowd get a yen to torch their charitable foundations. Still, one notices the absence of some once familiar bromides. Nobody’s cooing over the “borderless world” beloved of brain-dead big thinkers of the day before yesterday. Unless you’re a Davos jetsetter, a “Syrian” “refugee”, a Covid-positive Mexican or member of some other approved group, there are borders everywhere now – around your home in many jurisdictions, five kilometres from your home in the Irish Not-So-Free State, between Australian states…

Underneath the lofty generalities of the Davos set, this is what the Great Reset boils down to as a practical matter. “Each and every one of us has a vital role to play,” says the Prince of Wales. His vital role is to think big thoughts, your vital role is to stay indoors on pain of a $5,000 fine unless given permission to leave for approved purposes during daylight hours.

That distinction between the rulers and the ruled has sharpened during the last year – and the very acceptance of that distinction by the overwhelming majority of western citizens does us no credit whatsoever.

Bold not mine, but Steyn’s. Which, he’s right about that, painful as it is to have to admit it. As for the ChiComs specifically, they have plans to do a little resetting of their own.

A popular topic among Sinophiles since the installation of Joe Biden as president is the possibility of war with China over the status of Taiwan. The Chinese have been obsessed with Taiwan since Mao. With the American empire in sharp decline and the Biden regime unpopular at home and abroad, now could be the perfect time for the Chinese to make their move. As John Derbyshire is fond of pointing out, “Taiwan is like two feet from China … We are eight thousand miles away.”

While there is little doubt that China could retake Taiwan whenever it likes, the cost would be extremely high. For starters, Taiwan and the US have been preparing for such a move for generations. Some of the most sophisticated early warning systems on earth are installed in Taiwan specifically keep an eye on China. There is the very strong possibility that Taiwan has underground missile systems capable of reaching targets on the mainland in the event of an attack by China.

Whether or not the US would actually go to war to defend Taiwan is debatable, but that is the official position.

Trump might conceivably have, but there’s not a snowball’s chance that Biden ever would. And this time he’s right, incredible as that seems, albeit in his usual clueless way. If we shipped our stripper-pumps-and-sundresses Panzy Division troops around the globe to face down the Dinks, the result would be the most epic military defeat in human history, breaking all previous records by taking no more than half an hour to inflict. No need to worry about it, though; the ChiComs know it’s all just a matter of time, and all they have to do is be patient.

From the Chinese perspective, she has no reason to make any moves on Taiwan, as the puppet government in Washington is unlikely to stagger on much longer. Despite the claims by regime media, the world fully grasps the reality of the situation. The American regime is in deep crisis. The American empire is the sick man of the world right now and everyone is just waiting for the inevitable. History shows that the end comes much sooner than the patient ever expects.

The point of all this is that China has no reason to force a confrontation with the American empire over Taiwan. Through bribery, maneuvering and the general incompetence of the American ruling elite, China can quietly dictate policy to the regime in Washington. If she is patient, this reality will become clear to her neighbors in the region, and they will peacefully detach from the American empire and align with the Chinese empire. There is no need to fight the inevitable.

Nope, there really isn’t.

The trouble with having the sun set on one’s empire is that it can be VERY unpleasant for the settee.

A look ahead

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CW v2.0, secession, and/or the breakup of the FUSA will not be anything like what some seem to imagine.

IMHO, whatever the red-and-blue patchwork remnants of the US map look like, they’re going to be run by corporations or warlords, or both. The a-holes that are currently riding herd on the this giant ponzi scheme are not just going to take their ruin philosophically.

And as crappy as the laws are at protecting our rights, liberties, and property now, they are going to be worse.

Also, there isn’t going to be some dramatic moment when “its over.” No one’s going to announce the end of the United States. They aren’t going to board up the doors of the FBI offices. They’re still going to have presidential elections. They’re still going to play the national anthem at your son’s basketball game.

Its going to be like the Warlords Period in China. There’s going to be areas where the government doesn’t assert control, doesn’t go – could be mountains, could be cities. You’ll hear rumors of ugly things happening there, but you won’t see any videos because Youtube will take them down. Decent people will leave those areas. Then one day out of the blue, some armed men are going to show up and want your stuff – you don’t know who they are, where they’re from. They don’t care about you or your politics, or your particular take on Edmund Burke or transgender bathrooms, but they’re going to take your F-150 and any gas you have. And maybe your food too. And that’s how you’ll find out that the United States has collapsed.

In my opinion this forecast is a lot nearer the mark than others I’ve seen put forth out there, although of course we won’t know it until we’re neck-deep in it. Bracken’s fantastic Enemies Foreign And Domestic trilogy, which I’ve mentioned here previously a time or three, is another slice of grim prescience that I think is right on target. Simultaneously depressing and gripping, I simply can’t recommend it strongly enough.

Unnerving sitrep

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The real. The bad. The scary.

What were once dark conjectures about the future are now facts about the present.

Where American society once had pride in being part of the Western Enlightenment, its younger members have been taught to seek “emancipation” from its influence.

Where truth was once immutable it is now ephemeral.

Where privacy was once sacred, it is now nearly extinct.

Where the Deep State used to lurk in the shadows, it now brazenly justifies its repression in congressional hearings.

Where the two-party system once debated how government should be run, the Uni-party government now agrees on the necessity of making itself ever more powerful.

Where academia once taught, it now indoctrinates; where it once sought to educate the mind it now seeks to radicalize the soul.

