Disasters Near and Far

Key Bridge: can we rebuild it?

Posted on March 28, 2024March 28, 2024 by Mike

No. No, we cannot.

Here’s the million-dollar question nobody is asking about the Baltimore bridge collapse…
The recent bridge collapse in Baltimore is an absolute nightmare, and our thoughts are with the victims and their families during this incredibly tough time. Beyond the heart-wrenching loss and the basic “whys” everyone’s dealing with, there’s one crucial question not many are asking: Can America rebuild the bridge?

Oh, America could have, probably. Amerika v2.0, though? Not a hope in Hell.

Sure, it might seem odd to wonder about our capability to build a bridge in 2024, but sadly, it’s a valid concern these days. When you consider how our nation is faltering under inept globalist rule, dragged down by dangerous DEI agendas that place “charity” over excellence, and watching the decimation of hardworking middle-class America, the question isn’t just rhetorical—it’s a stark reflection of our abysmal current reality.

Revolver has been calling attention to this decline in American society for quite some time, starting from when Biden first introduced his “infrastructure bill.” Fast forward three years, and here we are: bridges collapsing, roads deteriorating, and let’s not even dive into the chaos unfolding in our skies or the sorry state of our airports. Meanwhile, as China makes serious strides forward, it feels like we’re just spinning our wheels, stuck in neutral. It’s a stark contrast that highlights where our priorities have been misplaced and the need for a serious reevaluation of how we invest in our nation’s future.

The scary part is this: as we’re facing our own decline, other nations are advancing. The recent Baltimore bridge disaster could have been an attack, a result of DEI-related incompetence, or something else entirely. What’s clear, though, is that America is showing signs of wear and tear, and our focus shouldn’t be misplaced on absurd “pet projects” like electric cars or gender transitioning. It’s time to return to the fundamentals: roads, bridges, and airports, and see if we can spark that long-forgotten American “can do” spirit again. God knows we need it badly.

PRO TIP: We won’t. In fact, even if over half the country wasn’t vehemently, violently opposed to the whole “can-do spirit” concept, we still couldn’t. It isn’t a matter of “sparking” anything, but of recovering the skeletal remains from their long-since abandoned, musty crypt and bringing them back to life again. All the advanced tech, government financial largesse, and PC die-versity in the known universe can’t turn the trick.

Back in the mid-90s, when my friend Pfouts and I would go out for our regular Saturday strolls around lower Manhattan, he would sometimes shake his head ruefully and say, “Y’know, if New York had to build the subway system today, it couldn’t do it.” I never questioned him on that; all one had to do was take a quick glance at everything around him and see that Chris’s gloomy assessment was in no wise overly pessimistic or cynical, but in fact perfectly accurate.

Again: this was back in the mid-90s, mind. The situation both in NYC and the rest of the “nation” has certainly not improved any since those days.

All Senile Jaux’s angry yelling to the contrary notwithstanding, the EPA “environmental impact” study alone for any such FSK reconstruction project would take five or ten years and hoover up billions of dollars, and that’s before the first girder or I-beam is purchased and put on indefinite back-order while Baltimore waits for it to be shipped from China. Bottom line?

To ask the question is to answer it.

UNBELIEVABLE

Posted on March 26, 2024March 26, 2024 by Mike

I haven’t words.

Ship sent ‘mayday’ warning before Baltimore bridge disaster as officials scrambled to halt traffic: ‘Saved lots of lives’
The container ship that smashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore sent a “mayday” warning that it had lost power before the disaster, officials said Tuesday.

Quick-thinking authorities at the bridge were able to stop cars from crossing the 1.6-mile span, an act that “saved lots of lives,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said.

“The ship issued a mayday loss of power. The workers on the bridge halted traffic right before impact. They saved lots of lives,” Moore said at a press conference.

However, six people still remain missing after multiple vehicles plunged into the chilly waters of the Patapsco River as the bridge crumbled, its steel arches and roadway tumbling down.

Horrifying footage shows the bridge collapsing after the Dali, a Singapore-flagged vessel heading to Sri Lanka, crashed into the central part of the structure around 1:40 a.m. shortly after it left the Port of Baltimore.

The ship also caught fire, sending thick, black smoke billowing across the busy harbor.

There’s video, and it’s…unbelievable.

A solid quick breakdown of the apparent multiple power failures on the ‘Dali’ ahead of impact with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, MD.

I’m looking to credit whoever created this. (Dm) pic.twitter.com/NV1zSQHYkU

— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter)

March 26, 2024

The vid at the NYPost website is bigger, but offers no option to embed it here, so I went with the above one. I’ve driven/ridden across that very bridge myself only about, oh, eighty-bazillion times. Apparently, there was a construction crew on the bridge doing routine maintenance work at the time, all of whom are now presumably in the water.

I repeat: unbelievable. Even seeing the video footage, it’s tough to wrap the mind around this one. No real indication of terrorism so far, it appears to be just one of those freak accidents that occur once in a blue moon. But these days, who the fuck even knows anymore.

Update! Now, THIS I have no trouble believing at all.

I mighta known, eh?

Squatters rights

Posted on March 21, 2024March 21, 2024 by Mike

“Vigilantes”? Hardly, seems to me.

‘Vigilantes’ try to evict squatters at $1M Queens house after homeowner who confronted them is arrested in tense standoff
A pair of vigilantes allegedly tried to forcefully evict three alleged squatters from a million-dollar Queens home after the homeowner was arrested when she changed the locks and tried to remove them.

Two unidentified men driving a black pickup truck pulled into the driveway of the Flushing home searching for the tenants Tuesday afternoon, according to the Daily Mail.

“We are looking to get this guy out,” one of the men allegedly said, a neighbor told the outlet. “I am here to talk to him. I want to see why he is here.”

Adele Andaloro, 47, was in the process of selling the property when the group shadily took refuge in the home last month.

Andaloro inherited the $1 million property from her parents after they died.

She confronted the trio and changed the locks in hopes they would not be able to re-enter if they left.

However, a male inside the home called the police on Andaloro, who was later arrested.

Neighbors have noticed some concerning activity from the house since the alleged squatters snaked their way into the home.

Residents of tight-knit Queens Street, which many have called home for over 30 years, expressed that they’re ready to do as much as possible to get the alleged intruders out. Some have even floated the idea of starting a petition in hopes that it will help, according to the Daily Mail.

A beloved community member, Andaloro put the two-story home on the market, but that’s when the tenants got in and brazenly replaced the entire front door and locks.

Before her arrest on Feb. 29 — which was captured by ABC’s “Eyewitness News” — Andaloro faced off with the group in a tense standoff.

The police were eventually called and escorted two people off the property.

With at least three apparent residents still inside, cops told Andaloro she had to sort the saga out in housing court because it was considered a “landlord-tenant issue” before she was arrested.