Where Big Tech promised to liberate information, it now censors, controls, and manipulates it.

At the center of the Crisis stands a Transnational Progressive elite that denies the will of the majority of the American people and foments racial division and social discord. It has created a systemic economic crisis that threatens to destroy the Middle and Working Classes and pursues a “globalist” foreign policy that has pushed the country into endless, no-win wars where no American interest is at stake.

It is the failure of the elites in all their manifestations in government, big corporations, Big Tech, and Big Media that has brought us to the precipice of an economic and social disaster… and worse, they seek to exploit the crisis they created in order to expand their already fearsome levels of repressive control over society.

The former institutions that we have depended on for years to hold back the tides of oppressive Big Government are reeling under attack from a Transnational Progressive movement that openly admits it desires to fundamentally transform not only our Constitutional Republic but also our culture, our economic system, our national sovereignty, our history, our religious values, our families and our national heritage based on civil rights and liberties.

Lots more to set your timbers a-shiver here, which you should nonetheless should read. The authors imbibe heavily from Strauss & Howe’s “Fourth Turning” flagon—a real high-octane snootful of an idea fully embraced by some highly esteemed blogosphere heavyweights as well, Bill Quick and the Burning Platform krewe among ’em. I haven’t paid much more than cursory attention to it myself for whatever reason, which should by no means be construed as my having rejected it, mind. It’s an intriguing concept, certainly, if not tremendously helpful as a guide to what might be done about the shit sandwich with which we’ve been presented. But what with the mad rush of one damned thing after another that seems to constitute life in Totleigh Towers Amerika v2.0 (ahem), the CF plate has had more on it than I can get around to chewing lately.

Creepy Nation

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The whole issue comes down to a question of trust, really. Do you trust the government? If so, after all we’ve seen over the past year—at all levels, local, state, and federal—may I ask WHY?!?

Let’s assume for a minute, that the vaccination campaign is led by people who genuinely want to end the current crisis and restore the country to “normal”. Let’s also assume, that they believe that mass vaccination is the best way to achieve that objective by preventing the spread of the virus and, thus, reducing the death toll. Is that sufficient justification for silencing vaccine critics and conducting a nation-wide brainwashing operation aimed at controlling public opinion?

No, it’s not. People need to hear both sides of the story, in fact, that’s the only way they can make an informed decision about how they wish to proceed. The media has no right to commandeer the airwaves and control whatever people hear and see. And they have no right to deliberately exclude the medical professionals and other experts whose views conflict with the official narrative. The only way that people can offer their informed consent for vaccination, is if they’re able to weigh the risks and benefits for themselves. But that’s only possible if they have access to many diverse sources of information which, at present, they don’t. Increasingly, the only message that most people hear is the one that is provided by the government in collaboration with industry honchos and other elites. Traditionally, this type of state media is called “propaganda” which is a term that certainly applies here.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how this has affected the debate on vaccines, namely, there isn’t one. The skeptics have been dismissed as antivaxx loonies while an entirely new regime of experimental vaccines is being praised as a “miracle drug”. At the same time, the government –which has aligned itself with the industry it’s supposed to regulate– is doing everything in its power to pressure people into getting vaccinated. What we’re seeing is the most extravagant Madison Avenue “product launch” in America’s 245-year history, and it’s coming at us full-throttle from all sides. It’s virtually impossible to turn on the TV or radio without being deluged by one emotive vignette after the other all of which are aimed at promoting vaccination. How does this respect the right of the individual to make his own informed decision free from government coercion?

It doesn’t. This is flagrant indoctrination and yet no one talks about it. It’s shocking. Have you noticed how the critics of the mRNA vaccines have been prevented from expressing their views in the media? Have you noticed how the doctors, scientists, virologists, epidemiologists and public health experts have all been blocked from appearing on the cable news channels or excluded from the nation’s leading newspapers? Have you noticed how these critics been attacked on social media, censored on FaceBook and removed from Twitter? Have you noticed the lengths to which the media has gone to eliminate any challenge to the “official narrative” and to denounce, ridicule or blacklist anyone who dares to offer a conflicting opinion?

Why? Why is the media preventing these experts from articulating their reservations to the American people directly?

This is very scary stuff. Agents of the state now identify critics of the Covid vaccine as their mortal enemies. How did we get here? And how did we get to the point where the government is targeting people who don’t agree with them? This is way beyond Orwell. We have entered some creepy alternate universe.

It’s way worse than that; if you give any serious thought at all to it, it’s nothing short of terrifying. Scary as it is, this one’s a must-read for sure.

The nice thing is that there are still those indomitable souls out there who hew to one of the most hallowed of American traditions: finding the workaround in defiance of overbearing authority. Aesop provides the skinny over at BCE’s place, with link.

FWIW, state of WY has a pdf where you can print all the official blank ‘Rona cards you want:

2020-COVID-19-shot-card-2b

And a quick search on Google images reveals a treasure trove of lot numbers and actual stickers, stamps, and signatures, for the Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J vaccines, for anyone who might want that sort of thing.

Just saying.

Thanks for that, my friend. A most helpful information dump, I’d say.

On our watch? NOT!

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Wes contends that, since we’re the ones who allowed it to happen, it’s on us to put things right.