Utterly, utterly pathetic. Unless and until the nabe gets itself some serious vigilantes willing to adopt measures a bit more forceful than “talking” and petitions, Queens Street will just have to live with their new “neighbors” whether they like it or not.

I lived on the top floor of a five-floor walkup on 13th between 1st and 2nd in Manhattan for a year (ask me how much I love stairs!). In one of the two ground-floor-front apartments was a woman who’d lived there rent-free for over ten years; she had sued the landlord over some piffling dispute or other, and they’d been tangled up in court ever since, resulting in her refusal to pay another dime of rent. She fully expected to continue living there without paying rent indefinitely, and is probably there still.

Artist Joe Coleman lived in the apartment directly under mine; I used to run into him all the time in the stairwells or just sitting out on the front stoop, one of my favorite things to do on my days off work, weather permitting. Old Joe was what used to be politely referred to as “a real character,” had lived in the building for years himself. And Lord, the horror stories he used to tell me about that old building!

I’d never thought much about it until Joe commended it to my attention, but in the quieter watches of the night you’d hear this strange sound as of sand sifting down between and behind the walls—which, according to Joe, is exactly what it was. The plaster was crumbling, the joists and interior timbers eroding, the whole mess slooooowly slip-sliding away into the basement all night and day. There were only three months left on our lease when Joe related this to me; me and the gf decided we would NOT be re-upping.

One night, our power went out during a bad thunderstorm. I grabbed my trusty Maglite and hurried downstairs to see if I could find a breaker to reset or a fuse in need of replacing, wherever the damned box turned out to be; I had no idea about that, all I knew for sure was that there wasn’t one in our apartment. On the ground floor I ran into the building super on his way to the basement, a friendly, avuncular sort who I’d come to know a little, and who seemed quite glad to see me…or my flashlight, more like.

He led me through the basement to the main fuse box, where I replaced three blown fuses with new ones he handed me from his pocket. On our way back out, he pointed out two rows, stacked three high, of plywood cubicles along either side of our path: cramped, stuffy holes containing bedding, items of clothing, miscellaneous unidentifiable bric-a-brac. These cubicles were almost hilariously poorly-built and flimsy-looking, as if they’d been designed and constructed by a little kid using the Fisher-Price Jr Carpentry Set Santy Claus had left under the tree last Christmas.

The odor wafting from this subterranean jungle—stale sweat, dirty linens and/or clothes, unwashed bodies, rotting fruit, human piss—was literally eye-watering.

The super explained to me with a conspiratorial grin what I was looking at: here in this dark, dank 13th St basement were the living quarters for about thirty or forty Chinese illegals, who exchanged a measly rent every Monday for the right to coop a few hours a day in these squalid, nightmarish little rats’ nests, spending the other 18 to 20 hours working in garment-district sweatshops; shared-storage waterfront warehouses or outer-borough factories; Chinatown restaurants, or whatever other sketchy employment an illegal alien could scrounge to bring in coolie wages he could kite to his Honorable Family back home.

I had heard of such arrangements before, of course—what New Yorker hasn’t? Same-same could be found under any number of non-luxury buildings all over the Lower East Side, I knew. Trust me, though, it’s one thing to know intellectually that these things, these people, exist; it’s quite another to see it in front of your very eyes, under your very nose. I was neither naif enough to be shocked, nor jaded enough to just shrug it off and forget about it. In fact, I never have.

Rent control, squatters rights, property owners who are paid more by the city to keep their residential buildings vacant than they could hope to make renting them—NYC’s real estate regulations are a jumbled, incomprehensible maze of payola, corruption, and backscratching that neither tenants, property managers, or owners are at all happy with; that artificially keep rents at insanely-inflated levels; that keep dangerously decrepit buildings in desperate need of repair neglected; and that leave entire city neighborhoods unstable, unprofitable, unaffordable, and unsafe.

Days that will live in infamy

Posted on March 17, 2024March 17, 2024 by Mike

Both of these bitter anniversaries tremendous losses for America That Was and all who loved her and now lament her death—murder, actually. First up, probably the most outrageous, destructive trampling of liberty in all of US history.

15 Days to Slow the Spread
This story first appeared in 1600 Daily, the White House’s evening newsletter. Subscribe now to get breaking news from President Trump before anyone else.

This afternoon, President Trump and the White House Coronavirus Task Force issued new guidelines to help protect Americans during the global Coronavirus outbreak.

The new recommendations are simple to follow but will have a resounding impact on public health. While the President leads a nationwide response, bringing together government resources and private-sector ingenuity, every American can help slow the virus’ spread and keep our most high-risk populations safe.

Leslie Eastman offers a few salient points.

This is the vital point: The announcement and associated policies were suppose to be about slowing the spread…not stopping it cold. The idea was that the virus’ effects on the respiratory system were so bad, that slowing the spread was imperative to get the medical resources into position so the healthcare system could handle (it).

I would like to note that two weeks earlier, I was growing concerned about the nature of the Trump administration’s response to the virus. I urged the implementation of the severe flu protocol that had been successfully used in years previously. I also highlighted risk factors for severe infection that could only be addressed on an individual basis.

Subsequently, “15 days to Slow the Spread” morphed into a liberty-crushing horror with impacts that we are still feeling across the nation (and in many other parts of the world).

Now, the nation is facing the choice between the two top candidates:

Trump, who foisted Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx on this country.

Biden: The senile occupant of the Oval Office who mandated the vaccines and prolonged the pandemic response.

Personally, one part of my decision-making will be based on which candidate will not repeat the mistakes in the covid response…and avoid entangling this nation with the World Health Organization’s “Pandemic Treaty“.

I will never forget March 16, 2020.

Nor should you, nor should any of the truly liberty-oriented among us. Next, another costly loss, one which, in its own small way, might almost be considered as badly damaging to Real American prospects as the ScamDemic stampede has been.

Hushed Limbaugh
How did this nation ever get to the point where a man once considered nothing more than a tacky, loud, nouveau-riche liberal NYC real estate mogul/celebrity, with an orange complexion and a crazy pompadour/combover, would be transmogrified into the ultimate scapegoat for the failings, crimes, and corruption that have plagued our government and society since at least the end of the Second World War; the locus and symbol of the most unbridled hatred by the very same global elite that, in point of fact, are guilty of those sins and that he once perhaps was a part of? If I had to venture a guess, I’d say in nearly the same manner as “just some guy in golf pants” (as he once described how the elites tagged him) who at one time happened to have the largest sustained radio audience in history.