The Deep State is overseeing the fall from greatness of the United States. There is no freedom without bravery. As a society, are we free if we tolerate intimidation by government agencies like the IRS, FBI, DHS etc. Are we free if we allow the NSA to illegally search and seize our private documents? Are we free if we allow ourselves to be forcibly placed into an ill-conceived health care system with forced vaccinations? We are no longer in the process of relinquishing the freedom that is America, we have freely given it away. Are we really brave if we allow all these things to occur and keep silent because we are afraid that some government agents will come and hold us indefinitely without cause? The Deep State just stole our country from us in broad daylight and smirk at us. They dare us to do something about it.

Our forefathers’ worst nightmare has now come upon us. They created a free government, limited in its powers and a servant to the people. But today the United States has become an empire, fast decaying into tyranny, and we their children have become strangers and subjects in the land our fathers won. Instead of a free and just social and political order, today we are threatened by a Godless national culture and a corrupt, despotic federal government that knows no limits to its power.

We are NEVER going back to the America that was. The America we once knew is DEAD! Our children and grandchildren deserve so much better.

Freedom is not reserved for those unwilling to fight for it.

Nope. In fact, freedom is never stable, permanent, or cheap. It must be jealously guarded, scrupulously maintained, and eternally defended—yes, even violently defended, as spelled out in the clear and simple words of the Second Amendment—lest it be taken away. Freedom can never be assumed; it must be earned, again and again and again, by each successive generation. It is always under attack, ceaselessly endangered by enemies who are tireless, relentless, and ruthless.

Bayou Peter rediscovers an uncomfortable truth about those enemies.

I’ve fought Communism in more than one country, over an extended period of time. I’d thought that, in my old age, I could relax and hand on the fight to others. It looks like I was wrong.

Hate to say it, buddy, and I sincerely hope I don’t come off like I’m trying to be insulting or anything like that, but, well…yes, you were. No disgrace in it, of course. Certainly you and others like you—doughty, valiant men who have personally faced the foe and stared him down—have earned a respite. But it can never be. Because of who and what they are, the Enemy will not allow it. In truth, so profound is their lust for unconstrained power, they CAN’T allow it. It simply ain’t in ’em.

Oh, well. A lot of Communists and their followers have tried to kill me over the years. I’m still here, as are many other veterans of hot zones in the Cold War. I guess the ideological descendants of those Communists are going to have another go at us, and people like us. Well, we may be old farts now, but I think we can still pull a rabbit or two out of the hat if we have to…

You—WE—will indubitably find out. And so will our children, then their children, their children’s children, on down through the long years. Each generation’s devotion to freedom will be tested. Why? It’s quite simple, really. If there’s any one thing about the Left that we all should fully and firmly understand by now, it is what I have repeatedly said of them: They will NOT stop. They will NEVER stop. They will have to BE stopped. Tyrants, in short, are forever.

The Left will ALWAYS come back for another bite at the apple, until either Team Liberty is vanquished utterly or they are dead, dead, DEAD. They cannot be reasoned with. They cannot be compromised with. They cannot be appeased, placated, or bought off. They are supremely uninterested in peaceful coexistence with a free people not under their total control. From the sidebar, Daniel Webster may have said it best.

There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.

Webster spoke those wise words many years ago, but nothing has changed since, nor will it ever. NC Reed put the thing a bit differently, but the sentiment remains the same, as does the situation. As Webster

Ain’t no misunderstanding this war. They want to rule us and aim to do it. We aim not to allow it. All there is to it.

It is indeed. Period. Full stop. End of story. They destroy us, or we destroy them. There is no third way. Nobody has to like it. But sooner or later, no one will be excused from his confrontation with the fateful decision: to bend the knee, or to stand your ground. And then, we will have to choose—a choice that will both reveal and define us, now and for all time.

Saying the quiet part out loud

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Cadaver Joe staggered out to mumble and slur his way through a speech of some kind or other, apparently. No longer giving the slightest toss about anything shat from any FederalGovCo sphincter myself, I wasted not a moment of my time or attention on it. Hearing it discussed on the car radio today, though, parts of it seem to have been of some moment after all.

On Thursday night, a masked Biden tottered down a long, empty hall to a podium. He then gave the most bizarre presidential address in American history. After a grim recital of “facts” about the last year, Biden emphasized multiple times that Americans had better take the vaccine — and be grateful to him for his amazing ability to get the vaccine to Americans. He also insisted that, vaccines or not, the government’s in control and can lock all of us up all over again.

Here, in no particular order, are the points that struck me:

1. Biden was more alert than he’s been in many months. Given how frail and confused Biden’s been lately, well, let’s just say his verve was suspicious. Even his eyes, which are usually tightly squinted as he struggles to stay alert and read his teleprompter, were wide open, almost scarily so. Still, he got visibly tired near the end, slurring his words and seeming lost.

3. Biden kept saying he was going to tell the truth. He quoted a woman he allegedly met who told him her heart’s desire: “‘I just want the truth. The truth. Just tell me the truth.'”

“Tell the truth,” Biden said again.

“My fellow Americans,” he said, “you’re owed nothing less than the truth.”

Later, he added, “I will tell you the truth.”

And then he said, “In the coming weeks and months, I’ll be traveling along with the first lady” and a whole host of others “to tell you the truth.”

Do you know who says things like that? Someone who’s lying.

Well, D’UH. Naturally, the speech was as packed stem to stern with outrageous lies as any other Demonrat exhalation reliably is. As pluperfect an old grifter as we know the pRetend pResident to be from his half-century spent rooting in the DC hog-trough, how could any sentient being expect something other than misdirection, hypocrisy, and calculated, self-serving falsehood from the senile old kiddie-diddler? Even so, there were some telling tidbits inadvertently revealed. More delicate, Pollyanna-ish types still locked in denial about what kind of country they live in might need to fortify themselves with a swallow or three of something strong.