Last week marked the third anniversary of Rush Limbaugh passing away after a yearlong battle with terminal lung cancer. In a career that spanned nearly a third of a century, Limbaugh become far and away the most listened-to talk radio host in broadcast history. The conventional wisdom, which is something that Limbaugh defied on a daily basis, was that he had some sort of Svengali-like appeal over masses of mostly white, male, Bible-thumping bumpkins from flyover country by telling them what to think. In point of fact, it was just the opposite. Limbaugh’s success was being able to articulate what a vast swathe of the nation felt—a well-founded angst about the direction of the country especially since the beginning of the Clinton years and for sure with everything in the wake of the 9/11/01 attacks.

Last week marked the third anniversary of Rush Limbaugh passing away after a yearlong battle with terminal lung cancer. In a career that spanned nearly a third of a century, Limbaugh become far and away the most listened-to talk radio host in broadcast history. The conventional wisdom, which is something that Limbaugh defied on a daily basis, was that he had some sort of Svengali-like appeal over masses of mostly white, male, Bible-thumping bumpkins from flyover country by telling them what to think. In point of fact, it was just the opposite. Limbaugh’s success was being able to articulate what a vast swathe of the nation felt—a well-founded angst about the direction of the country especially since the beginning of the Clinton years and for sure with everything in the wake of the 9/11/01 attacks.

He, more than any other political and cultural leader, held both a moral high ground and most crucially a bully pulpit that gave voice to a true silent majority. In examining the life and times of Limbaugh, as well as the gigantic sword of Damocles above Donald Trump’s head, and collectively whatever is left of the United States as we knew or imagined it, a bit of reflection on how we got here, or to coin a phrase, how we—or at least I—got “woke” to the world as it is, is in order.

Although he passed just as the three years-plus FauxVid dumpster fire was really starting to blaze, Limbaugh was astute enough to see what was coming well beforehand.

I’m watching this coronavirus thing, and even the media that you would think would be on whatever we would call “our side,” they’ve lost it too. To them, this is nothing more than a story, and they can’t wait. I mean, everybody is waiting for the next worst headline, the next worst scenario, the next worst possibility. They can’t wait for it and they can’t wait to report it, and they can’t wait to talk about it. And that’s not me.

I resent this. I could never be a journalist. And these people, they’re a pack now. And I don’t care what network you’re talking about or website—there might be some exceptions to websites. Can’t read ’em all, don’t know. But you can’t turn on TV without seeing the same thing on any network. It doesn’t matter what network it is during the news coverage portion. Not so much the opinion programs and prime time. But the news coverage portion.

I mean, it’s now conventional wisdom that the country’s gonna shut down. It’s conventional wisdom that 150 million people are gonna get infected. It’s conventional wisdom that this is deadly, it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened, oh my God. It’s horrible. It’s worse. And nobody’s ever had it as bad or worse. And everybody gets caught up in it. As I watch the media, I don’t see one doubting Thomas. I don’t know how you do that.

JJ notes well the date of this tragically prescient analysis.

That was on March 13, 2020, literally just as the ChiCom/Anthony Fauci-created COVID-19 was just starting to swamp us. Or as Limbaugh seems to have clearly understood, the artificially generated fear of it. We now know, or at least we should know, that it was all one massive lie; from its origins, to its lethality, to the at-best uselessness to at-worst lethality of the vaccines. Yet anyone who back then stepped up and claimed the mantle of a “doubting Thomas” faced destruction.

America, the land of the First Amendment, has now openly toyed with the notion of “Disinformation Governance Boards,” a fancy name for what is essentially a Ministry of Truth. Universities that were supposed to be bastions of the free exchange of diverse viewpoints now silence anyone and anything even a micrometer to the right of Leon Trotsky. Our government is working hand in hand with Big Tech to have them act as censors for ideas, opinions, and facts that run contra to the narrative that they are putting out as truth, to be accepted blindly and unquestioningly without examination or critical review.

The only reason this is happening is because they no longer have a monopoly on the dissemination of information. Lacking that, as everything they have done to this country that has utterly collapsed our economy, erased our border, endangered our citizens at home, and threatened our national security abroad nearly to the point of a global conflict, the junta has no compunction about completely ignoring even the most basic red lines of ethics, morality, and the rule of law to silence all critique and squash all political opposition.

It’s academic as to whether or not we would have come to this point without the coming of alternative media to question the narrative, or what Limbaugh described as “the daily soap opera.” If nothing else, the mere presence of Rush Limbaugh and then Donald Trump has forced the junta to reveal itself for what it is, not for what their erstwhile media gatekeepers used to be able to bamboozle the public with ease. Trump’s greatest achievement as president isn’t actually what he achieved policy-wise (and they were some of the most incredible achievements ever); it was his mere presence as an oppositional force to the hypocrisy and corruption of the past eighty years that caused the masks and illusions of an America that no longer exists to drop. And there couldn’t have been a Donald Trump without a Rush Limbaugh to pave the way.

Mega dittos owed and mega dittos given.

Indeed so, with whipped cream and a cherry on top. May Rush Limbaugh forever rest in peace, much though it must pain him to look down from Heaven upon all that’s transpired since he departed this Earthly plane. Although I admittedly had problems with him over the years—enough so that by the time he died I’d long since stopped listening to him altogether, out of sheer frustration—it’s to our incalculable detriment that we shan’t ever see his like again.

Update! The Panic, and the damage done.

Four years ago, Las Vegas’ casinos shut down for 78 days. The fallout was brutal
About a month after casinos in Macao were closed for 15 days to slow COVID’s spread, then-Gov. Steve Sisolak on March 17, 2020 ordered all casinos as well as restaurants, bars and other nonessential businesses in the state to close for 30 days.

Brendan Bussmann, a gaming industry analyst with Las Vegas-based B Global, recalled the dark start of the shutdown.

“I still remember driving the Strip the next morning and there was nobody there and it either looked like we were occupied or that a bomb had gone off,” he said.

As a result of the 78-day closure, the Nevada Gaming Control Board estimated Nevada’s 219 major casinos lost $6.2 billion, a 25.2 percent decline from revenue generated a year earlier.

An estimated 26,140 people from a workforce of 162,066 lost their jobs and the unemployment rate soared to 33.4 percent. With demand for travel to Las Vegas lost, airlines canceled hundreds of flights.

As Ed quips, the operative words here might be—should be, in fact MUST be—THEN-Governor. Or, as a Fremen oath from Frank Herbert’s sprawling sci-fi epic Dune has it: Never to forgive. Never to forget. Damned skippy.

Nuts

Posted on March 13, 2024March 13, 2024 by Mike

I had just about decided to give this item a miss and not bother mentioning it—it’s not as if there’s any news value here at all, it’s a “dog bites man” story if ever there was one—but…but…but…God help me, I can’t. I just can’t.

DOJ Interview Transcript: Joe Biden Made Car Noises, Often Meandered Off-Topic

Say it with me one mo’ time ag’in, everbuddy: UNDERSTATEMENT. OF. THE. CENTURY.