7. The main thrust of the speech was that everyone must get the vaccine (the wonderful Biden vaccine). However, Biden conceded that even with the vaccine, masks and social distancing must continue. Even with everyone vaccinated, by July 4, maybe we can gather with small groups outdoors. In other words, even as we’re all pumped full of a vaccine, nothing will change. But we should trust Biden and remember that we’re all in this together.

8. Here’s the scariest thing Biden said, although he slipped it in so quickly many may not have noticed (emphasis mine): “Fourth, in the coming weeks, we will issue further guidance on what you can and cannot do once fully vaccinated to lessen the confusion, to keep people safe, and encourage more people to get vaccinated.”

The vaccine, rather than freeing us, will bring us even more tightly under government control as the federal government mandates what we can and cannot do.

It’s just beautiful, innit? Now you all be good little boys and girls and get your “vaccination,” then maybe Mommy and Daddy will think about letting you celebrate your “freedom” on “Independence Day” just a little this year, mmmmkay?

Naturally, Praetorian Media “journalists” wet themselves with delirious joy over Biden’s grim unveiling of how our Deep State masters really perceive the current state of play in Amerika v2.0.

“Biden Tells Nation There Is Hope After a Devastating Year.”

“Hopeful Biden Says, ‘I Need You.’”

“Biden Sets Vaccine Goal That Would Allow Americans To Gather By July 4.”

These headlines, from the covers of the printed New York Times, LA Times, and Boston Globe, greeted Americans Friday morning, 51 days into the Biden presidency and a full year into the beginnings of America’s long lockdown experiment.

“Seven Takeaways From Biden’s Prime-Time Address” topped CNN’s site. Chris Cillizza’s first two “takeaways”? “Donald Trump dug the hole” was number one. Number two? “A return to empathy.” Chris Cillizza, it’s worth noting, is a 45-year-old man and does not work for the White House.

“Last night is why Joe Biden won the presidency,” Politico Playbook opened with a straight face.

If you hadn’t watched the president’s prime-time address, you might think it was something — anything — other than the most depressing, defeated, and resigned speech since President Jimmy Carter held the office. You might think he hadn’t devoted his third sentence to a baseless attack on his predecessor, and the entire rest of his address to death, sadness, loneliness, and despair. You might think he hadn’t literally threatened the American people, warning, “We may have to reinstate restrictions to get back on track, please, we don’t want to do that again.”

Yeah, and you might also have trouble feeding yourself, tying your shoelaces, or finding your own ass with both hands and a compass, too.

But even in so deep and dark a night as this, there are glimmers of light to be seen here and there. For instance, earlier today I was on the phone with a friend of mine as he drove along McConnells Highway in South Cackalacky. Mid-conversation, he began mumbling a slow count-off, getting up to eleven before bursting into raucous laughter. See, along a certain stretch near his place there are a lot of homes flying the now-desecrated Stars and Stripes out front. Turns out that my friend was totting up the number of folks he passed who had suddenly decided to fly their US flag upside down. This, mind, on the day after Bai-Ding puked forth the most profoundly un-American speech by a *president* in our history.

Which is actually, literally illegal unless done as a distress signal in circumstances of extreme danger to life or property, if I remember right. I figure those people needn’t worry overmuch about being arrested or jailed, though. Our current national predicament makes a pretty good argument against it.

Do, or do not

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Can a post be both dead on the money and piercingly astute—yet totally, cluelessly oblivious and ambivalent simultaneously?

Over the past several years, as the woke cultural revolution intensified, conservative conversations focused on the Second Amendment as the final defense against the tyranny that may result as progressives march toward authoritarian-style government. In response, right-leaning and independent-minded citizens have shown up at protests to exercise those Second Amendment rights by posturing with firearms and assorted tactical equipment. Regardless of the prudence involved in such actions, we are now treading on new ground.

Following the November 3 election and subsequent January 6 protest at the Capitol, the current regime set out to eliminate political opposition by casting them as “white supremacists” and “domestic extremists.” They intend to use the legal authorities, tactics, and techniques that were previously employed against Al Qaeda and ISIS against those ordinary Americans who refuse to accept the ruling elite’s political ideology.

Simply put, the most deadly counterterrorism machine from the world’s most powerful country is coming for you. You, ordinary American, are the target.

Good on ya, son. I’m with you a hunnerd and ten percent so far.

Now is not the time for impotent tough talk and posturing with weapons at protests.

Uhhh, wait, whut?!?

The Second Amendment, and all of our rights, are critical to a free society, and we should seek to understand how best to exercise and defend them from authoritarian factions of the ruling elite.

By…preemptively vowing we’ll never exercise them? Are you seriously proposing that patriots should effectively disarm themselves by placing use of the 2A for the purpose it was explicitly and specifically intended off-limits and out of bounds? If you really, truly consider the 2A to be as “critical” as all that, there would be no lengths to which a patriot wouldn’t go to defend it—much less restore it. Which is where we all are now, frankly.

This is the time to get smart on how to counter this assault on liberty and avoid falling into the traps the ruling elite are setting for traditional America.

Fair enough, especially your point on the need to be extremely wary of the traps and other provocative skullduggery already deployed by The Enemy. Just the same, I question how effective any attempt to “counter this assault on liberty” is likely to prove if our very first step is to limit those attempts to strictly rhetorical, political, or nonviolent ones—particularly when The Enemy has repeatedly made plain that he recognizes no such restraints on his own actions.

But it ain’t too hard to make a pretty solid guess. When literal, intentional, and unrestrained “assault” is met with a reflexive demonstration that the response will be nothing of the sort, that display of weakness and lack of self-respect is the practical equivalent of assuring The Enemy that he has already won. However lofty or high-minded you think your intentions to be, by openly renouncing all notion of responding to authoritarian violence unhesitatingly and overwhelmingly—using any and every tool in the box—you have all but sworn fealty to your new masters and guaranteed your own subjugation.

No offense and all, but I’m afraid that just doesn’t work for me. This next part I’m okay with. Mostly.

The U.S. military uses a concept called “defense-in-depth” as its primary defensive strategy. Defense-in-depth is a layered, multi-domain approach that uses numerous defensive elements designed to delay and diffuse the advance of an attacker. Rather than relying on a single, strong defensive line, the defender wears down the enemy, causing casualties while deliberately yielding space. Once the enemy has lost momentum and is under stress, the defender mounts a decisive counterattack to destroy the enemy or drive them back to their original lines.

This strategy also works in the political world and is relevant to our current situation. An effective political defense-in-depth strategy should include all mechanisms of political action to wear down the attack on our republic, its culture, and the Constitution. The term political action isn’t just limited to casting a vote or sending money to a political party. Effective political actions include protests, general strikes, walk-outs, sick-outs, civil disobedience, lawfare, and nullification.

The Polish Solidarity movement used many of these same political actions to bring down a socialist government at the height of the Cold War without firing a shot, despite having to outmaneuver rigged elections and a Soviet-style corrupt bureaucracy.

Now might be a good time to remind everyone of my maxim that revolution and/or civil war are not events, but processes. Although the current conflict is rapidly escalating, we’re still in early innings here. Absent some totally unlooked-for, out-of-left-field igniting of the conflagration, the time is not yet ripe for violent resistance, or so it seems to me. But every passing day—and each successive outrage against America That Was—brings us closer.

Granted, the Solidarity example could well be the best one to follow at this stage of the game; as I’ve said, no nonviolent card should be left unplayed, for all sorts of perfectly good reasons. Regardless of whether the Solidarity gambit is or isn’t tried, though, I can’t quite see preemptively forswearing the 2A Solution doing any good. I really do hate to come off as if I’m ragging on a former Marine here. It’s a good article with plenty therein to make it worth a read (aside from the one thing I zeroed in on for this rant) and I do recommend it.

In the end, though, I can only see this thing the one way. And what it looks like to me is this:

The first three of the Four Boxes Of Liberty have failed us utterly; there is simply no longer any room left for productive discussion about that. To publicly vow that the Fourth Box will be forever left unopened, no matter what, is to foolishly hand The Enemy a tremendous advantage—one he will not hesitate to make fullest use of. The historical record provides more than adequate proof: an absolute, total commitment to victory at any cost will trump flinching, hesitation, and half-measures Every. Single. Time.

Cognitive dissonance? Or just plain old stupidity?

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One of those can be fixed. The other…can’t.

Last year, like many other Democrats, I took action. I campaigned, responded to social media misinformation and donated money to candidates. I celebrated when Joe Biden was announced as the winner of the presidency and when Democrats took back the Senate.

I also wrote a book to remind myself — and all of us — that honesty was something that still mattered, despite having the most dishonest person imaginable leading our country. But now that Donald Trump is out of office, I’m facing a painful truth: The man I prayed would become president could sign a piece of legislation that would kill my career as a freelance writer.

It’s the strangest political cognitive dissonance I’ve ever experienced.

You’re being far too generous with yourself there with that “cognitive dissonance” diagnosis, sweetie. No worries, though, you can always fucking learn to code, right?

Right now, my party is pushing a bill called the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or the PRO Act, in an ostensible bid to help gig workers exploited by employers who won’t give them health care coverage and other benefits. But because of a problematic clause in the bill, it’s far more con than pro for me. The bill could end my ability to be my own boss, set my own hours and otherwise live the American worker’s dream.

Interesting. Despite being a Democrat-Socialist—even admitting that you celebrated when your crime syndicate masquerading as a political party stole an election and installed a corrupt, senile drooltard as pRetend pResident—you nonetheless seem very taken aback by certain home truths that are glaringly obvious to sane people. Let me try to enlighten you on just a few of those.

  • “Honesty” is the absolute LAST thing that matters to your professed party
  • The only thing your party gives a tinker’s damn about is power
  • Your party’s politicians care not a whit about any trauma or tragedy their own pursuit of power might inflict, on you or anybody else
  • The actions of your politicians are governed exclusively by expediency and effect; for them integrity, principle, patriotism, and empathy are NEVER of even minimal concern
  • Your politicians, though bloated with arrogance and conceit, are completely clueless as to how national economies function. Their vanity assures them that vastly complex and intricate economic systems can be successfully micromanaged, in defiance of historical confirmation of their total inability to manage anything other than economic collapse and destruction—confirmation so voluminous as to be beyond calculation

That “cognitive dissonance” clearing up any for ya? Or are you, as I strongly suspect, still stuck on stupid?

Beyond that, all my colleagues and I have been hearing from Democrats in response to our concerns are talking points about how they are fighting for American workers. Don’t I count as an American worker?