The transcript of Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Bob Hur showed the president frequently wandered off topic, even making “car noises.”

The transcript, obtained by Breitbart News in advance of Hur’s testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, showed a prosecutor had asked Biden about his beloved Corvette, trying to pinpoint the timeline of when classified documents were moved to make room for the car in his home garage.

Attorney Marc Krickbuam asked Biden: “Do you remember whether it was when the Corvette was coming back after the Jay Leno show? So, in other words, it goes out for Jay Leno, eventually it comes back.” Biden responded, “Oh no, it was, it was in and out for a bunch of reasons,” before starting to chatter away.

“Because it drove me crazy; I wanted to drive it,” Biden continued. Krickbaum responded, “Got it. That makes sense. A beautiful car.” According to the transcript, Biden then proceeded to talk about his car, and make car noises.

“And the worst part was, they said I couldn’t drive it outside the driveway. It’s a long driveway. So I’d get to the bottom of the driveway, tack it up to about four grand (indiscernible) (makes car sound) (indiscernible) (laughter),” it quoted Biden.

After continuing on about how he got involved in politics, Hur finally interrupted him, saying, “So, sir, the material that you just — that you remember having, again, trying to steer us back to the end of your vice presidency and focusing on your move out of the Naval Observatory.”

Biden also meandered off on a tangent when asked, “Did you bring classified material with you from the West Wing or the Naval Observatory to the lake house?”

Biden responded, but then veered off into a detailed description of his office and pictures before recalling a trip to Mongolia.

“You know, I went to Mongolia and, and great pictures. I, unfortunately, embarrassed the hell out of the leader of Mongolia.”

“So we’re out in the middle of nowhere and they’re looking up on the hill and we see this tiny line. You know, it’s a 20-mile horse race with all these kids under the age of 16 on bareback racing to come down. And you know, there are sumo wrestlers doin’ everything they do.”

Biden continued to talk about how he was handed a bow and arrow and he hit a target on a hay bale. After that story, one of the attorneys requested to take a break.

Oh, I just bet he did at that.

Horse racing, sumo wrestlers, amateur archery demonstrations. No mention of ferris wheels, funnel cakes, Asian Transgender Cornhole, or Guess The Weight Of The Roundeye Gweilo-Bastard booths, but I betcha Too Old Jaux remembers all those too, every bit as vividly as he “remembers” anything else these days. Sounds like Mongolia has really got it goin’ ON, don’t it?

HERE COME THE CANNIBALS!!!

Posted on March 13, 2024March 13, 2024 by Mike

Y’all ready for it? Because I assure you, it’s coming right enough.

Florida border agents placed on high alert for refugees following breakdown of order in Haiti

Heh. I like that “breakdown of order” business, I really do. Like there’s ever BEEN anything remotely resembling order in that shithole country. When Trump referred to it in those specific terms, he was understating the case. YUUUUGELY understating it.

Border agents in Miami have been told to prepare for a wave of migration from Haiti following the takeover of the country by bloodthirsty gangs, The Post has learned.

An internal agency email leaked to The Post pointed out it is unlikely Haitians who take to the sea and enter Florida illegally will be repatriated back to their home country, given its instability.

The message also warned that one vessel of migrants landing would overwhelm agency capabilities in the area.

“One landing will cripple the station and our ability to respond to other traffic,” the email to agents read.

I’m sure Biden has the transport planes loading ‘em up and preparing to move ‘em out of Port Au Prince already. I mean, as some wag or other has already noted, Haiti is, after all, an island nation, one it shares with their neighbors to the east the Dominican Republic…who built themselves a big, beautiful wall to keep the Haitians out a cpl-three years ago or so, I believe it was. That being the case, how the hell ELSE is Pedo Pete gonna get ‘em here, prithee tell?

The “virtual lifestyle”

Posted on March 11, 2024March 11, 2024 by Mike

Is compromised all to Hell and gone, fraught with risks and hazards we know not of, but dismiss or ignore at our direst peril.

The planet seems to have some teleological drive to save itself, a kind of immune system. Notice: in all the ongoing debates about the wonders and dangers of A-I, and Bitcoin, and suffocating surveillance, nobody ever talks about the sketchy condition of the electric grid that all these worrisome phenomena utterly rely on. In our chatter over Peak Oil, there’s little awareness of oil production’s utter dependence on steady capital flows. In all the guff about centralized control emitted by Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum, there’s no mention of the centrifugal forces driving human affairs to re-localization, dis-aggregation of large states, and down-scaling of many activities. In our zeal to become Gods, we miss a lot.

Imagine: Bitcoin shoots up to a million dollars. You’re a zillionaire! Uh Oh…somewhere outside Zaneseville, Ohio, a squirrel takes a final chaw through some old insulation on a wire coming out of a transformer. His head blows up in a blue arc flash, and in a few seconds all the electricity goes out from Chicago to Boston. It turns out that seventeen substations in ten states have blown relays, transformers, and switchgear. Some of those components were forty years old and are now manufactured twelve thousand miles away in a country that doesn’t like us anymore. The replacement parts get held up in a Chinese port. The power doesn’t come back on for weeks. Nobody who lives in the eastern USA can get to his Bitcoin wallet, which is just a virtual entity made of computer code residing in a digital “cloud,” i.e., nowhere real.

Of course, in an event that bad, a lot of other things would fail — really just about everything that comprises modern life — but for sure you could kiss your Bitcoin goodbye, perhaps forever, because by the time the juice comes back on (if it even does), nobody will ever again want to invest their wealth in digital “money” they can’t access, and Bitcoin will go back to whence it came: zero.

Likewise, the financial system we depend on is a gigantic apparatus grown extremely janky from over-elaboration and hyper-complexity — to the degree that all kinds of things denoted as having “moneyness” are simply hallucinations of the markets that trade them. How many quadrillions of dollars do “derivative” financial instruments represent on the landscape of “money” these days? Most of these things amount to little more than bets that some number — an interest rate, a currency, a revenue flow — will change either up or down. That is, they are figments.

Bitcoin has gone “hockey stick” the past month, meaning on a chart the move up looks nearly vertical. Do you know why it’s going up? I’ll tell you: it’s going up…because it’s going up. People and groups of people (wealth funds, banks) see the up-trend and deduce that Bitcoin is going “to the moon.” Meanwhile, they view the tea leaves of the currency scene and see a lot of brown, crumbly debris where there used to be “capital.” The money itself is losing its “moneyness” all over the place. The most vulnerable module of the system now is the bond market.

Many sentient beings viewing the scene warn us that the bond market is liable to blow, and with it most of the other modules in the current MMT-driven system. That will be the magic moment when a big theory gets disproven rather vividly and injuriously. The price of everything will vaporize in a mushroom cloud of malinvestment and when the dust settles — which might take a long time — everything will be priced differently, including many things to zero.

This is the kind of world we’re in now, and all this is why I don’t worry quite so much about the machinations of the various blobs that have self-assembled to defend their particular special interests while doing harm to many of us: the military-industrial blob, the censorship blob, the fake news blob, the intel blob, the corporate monopoly blob, the medical blob, the central banking blob. The systems we depend on to make all things blobish function are looking pretty ill, like they’re not going be working a whole lot longer.

Unlikely though it may seem, the tale has a happy ending (of sorts), which you’ll want to click on over to read.

WHOA, big fella

Posted on March 9, 2024March 9, 2024 by Mike

Somebody really, really needs to sit The Donald down for a serious talk about this. It’s a severe mistake he’s making, one that’s highly likely to come back and bite him on the ass good and hard before all is said and done.

Supporters Blast Trump on Truth Social After He Takes Credit For COVID Jabs
Former President Trump is facing fierce blowback from his own supporters on his social media platform after taking credit for the vaccines that “saved us” from COVID-19.

Trump posted a “live, play by play” of Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech Thursday night to Truth Social, blasting his remarks on a number of issues and describing the address as “angry” and “polarizing.”

At one point in the speech, Biden boasted that the “vaccines that saved us from COVID are now being used to beat cancer, turning setback into comeback.”

PRO TIP: If Faux Jaux Biden is praising a thing to high Heaven, then no sensible, decent soul ought to touch said thing with a barge pole—verbally, bodily, or as part of some fleeting, idle daydream, purely in his head. Period, full stop, end of story.

Trump responded to Biden’s remarks on Truth Social.

“’The Pandemic no longer controls our lives. The Vaccines that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat Cancer – Turning setback into comeback!’” Trump wrote, quoting Biden. “YOU’RE WELCOME, JOE, NINE MONTH APPROVAL TIME VS. 12 YEARS THAT IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU!”

The post was considered problematic for several reasons.

Since the COVID mRNA shots were rolled out, western nations have been dramatic increases in myocarditis, blood clots, neurological disorders, and many other previously rare ailments.

Cancer rates, alarmingly, have also risen exponentially and researchers think they have discovered why.

Last April, Microbiologist Kevin McKernan, a former researcher for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Human Genome Project, discovered the presence of DNA contaminants in the products, which can affect unintended parts of the body and lead cancer, including mesotheliomas, lymphomas and cancers of the brain and bone.

Many of Trump’s own supporters are very aware of these links between the mRNA jabs and the increase in excess deaths in the United States and don’t believe that “Operation Warp Speed” is anything to brag about.

That’s because it’s, y’know, NOT.

Most of these commenters indicated that they still support the former president, but voiced dismay that he continues to promote the COVID jabs.

“Mr. President…Please stop promoting these vaccines. They are killing and injuring 1000s of us,” one follower wrote on Truth Social. “I fully believe they are causing the uptick in cancers. I fully support you on everything except vaccines! With all due respect…it’s a hard NO for me sir!”

“I stand with you on most things but DISAGREE COMPLETELY ON THIS! The #DeathJab MURDERED MY FATHER AND 20+ of my friends!” another supporter wrote.

“Sir, please drop the vax. There is more evil and ill wrapped around the vax. The bad actors behind it must be held to account. I believe you were fooled and have not seen nor understand what has been done,” a commenter wrote respectfully.

“I love and support you on most issues, but I strongly disagree on this one. The covid vaccines are NOT safe, Mr. President. Please do more research!” one woman advised.

Some Truth Social users were not as polite.

Trump stopped bragging about the COVID shots at his rallies in 2022 after he was repeatedly booed by his own supporters.

On X, lawyer Viva Frei, a Canadian Trump supporter, said the blowback against the former president is justified.

That’s because it, y’know, IS.

Of all Trump’s mistakes as President—yes, there were indeed a good few, starting with his puzzling, uncharacteristic failure to make good on his oft-repeated campaign pledge that he would “hire only the best people”—passively allowing Deep State homunculus Fauci and the rest of his perfidious band of grant-grubbing FederalGovCo rumpswabs, charlatans, and white-smocked hangers-on stampede him on the Plandemic hoax/panic and the follow-on fake-Vaxx fiasco has to rank way up high among the verymost devastating of them. Even some on Our Side, including quite a few who had been solid Trump supporters right along, have been calling it “the Trump vaccine” for a goodish while now, which appellation is NOT to be taken as in any way, shape, or form complimentary.

Never having been the kind of man for whom admitting error comes easily, doing so here would be an especially bitter pill for Trump to swallow, or so I’d imagine. Nevertheless, he does himself no favor by continuing to resist owning up fully and frankly as all the facts about this grievous national catastrophe emerge, rather than hitching his big-boy britches up and just getting it over with. He’ll be forced to do so one way or another, and the sooner he bites the bullet and puts the whole sordid mess behind him the better off he’s going to be, in all sorts of ways.

Surely there must be someone in Trump’s inner circle that has his ear and is possessed of balls, integrity, reputation, and self-assurance enough to discreetly pull Da Boss aside for what senior NCO-types used to call “a real no-shitter” on this situation. If so, he will win immediate renown amongst his Team Trump confrères as “the man who saved Trump from himself,” as well he should.

SOTU follies

Posted on March 8, 2024March 8, 2024 by Mike

Doddering, decrepit old fool.

Mother Of Laken Riley Slams ‘Pathetic’ Biden For Calling Slain Daughter ‘Lincoln Riley’ During SOTU
The mother of Laken Riley, a young woman who was murdered by an illegal immigrant under the Biden administration’s watch, has publicly criticized President Joe Biden for not remembering her daughter’s name during the State of the Union address.

The incident by the 81-year-old president has sparked outrage among conservative news outlets and the general public.

During the State of the Union address, Biden was confronted by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who demanded that he “say her name” in reference to Laken Riley.

In response, Biden fumbled the pronunciation of Riley’s name, which prompted her mother to speak out against the President.

In several comments posted to Facebook, Riley’s mother said, “It’s just pathetic that the President of the United States couldn’t even remember my daughter’s name. It’s like she didn’t even matter to him.”

Well, I mean, y’know, DUH, lady. Sorry to have to say it and all, but it’s the plain and simple truth, always has been.

Of course I didn’t watch a minute of the stumblebum’s speech—having much more important and productive things to do with my time, like sweeping the kitchen floor, scrubbing the toilet, and/or playing with the cats—but from what I understand, a handful of non-Vichy GOPe Repugnicants like MTG stood up on their hind legs and gave Too Aulde Jaux pure-dee hell, heckling the pRetend ***”pResident”*** with shouts of “say her name!” and “liar!” throughout the State Of The Union Show.