Closer, but not there yet. Another hint: To them, you don’t count at all.

I know what I believe in — things like an end to systemic racism, better support for families and children, increased voting rights and equity in schools. Yet now I find myself looking at Democrats’ slogans and questioning my assumption that their bills truly help the people who need it most.

The dawn struggles valiantly to break, yet somehow darkness persists.

I recognize that I’ve bought into broad narratives about the power of the people, usually pushing the most progressive-minded, feel-good policies that have easily repeatable language about things like the “dignity of work.” But when you’re the one whose work is suddenly threatened, it’s a bit more complicated.

Yep, life is like that. Ain’t it a cast-iron bitch?

I’m still holding on to my idealistic Leslie Knope-ish tendencies. I still believe good ideas and earnest people will be heard. But right now, it feels like I’m being sacrificed for support from unions — the major interest group pushing this legislation. And given the vitriol my colleagues and I are getting on Twitter, like repeatedly being called “scabs,” I don’t think there’ll be any holiday cards this year.

I’m not looking for sympathy.

You may rest assured that I’ll not be offering any.

After all, I’m a well-paid professional with plenty of lucky breaks to my name. What I am looking for is to be heard by the party I always believed best appreciated the breadth and width of America.

Oh for God’s sake will you get a fucking clue. Instead of stubbornly “looking to be heard” by a party that isn’t listening, the thing you really need to be looking for is the intestinal fortitude to admit that what you “always believed” was patently false—a deliberate, cynical deception used for purposes of manipulation. After that you can move on from there, maybe. I wish you luck and all, but I won’t be holding my breath waiting for it.

The secession dustup continues

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TL responds to Aesop, Aesop responds back, and Bracken wades in as well:

Aesop gets the better of the debate, for sure.
But I’m not so sure if after the “cleansing” we wind up with 50 states under the old Constitution.
Nobody can predict how CW2 might go, but extrapolating something like Weimar X Yugoslavia X Rwanda is the best I can do.
What emerges on the other side of that is probably not another George Washington uniting the country again.
A breakup seems likely, once the regional warlords have subdued their collections of states.
I could see New England and the Rust Belt under some socialist dictator, the SW as “New Aztlan” run by the last cartel boss standing, and so on.
I could even see West Coast governors inviting in ChiCom “peacekeepers” to restore order and get the grid running again. ChiCom peacekeepers who would never go home.
If anybody’s crystal ball is less cloudy than mine, your predictions are probably more likely to come to pass.

Helluva thing about those proverbial Interesting Times we’re cursed to live in: from within them, one’s vision tends to be cloudy, distorted, and confusing, reducing attempts at prediction to little more than guesswork.

For my own part (not that anybody asked, mind) I remain convinced that secession, most likely nullification as well, can only ever be an entertaining topic for speculative after-dinner debate over brandy and cigars, if even that much. As a practical, real-world eventuality it is chimerical, a phantasmagorical will o’ the wisp that only serves to distract from the real problem we face, the fundamental, rock-bottom issue that must sooner or later be decided. I’ve written numerous times over the years about this problem, which Aesop identifies thusly:

Nobody serious is seriously considering secession. It’s like talking about winning the next election. They’re considering insurgency, revolution, and overthrow. I don’t want a piece of what used to be known as the U.S. of A.

For about the tenth time I’ve said it and posted it here:

I am so enamored of the republic that was, that I’ll not willingly part with a square foot of it to the communists. I want the whole damned thing back. Whether any of them survive the transition is a matter to me ranging from complete indifference, to active revulsion at the thought.

That isn’t secession. It’s cleansing.

France didn’t secede from Nazi Germany. America didn’t secede from Britain. And no place is seceding from the U.S. They’ll either win their independence, again, or roll over, give it all up, and wind up in the gulags featured in every communist state since ever. There’s no third option. And there won’t be any safe space unless it’s called Everything, because the other side has proven beyond all doubt that the one thing of which they are wholly incapable is to leave everyone else alone. Couldn’t do it in Korea. Couldn’t do it in Vietnam. And only brinksmanship and the threat of global thermonuclear war stopped it in Germany. Communists, like muslims, are the world’s original pugnacious busybodies, and the only successful remedy is removal in toto.

Amen. Broken-record time: Liberty and tyranny can NOT peaceably coexist. Ditto with free people and Communists. One of these things is not only not like the other; one of these things eternally seeks to strangle the other—to choke it out of existence, to eradicate it entirely. And that we simply cannot have. Which, all reverence for the First Amendment notwithstanding, means but one thing. Yet another of Mike’s Iron Laws, in the form of a Biblical rejiggering: Thou shalt not suffer a Communist to live. The tension between the absolutes represented by the idea of freedom of speech and thought and the necessity of seeing to it that our principles are not allowed to be used as the means of our own destruction is beyond ironic. But paradox is the way of things on this poor planet.

So be it, then. If it’s war to the knife they want, then it’s war to the knife they should damned well get. It’s impossible not to hear the creak and groan of A House Divided Against Itself, on its way to doing that thing such houses must inevitably do:

The Schumer-Pelosi gang looks exorbitantly proud of their legislative coup in the stim bill (and Mitch McConnell’s gang, too, which had to play along, or get tagged and cancelled as Dr. Seuss-like creatures of Grinchified parsimony). Obtuse, desperate, and stupid as these grandstanding politicians are, they all overlook the workings of entropy in these foolish expedients to keep the plates spinning in this performance-art economy. Namely: disorder. Everything is groaning and cracking out there.