Hey, if national politics is going to be nothing more than entertainment, they at least owe it to us to make it entertaining, right?

One step closer to Escape From New York

Posted on March 6, 2024March 6, 2024 by Mike

Somewhere, Snake Plissken is laughing his ass off.

New York Gov Hochul calls in National Guard, state police to help curb crime in NYC subways
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is sending in the state National Guard to New York City to help police curb a surge in crime in the city’s subways.

Announcing a five-point plan on Wednesday, the Democratic governor said she was deploying 750 members of the National Guard to the subways to assist the New York Police Department with bag searches at entrances to busy train stations.

“For people who are thinking about bringing a gun or knife on the subway, at least this creates a deterrent effect. They might be thinking, ‘You know what, it just may just not be worth it because I listened to the mayor and I listened to the governor and they have a lot more people who are going to be checking my bags,'” Hochul said at a news conference in New York City.

The move came as part of a larger effort by the governor’s office to address crime in the subway, which included a legislative proposal to ban people from trains for three years if they are convicted of assaulting a subway passenger and the installation of cameras in conductor cabins to protect transit workers.

OOOOOOH, a three year ban? Yeah, I’m SURE that’ll do it. Those scofflaws and thugs are bound to respect that law, after having disdained so many other ones threatening much more serious consequences. It’s the same magical-thinking mindset that drives the “gun control” fantasy; shitlibs fervently insist just one more piece of legislation will end gun crime…after well over 20,000 others failed to turn the trick.

A Wokester military

Posted on March 5, 2024March 5, 2024 by Mike

Is a Weakster military.

SCOOP: Mandatory training for military members teaches that America was founded on racism, and parents are too ignorant and dumb to teach their children about it. They think parents need to stay out of their kids’ education and shouldn’t have a say in what they learn.

Only ‘The… pic.twitter.com/PGIfapYg13

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok)

March 5, 2024

Stephen puts the (GI) boot in.

Raichik added, “There’s so much more where this came from,” and I don’t doubt it.

There is only one reason to teach soldiers that the country they’re supposed to be willing to fight and die to protect is irredeemable.

The U.S. military has had its ups and downs, but since ending the draft half a century ago, it has been the most expertly trained and exquisitely armed force the world has ever seen. Even during the draft years immediately before World War II to the end of Vietnam, we paid for and usually got the best weapons and training the country could afford.

And unlike those militaries in all those shi*hole countries, our forces were apolitical. They didn’t serve a president or a party, but the country.

In the last several years, wokeness has come to infect our military just as it previously had our universities, news outlets, and the entertainment industry.

Our readiness now is about what you’d expect: “U.S. military is only ‘marginally’ prepared to defend America’s interests at a time when adversaries are ramping up military capabilities.”

I’ve begun thinking of our postmodern military not as a useless Woke Force but as a Third World military: a force that isn’t any good at fighting foreign wars but is perfectly suited for putting down domestic undesirables.

Do I exaggerate? In 2021, Woke Army Sgt. Cindy Bronson had a message for her fellow Americans in case martial law is declared: “Understand that if active duty military actually get deployed within the United States, that weapon is not just going to be pointed at other people, other countries, it’s pointed at you.”

“If you do not get in your house when I tell you to,” Bronson warned, “you become the enemy. Martial law. You know, when your rights get curtailed?”

Roger that, Bronson.

Yep. Duly noted, SGT Cupcake; anytime you’re feeling froggy enough, do feel free to jump. One more time, I’ll just let Canuck punk rockers DOA say it for me.

Update! Steyn gives us the lowdown on the hoedown.

The decadence and unseriousness revealed by (self-styled “transgender” Manwoman) Lieutenant-Colonel Dram ought to be deeply disturbing. The planet’s most lavishly funded fighting force took twenty years to lose to goatherds with fertiliser, and on the way out the door gifted them with enough hardware to make them the world’s eighth or ninth most powerful military. That should surely occasion a certain circumspection. Instead, the Pentagon doubled-down on the wokery and the wankery – and, after a twenty-minute tea-break, started up the usual racket all over again, this time in Ukraine.

How’s that working out for the Ukrainians? Unlike Afghanistan, it’s a demographic wasteland. In 2001, the census counted 48.5 million people in the country. A year ago, it was headed down toward half that – just 29 million. Lindsey Graham and Boris Johnson may be standing shoulder to shoulder with the Ukrainian people, but even they must have noticed there are fewer and fewer Ukrainian shoulders to stand around with, at least if you go to Kiev rather than Poland or Hungary, Germany or Ireland. On the present rate of population decline, after the war there will be insufficient Ukrainians left to rebuild the economy – or, indeed, maintain basic demographic viability. Right now, thanks to Washington, Ukraine is flush with cash and weapons, but all out of fighting-age men.

Well, that’s what happens when you have the honour to be made the site of the Pentagon’s next Designated Fiasco. And yet back at home, thanks to the likes of Lieutenant-Colonel Dram and without benefit of Russian invasion, the US military is trending in the same direction:

Critical Staffing Shortage Prompts Air Force to Recruit Retirees

As goes the Air Force, so goes the Army and the Navy. Apparently, out in Flyoverland, there are few takers for a woke military that enriches generals-turned-lobbyists while you get blown up by Ahmed the “translator”. “Walk a mile in my heels” doesn’t really work when you’ve lost a leg in Helmand.

We are in the end-stage of a bad soap opera, when characters and plot have jumped the tracks, and there is no Bobby Ewing waiting in the shower. Three decades ago, it was pointed out that in the end Soviet Communism proved no more lasting than the span of one human lifetime: 1917-1991. Yet America’s blip of global dominance is looking just as fleeting: 1950-2020something – that last date being whenever the ever metastasizing brokeness causes total implosion. And, as things stand, the only thing the great republic (in Churchill’s affectionate designation) will be remembered for is that the entirety of western civilisation slid off the cliff on America’s watch. All the rest is details.

Pretty much, yeah. On the upside, though, when the fecal matter hits the rotary impeller for reals and the Great American Schism grinds ever on to the closing stages of its long, slow evolution from “Probably, someday, I think, very possibly” into “Current events, live and in color,” Amerika v2.0’s extravagantly broken Wokester military is going to find itself ensnared in yet another conflict it’s hopelessly incapable of coping with to tack onto its steadily-lengthening list of humiliating defeats.

The leopard polecat never changes his spots

Posted on February 24, 2024February 24, 2024 by Mike

Be it federal, state, or local, Government is a right bastard. You should never, ever trust it, it’s always a mistake.

Liquor Regulators Are Seeking Revenge on Bars That Broke Pandemic Rules
“The people who violated the governor’s mandates and orders should face some consequences,” a Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board member said in 2022.