One-time $1,400 handouts and even regular $300 unemployment subsidies won’t pay the mortgages or feed families very long, and every day there are fewer families bringing in anything close to that mythical $150,000. For many, it’s more like… nothing. The one-time bailouts of recklessly insolvent city and state governments and pension funds will only postpone their collapse. The varying guaranteed basic income schemes, enhanced child credits, advances on tax refunds, and other gimmicks would turn the former working class into sub-lumpenproles with nothing to occupy them but crime and vice. In fact, we already have a sizable underclass demonstrating exactly what you’ll get from enlarging the social group dependent on government support.

The only other question for now is when do the different population groups in this land explode in violence? The group loosely bundled as “Red” is angry enough with the ongoing insults of Wokery, failed rule-of-law, and abridgments of basic constitutional rights. The states where they dominate are likely to resist any more fiats by the federal government, like the imminent attempt to confiscate firearms. The “Blue” auxiliary armies are beyond their creators’ control. Antifa will be ready to rock-and-roll in the streets with good weather because so many young people have absolutely no prospects to thrive in the collapsing economy, and the streets have become their social space, with so little money for lattes and beers. And BLM need look no further than the Derek Chauvin trial in Minnesota, starting today, for an excuse to resume its characteristic activities.

Does anyone seriously believe that the husk of Joe Biden will remain in office more than another few weeks? It’s obvious that he doesn’t have the mental mojo to work an authentic press conference, and surely not the customary address to a joint session of Congress. Even the news media may seek to know who is actually in charge of the executive branch before much longer. Pay close attention to events unspooling. Get ready for trouble. It’s coming every which way, from money to public order to rollicking spring weather.

It is. So here we all are: the lines drawn, the final pleas for redress issued, the warning implicit with those pleas arrogantly, contemptuously spurned by those who would enslave all free Americans—ie, those who would have profited most by paying more careful attention. The stage is set. All that’s left now, for both sides, is the breathless pause before the curtain rises.

The play’s the thing. Although Hamlet meant something else entirely by them, his words fit this context well enough too.

VOTE SECEDE HARDERER!

Posted on      by     

Fond as I am of at least some of those calling for it, secession is a non-starter. Big fat caveat: I’ve already declared myself all in for the nullification idea, and I still feel that way. But that doesn’t mean I have high hopes that it will work. Ultimately, the roadblock obstructing secession is simple: FederalGovCo absitively, posolutely WILL NOT let it happen without a fight. Ask somebody from the Confederate States of Americans how it worked out last time around. I see no reason to think that FederalGovCo’s position towards secession has mellowed; the roadblock still stands, as impassable as it ever was.

With nullification the same roadblock looms, but it is at least conceivable that a way could be found for the several states to pull it off without sparking a violent response. It’s a remote possibility to be sure, but a possibility nonetheless. I don’t have a whole lot of faith in it, but it does exist.

Secession, though? Not a chance.

Secede where? From whom?

You live in a purple state, in a purple country, and in which no legitimate election can ever be expected from now on. Times 50 states.

You want to oppose the illegitimate government, product of a wholly fraudulent election?

Bravo. So do I, and so do millions more.

But this isn’t 1861, and you have no safe space to retreat to where your values hold sway, nor where you are and will be in the majority, nor will such ever be left alone by the other side. They never have, they never will, and they don’t care about the inevitable consequence of that course of action.

Ask Georgians how that plan worked out for them in January.

Secession is a myth, based on a delusion. The idea is laughably ridiculous, doubly so given how it worked out the last time it was attempted.

Aesop is specifically flensing TL Davis’s mention of the secession fantasy in his most recent piece, but seems to me that maybe TL isn’t necessarily all that dreamy-eyed and damp about its chances for success himself. To wit:

The question of secession arises simply because there is no other resort. It is not something arrived at easily and it doesn’t solve all problems. There is still a virulent strain of communism running through all of our institutions that would have to be dealt with, many of which are easily corrected if the Constitution were adhered to, something each state can enforce individually, even without secession, but where is the will to do that?

People who will not carry their torches and pitchforks to their state capitols will not force those political bodies to defend their rights. Trust me, I am with the resistance. I will stand with any who stand with me. It is now, or never.

YMMV, as always, but that sounds less to me like 1) enthusiastic endorsement from a naive fever-dreamer of a course of action he is confident will resolve our conundrum satisfactorily, and more like B) a patriot casting desperately about for an option, ANY option, that might possibly lead to a relatively peaceful way out of this. Unfortunately for all red-blooded Americans, the questions TL poses next all have the same answer.

If it is to be a peaceful resistance, let me know which road to take that leads us toward faithful public servants. Which road leads to undeniable and unmodified rights? Which road leads to fiscally responsible government? Which road leads to quality education for our children? Which road leads to reliable power supply and energy independence? Which road leads to unencumbered commerce? Which road leads to more employment? Which road leads to prosperity? Which road leads to a secure border? Which road leads to a military focused on defense of the nation?

Difficult questions, although from this side of the Great Divide they’re more likely to be viewed as basic, elementary—the stuff of grade-school civics and history classes, I mean c’mon DUH. A huge complexifying factor in treating such questions as something other than idle woolgathering, with little real-world relevance, is that The Enemy has no desire whatsoever to travel those roads in the first place. To them, not one of the destinations suggested by TL is appealing. I doubt you’d even been able to get them into the car at all, without either some elaborate trickery or a physical struggle.

To boil it down, then, TL is seeking a route to peaceful coexistence, as a free and properly-governed people, with Communists. Alas, no such route exists, or ever really has. Due to the nature of both Communism and its adherents, no such route CAN exist. We’re stalled at a dead-end, and Aesop knows there’s only one way out.

This isn’t going to be won at ballot boxes, protests, strongly-worded letters, nor brilliant legal opinions.

No one you’re talking to in those forums cares.

Write that on your hand, lest ye forget.

This is going to be a cage match to the death, and it isn’t over until there’s only one side left standing. And that’s true whether you fight, or surrender. All giving up changes is how fast you get on the boxcars.

And if you choose to fight, it’s going to be fought house to house, floor to floor, and in some families, room to room. In every town and city in every state. Some will be easier than others, but no place is 100% anything. For now.

When that penny drops, and the range goes hot in both directions, you’ll be at the starting line.

The finish line is  a long, long way off, even at that point.

But at least people will be in the right event.

S’truth. And, as I keep saying, nobody has to like it. I most certainly don’t. Personally, I would much prefer to live out my remaining days in a nation NOT riven by strife, deprivation, and calamity—grubbing for meager sustenance to fend off starvation; constantly sidestepping a ruthlessly despotic government as best I can; completely surrounded by bleating nitwits accepting of their own subjugation, in blissful ignorance of their ignominy.

I had hoped to die gently in my sleep, my loved ones close at hand to see me on my way. But NOOOOOO. LIKE it? RUFKM?!? Man, I am too old for this shit.

Trust me, I absolutely HATE that this conflict has been forced upon on us. But forced upon us it has been. We all knew this day would come. Now that it has, facts must be squarely and honestly faced. There are tough choices to be made. What do I truly, deeply believe in? Am I willing to fight for my beliefs—to die in defense of them, if I must? What is my duty—to myself, to my family, to my neighbor, to my country? What does duty, what does honor, require of me? When should I act, how will I know the time is right to act, and what actions should I take?

War is coming. It won’t be pretty, or easy, or brief. Victory for Truth, Justice, and the American Way is by no means assured. It is entirely possible (if not damned likely) that it will not end well, for anybody.

Gird your loins.

Is NOTHING sacred?

Posted on      by     

Last night’s blasphemy was the persecution of Pooh. Tonight another outrage has been committed, this time against Sinatra’s hallowed old standard.

With apologies to John Kander and Fred Erb, the composer and lyricist respectively of Sinatra’s classic, New York, New York. It is time to update that tune:

Start spreading the news, they’re leaving en masse
Don’t want to live in it: New York, New York
This U Haul Truck rental, is pricey as hell
But it will get me out of it: New York, New York
I want to wake up in a city without a mask,
Go out on the town and not have to ask.
The big city blues, are melting away
I’ll make a brand new start, away from New York
Can’t stand the crime and fear, I want anywhere but here
Good bye to you, New York, New York

Okay, okay, I admit that’s pretty funny, actually. The mirth heightens still further, blossoming uproariously with the report that follows:

Yes kids, the Big Apple is rotten to the core and folks are abandoning it–at least those with the case to bail out. But this phenomena is not confined to New York City, which has been brutalized by the inept, murderous rule of Governor Cuomo Bin Lyin and Mayor Bill “the Commie” DeBlasio. Other major cities, such as San Francisco, are also seeing residents flee liked panicked passengers on the Titanic frantic to grab the nearest lifeboat.

San Francisco saw an exodus of residents during the coronavirus pandemic, with the net number of exits increasing 649% in 2020, according to a new report published by the California Policy Lab….Cori Sarno Villacres talks on Oct. 21, 2020, about how she and her family didn’t feel comfortable or safe in California — even feeling bullied for their political preferences. They left their life in Sacramento last April to start anew in Idaho.

As a rule, my own inclination is to view that with an extremely jaundiced eye—if only thanks to the “fundamental transformation” I’ve personally seen wrought on my own hometown by the Snowbird influx. But Johnson says there’s reason for optimism:

Will the arrival of northerners from deep blue cities be accompanied by the same stupid political crap that ruined New York City and San Francisco. Possible but I doubt it.

What I am seeing in Florida reminds me of the flood of migrants from the former Soviet Union and Eastern bloc states when they were under the Communist thumb. Those migrants wanted to eschew the politics that were practiced in their former authoritarian homes. I took a pistol class with a couple recently arrived from San Francisco. I asked the demur 70 year old Grandmother why she and her husband left San Francisco. He reply was swift and succinct (and I’m quoting verbatim): “IT’S A SHIT-HOLE.

She went on to comment that she and her husband were taking the pistol class before purchasing a firearm to defend their new home. She loved the freedom of Florida.

Bad politics and bad policies have consequences. People in the United States still have the freedom of movement and are voting now with their feet. America is being realigned and I suspect the Democrat failure in the major cities will become more evident, not less. And the success of sane leaders like Ron DeSantis will remind voters why it is vital to cast a ballot for someone dedicated to upholding the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Well, I dunno, Larry; we’ll find out whether the refugees fleeing the urban shitlib shitrapies have learned anything soon enough, I guess. Whatever the case may be on that, nice work on the New York, New York revamp there, buddy.

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"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." – Claire Wolfe, 101 Things to Do 'Til the Revolution

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