During the height of the pandemic summer of 2020, the proprietors of the Burning Bridge Tavern worked with local officials in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, to host a series of outdoor gatherings for the community.

For their trouble, the bar’s owners got slapped with a series of citations by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB), the government agency that oversees and manages the sale of alcohol in the state. The citations were ticky-tack offenses, according to Burning Bridge’s chief financial officer, Mike Butler. Twice, the bar was cited for noise violations because they’d allowed a band playing at the gathering to plug into the tavern’s electricity supply. Another offense occurred when the owners and some family members were drinking inside the tavern, which was closed to the public, during a period when indoor dining was prohibited.

A frustrating situation, but not the end of the world. Burning Bridge’s owners paid the fines associated with the citations and assumed that was that. But then the bar had to renew its liquor license.

Fines, be assured, that amounted to thousands of dollars— dollars already hard to come by in the best of times given the extremely thin profit margins all bars and restaurants struggle with in normal times, orders of magnitude moreso under the draconian and entirely contra-Constitutional FauxVid rules of play.

Not the end of the world, perhaps, but having worked in a good few of them over the years I can tell you with absolute certainty that in the bar/restaurant business there simply ain’t no such thing as “extra money.” But as if all that weren’t enough:

“They denied it. They said, ‘Oh, you’re the guys that got all those citations,'” Butler says. “It was a real gut punch.”

Turns out, over the past two years the PLCB has pushed dozens of Pennsylvania establishments that racked up pandemic-related citations to sign “conditional licensing agreements” to renew their liquor permits. In some cases, those agreements have forced the sale of licenses—but in most cases, as with Burning Bridge, they’ve added additional conditions to the license that could prevent a future renewal from being approved.

While the PLCB cannot revoke existing licenses, the board is empowered to object to the renewal of a license or to demand the license can only be renewed conditionally. “In extreme cases,” PLCB Press Secretary Shawn Kelly says, the PLCB can force the sale of a liquor license, though the board only pursues that option when “there is an operational and citation history that calls for such an agreement.”

Even though Burning Bridge’s owners weren’t forced to sell their license, Butler says signing the conditional licensing agreement has come with real costs: The bar’s insurance premium tripled as a result of being viewed as a greater risk.

Assuming BBT isn’t part of a bar/restaurant chain, the owners don’t by any stretch have what you might call deep pockets. So taken altogether, the bruising punishment inflicted by the state of Pennsylvania might NOT be “the end of the world” for them, no. But it could very well be the end of their sojourn in the bar biz.

As I always say, seems like there ought to be some way we could thank the “people” responsible adequately for it. I just can’t for the life of me imagine what it might be.

Update! Can’t leave out the closing ‘graph, which sums up the whole contretemps perfectly.

“The feeling was that our government really isn’t working to try and help us,” says Butler. “At this point, it feels like they’re coming after us.”

A-yup. That’s because they, y’know, ARE. You now, and eventually all the rest of us right along with you. Unpleasant as that is to get our heads around, as difficult as it can be for Real Americans naturally inclined to patriotism and faith in their institutions to choke down and accept, that’s the ugly reality nonetheless. The harder we resist admitting it to ourselves, the rougher it’s going to be when we do come around at last.

Which, sooner or later, one way or another, we’re all gonna have to, like it or not. Think of oversized, intrusive, all-powerful government as a sickness with only one effective treatment. It’s some bad, bad medicine—sure to leave a bitter taste that will linger for a long, long time—but before we can hope to be cured, the body politic fully restored to health, a full dose is going to have to be swallowed.

Da girlz can’t he’p it

Posted on February 24, 2024February 24, 2024 by Mike

The article’s title is waaay too close for comfort.

DMV America: The Regime’s Fani Willis Problem, and Ours
The fantastic fall of Fani Willis is one of the great comedies of recent American politics. It’s the flagrant corruption of Hunter Biden, mixed with the stupidity of Jussie Smollett, the courtroom farce of the George Zimmerman trial, and the sky-high political stakes of a U.S. presidential election. It’s the joyous, healthy humor of seeing a wicked, ridiculous person be exposed and get exactly what she deserves.

Right now, it still isn’t certain whether Judge Scott McAfee will actually kick Fani Willis off her own case, but even if he doesn’t, the damage has substantially been done. The tenuous prosecution of President Trump in Georgia has already been badly delayed and discredited, increasing its odds of being tossed by a higher court and the odds of the public simply shrugging its shoulders even if this abortion of a case somehow lurches all the way to a felony conviction. Left-wing anti-Trump zealots are practically begging Fani to step aside of her own volition for the good of the anti-Trump cause.

But they are unlikely to get what they want, for the same reason that this scandal happened in the first place: America’s regime elevated a clown-show affirmative-action incompetent who only cares about herself, told her that she was a big hero simply for existing, and now we are all reaping the consequences.

Follows, a bit of case-bolstering harking back to one Robert Mueller, Establishment Swine Esq, who actually comes off looking pretty good in comparison to these sorry-ass con artists. Then:

Now, take in all of that and go back to the adventures of Flim-Flam Fani.

Willis’s illicit relationship could have easily remained hidden, or at least inconsequential, if she had been even slightly less stupid. But she just could not help herself. It wasn’t enough to hire her lover. She had to make him special counsel on by far her most high-profile case, which would attract by a million miles the most press attention and the most expensive, diligent lawyers. It wasn’t enough to carry on a tryst with Willis. She had to go on one lavish vacation after another with him.

Willis’s excuses for her behavior are the sort that require a lobotomy to accept. Her relationship with Willis was entirely appropriate and aboveboard, yet Willis felt compelled to hide it because, well, *mumble mumble*. Was Willis using her highly-paid lover as a conduit to get those vacations? Not at all. By happenstance, Fani just keeps $15,000 (15 large) in cash in her home at all times for just this sort of thing. And by golly, it turns out Wade liked to do the same thing. How handy!

Good stuff so far, albeit disgusting and dismaying. Next up, a cpl-three more case-making examples—Kim Gardner, Marilyn Mosby, the particularly brazen grifter Tiffany Henyard (regarding whom the author cites a NYPost article I already had sitting in an open tab waiting for me to get around to it myself), Kim Foxx of Justice for Juicy! fame,—before we get down to the real nitty-gritty.

Yes, that Kim Foxx: the one who tried to let Jussie Smollett off the hook, requiring a special prosecutor to swoop in and save the day. When she wasn’t giving favorable treatment to black celebrities, Foxx ordered her minions to avoid cash bail and to only bring felony theft charges against criminals with at least ten prior felony convictions.

So, why would we expect Kim Foxx to hold a fellow soul sista accountable? For that matter, why would we expect anyone on the left to do it?

The modern left has almost wholly abandoned traditional religious faith, but it certainly still has its priests and saints. And the narcissistic message, repeated day in and day out, is that black women are America’s sacred beings. Joe Biden ran on a promise to consider black women, and only black women, for his first Supreme Court pick—93% of Americans need not apply. The result was Ketanji Brown Jackson, who can’t say what a woman is but nevertheless thinks the entire planet should hear every inane thought passing through her head.

As soon as Fani Willis’s own conduct threw the entire lawfare campaign against Donald Trump, years in the making, into doubt, the ethnonarcissist whining came tumbling out immediately: Criticizing a prosecutor for corruptly staffing her loser boyfriend onto a job he wasn’t qualified for was racist!

We’re not even close to rock bottom, either. Remember, as we speak, Kamala Harris is a heartbeat away from the presidency.

I must say, the piece is the most Godawfully RAYCISS!!!© slander of fine, upstanding, successful Blaque Wimminzxx ’n’ shizzle I ever did read.

And some people wonder how it is that the country got itself into the mess it’s currently in. If you’re one of those, you’ll want to read the whole thing for a big, fat clue. “DMV America”? That right there is some truth that really hurts, if you ask me.

Crapola, almost forgot my title-explicating embed.

There, that’s more like it.

Update! CederQ posts one over at Phil’s joint that is equally apropos to the topic at hand, I think.

Heh. Indeed. Two more good ‘uns perusable at the link.

Traveshamockery of “justice”

Posted on February 11, 2024February 11, 2024 by Mike

Not to beat this dead old horse or anything, but I just had to throw in this bit from Steyn’s pre-post-mort because I thought it was just funny as hell.

You might recall that exactly a week ago we linked to Kerry Wakefield’s excellent primer on the trial from The Spectator Down Under. This was Miss Wakefield’s final paragraph:

Given the vindictive USD$83 million damages found against Trump in his case against serial rape accuser E. Jean Carroll, one cannot be optimistic about any jury trial in deep blue Washington DC. But Steyn is going down fighting, and one cannot but admire his guts and brio, even if his bank balance has been cleaned out. Sadly Steyn, representing himself, is now in a wheelchair, having recently suffered three heart attacks. If ever there were a case deserving funding, it is his. The trial continues.

Williams played the Trump card in the final minutes of the trial, linking “election deniers” with “science deniers” and asking the jury to send a strong message to stop attacks on all the other scientists out there:

MR. WILLIAMS: And as you’ve been instructed, if you find punitive damages are appropriate for outrageous behavior, you can set an amount not just to punish, but to serve as an example to prevent others from acting in the same — in a same or similar way.

These attacks on Climate Scientists have to stop, and you now have the opportunity—

MS. WEATHERFORD: Objection.

MR. STEYN: Objection.

THE COURT: Sustained.

MR. WILLIAMS: Sustained? I am saying this heated…

MR. STEYN: My Lord, he’s continuing to talk.

Heh. Good one, Mark.

“Are we on the doorstep of another civil war?”

Posted on February 7, 2024February 7, 2024 by Mike

A: Probably so, yeah. A better question: Ought we to be? Do our current circumstances require such a terrible, desperate endeavor of us? A: Well, according to the Founders at any rate, indubitably so.

Before I get into my analysis, I want to make it clear I believe that anyone who wants a civil war to happen in the U.S. is dangerously naïve, insane, or working for one of America’s enemies. Imagine a Russia-Ukraine-type conflict in the U.S.

Thanks to Hollywood, most Americans believe that rebellions can be started and won by small ragtag groups of patriots, freedom fighters, insurrectionists, or everyday common folk. All you need are pistols, assault weapons, bows and arrows, and maybe a few Molotov cocktails. Blow up the Death Star, and the problem is solved.

But that is not how it usually works. Revolutions require armaments, soldiers, money, something worth fighting for, and popular support. Unless lives are at stake, few people are angry or committed enough to leave jobs or families to risk going to jail or dying needlessly.

The most daunting task is overcoming the opposition. The weaponry and manpower available to peacekeepers in our country is formidable. This includes the local sheriff’s departments, city police, state police, National Guard, and various federal agencies, most notably the FBI. Plus, in a crisis, these organizations will usually work together. An uprising of twenty, fifty, or even a hundred-plus armed citizens would quickly fail.

Follows, a capsule review of American history, from the Revolution to the Whiskey Rebellion to CW1, even the Weather Undeground, of all things. Then:

You might notice a pattern here. First, important issues divide our country, like independence versus obedience to the king or slavery versus freedom. Then, either a military skirmish occurs before sides get chosen or sides get chosen before the military gets involved. Both the Revolution and the Civil War were started by state military organizations, not by groups of armed radicals.

We are at a similar junction in history right now. Politics has divided the country, and the pivotal issue is unlimited illegal immigration. Few wanted it. No one expected it when he voted for Biden. And now almost no one is willing to pay the price socially or financially to support it.

The White House may have believed that its open border policy would get someone, anyone, to pick up a gun to stop the madness. It would give Biden an excuse to impose martial law, ban assault weapons or handguns, or both. But the horde of right-wing extremists the far-left fantasizes about does not exist.

It seems the administration may have gone too far too fast. The whole country is aware of this issue, and opposition is rising, leading the states to get directly involved.

The Texas National Guard has been sent to the border to stop the flow of migrants. Roughly half of the states have declared their support for Texas.

If Democrats want to continue unlimited illegal immigration, Biden could nationalize the Texas National Guard, take control, and send it home. But what happens if Texas says no? Would Biden order the armed forces to disarm or attack the Texas Guard? Would the use of the armed forces be legal? Do Democrats care?

History tells us that civil wars happen when our country is divided and the states believe they must get involved. That time may be at hand.

Pray that sanity prevails.

Fair enough. On the other hand, though, it suggests another important Q: If “sanity” necessarily means acceptance of the Superstate status quo, should Real Americans who are seriously dedicated to the Founding principles of ordered liberty, self-determination, and limited government really be praying for it? Viewed in that light, can praying for such a thing even be considered truly sane at all? Or ought it to be thought of instead as what it truly amounts to: surrender?

As I’ve said all too many times over the past cpl-three years, I have no good answers. In fact, I strongly suspect there aren’t any, quite frankly. At this late date, things have gone much too far for any practical, effective answer that any sane soul would think of as “good.” Seems to me that no matter which route we choose, we’re in for some serious trouble, turmoil, tragedy, and loss. Best-case scenario is that I’m so full of shit my eyes are brown, which I do admit is eminently possible. Last I checked, they were still hazel, alas.

Update! The more I think about this sad, sorry situation, the more thoroughly I understand what the old phrase “between a rock and a hard place” means. Verily, it’s a real Hobson’s Choice we’re up against here.

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