May 16 2021

To a 2-Year Old With a Hammer…

…anything looks like a nail.

Please read the linked essay – and start pushing back.

May I suggest posting the link, with #TreatKidsLikeDemPoliticians in the post?

May 14 2021

Reading the Tells & Survival (Part 1 of 2)

This grew to be far longer than I’d originally planned, so I’m chopping it into two “more digestible” pieces.  The second to be posted Monday or Tuesday.  In the meantime, please say a prayer for the soul of Sergei B., my wife’s uncle who passed away just a day ago from a resurgence of cancer.  A prayer for his soul, and a prayer for his widow Galiya.

—–

I’ve always been… aware… that bad things can happen, far more than most people I knew when I was growing up.  In my teenage years my parents would comment that my habit of never sitting with my back to the front door of a restaurant seemed “paranoid” to them.  Let me be clear: nothing specific happened to me that made me like this, at least nothing that I can put a finger on.  Nor, again being clear, do I think there’s a shady cabal after me specifically.  I simply seem to have been hard-wired like that. 

But it always amazed me how non-aware people are.  For example, in my college years there was a grisly murder over one summer with the female victim found, raped and dismembered, in the parking lot of a local mall.  To my knowledge nobody was ever arrested, let alone convicted – certainly not in the period I was in attendance.  Yet women would be walking around that fall, or later in the nascent spring warmth, late at night with headphones on and utterly unaware of their surroundings.  (I remember one spring night walking back to my dorm well past 11 PM behind a young & shapely blonde in a tank top and short-shorts… and her headphones blaring.  Totally and blissfully unaware of anything around her, especially anybody behind her.  Meanwhile I was “checking my six” every 20-30 seconds.  And I never walked anywhere with headphones, then or now.)

More recently, before children, my wife and I would be at the mall and she’d notice me looking around.  “Are you looking at other women?” she would ask.  Somehow, despite being incredibly attractive, she was paranoid about the possibility I might, ahem, “color outside the marital lines” (bad experiences in Russia, I expect, where infidelity was and still is – per her own commentary – quite common).  My answer was a firm NO, but that I was doing threat assessments of people, watching body language, and making sure I knew where the exits were.

She thought I was being “paranoid”!  Ironically, she – who grew up in the USSR – did not develop this mentality while I, “white bread boy” born and raised in America that I am, did.

“60 MINUTES” MAGIC

I have mentioned this before on my old blog but my late mother was a living lie detector.  We’d be watching 60 Minutes when some bigwig-or-something would be interviewed swearing on a stack of bibles that the accusations were not true.  My mother would casually toss out “He’s lying!”; a few weeks later, of course, the other shoe would drop and it would be revealed that yes, he was lying.  My father and I would, time and again, be floored for she was astonishingly accurate.  Many years later I learned about facial microbursts, as well as Neurolinguistic Programming techniques, that highlight small and subtle tells in the face and body that are directional – albeit imperfect of course – signals that what the mind is thinking is in opposition to what the mouth is saying.  Without any training that I knew of, she could do this instinctively.  Foreshadowing Bene Gesserit training?

The Israelis, in their screenings of people at the airport and elsewhere, are some of the best at detecting such small-detail tells.  This is why they don’t focus on technological solutions – though they don’t ignore those either – but rather on the behaviors of the persons arriving at the airport and during their pre-flight screening interview. 

PRACTICING

So I’ve been reading books about body language and behavior patterns – not for poker but for survival.  I’ve recently read Left of Bang: How the Marine Corps’ Combat Hunter Program Can Save Your Life and Escape The Wolf: A Security Handbook for Traveling Professionals.  Another, on deck, is What Every Body Is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People.  These and other materials have discussed attention to minute details in creating an understanding that “something is not right” as compared to what you’d expect in a specific situation.

Hindsight being 20/20, I remember one time at a local gas station – one I normally don’t go to.  There was a clerk from the one I normally went to who said, twice, something that seemed odd at the time.  Specifically, it was “So nice to see you again; normally I see you at our station number #### but now I’m seeing you here at station ####”.  It struck me as odd but did not set off warning bells.  Looking back I think they were trying to tell me something was wrong, because nobody ever talks like that naturally.  If I ever see that person again I intend to ask.

I’ve also taken to watching reaction videos to a specific musical piece by a Kazakh singer, Dimash.  He is, clearly, a once-in-a-century vocalist whose talent was recognized and nurtured and fine-tuned – proof that talent plus incredible preparation yields success.  Here’s one such reaction video.  I’ve skipped to just before he starts.

It’s an incredible honed-to-perfection performance, but focus – pay attention to the body language of the voice coach (understanding that in “reaction videos” people are not trying to hide their emotions but display them, but still…).  I’ve easily watched a hundred-plus such videos all reacting to the same song to see the “surprise” and other reactions to his unearthly performance.  Different people react differently but there are universals – facial and body signals that indicate the emotions being felt.

These tells of face and body, including inconsistencies in statements and actions generally, are crucial to both personal, national, indeed civilizational – and possibly even mankind’s – survival.  Don’t forget, these people exist. As do these:

—–

—–

COVID TELLS

When Covid first hit our shores I, too, was terrified.  I wore N95 masks – unavailable in stores but prepper-me already had a supply – and gloves, and a jacket, and sanitized like crazy… and and and.  But then the small tells started to pile up.  For example:

  • The day after the first American case, IIRC, Trump shut down travel from China, which was as commonsense a move as could have been done… and in the face of a potential pandemic he was excoriated by the Left.  (Meanwhile China was letting people fly globally even as they stopped people from Wuhan traveling domestically.)
  • Well after that the Left was telling people to go out and mingle.  Pelosi.  Lunar Festival.  Enough said.
  • The daily case counts, and subsequent death counts, were prominently hammered on in every news broadcast – something that had not been done before for any other flu outbreak.
  • The death counts increasingly appearing as counting anyone who even had the possibility of having Covid when they died, as dying from Covid – including the CDC changing the rules.
  • The timing, as Trump’s numbers dropped away from what had been a coming juggernaut landslide of the Left, became awfully suspect.
  • The hospital ships, sent by Trump, were mostly unused… and in parallel Covid patients put into nursing homes resulting in thousands – tens of thousands – of unnecessary deaths.
  • The dissing of Trump’s actions, slammed every which way, raised flags.  He literally could not do anything right in the eyes of the enemedia or the Democrats (I repeat myself).
  • The outright lies about Trump suggesting injecting Lysol or Clorox.  I saw that press conference, I read the transcript… he said no such thing.
  • The shrill deriding of Trump’s advocacy of HCQ as a treatment despite the 2005 paper that showed it had potential.
  • Now we’re seeing Ivermectin also, similarly, dissed.  Second doses have been denied to patients that show improvement after the first dose.
  • The use of antibodies from recovered patients’ plasma praised, until Trump mentioned it. 
  • Trump shut down travel from China = racist; President Asterisk shuts down travel from India = not racist.
  • And let’s acknowledge, just in passing, the non-existent southern border with Covid-infected people streaming in and permitted to disperse into the country.  Nobody concerned about Covid would permit this.
  • And, of course, much more…

A POLITICAL WEAPON

It became clear to me that this was not a crisis – serious, yes, but not a crisis.  Consider the situation in New Hampshire:

  • Only 7% of the population of NH has tested positive.
  • Of that 7%, only 1.3% eventually died.
  • Of that 1.3% more than 63% were over the age of 80 and comorbid (most in the state’s care).
  • Some percentage of those did not die of COVID but [merely] with it.

Probably, for me, the first brick on the jeweler’s scale was learning of Fraudci’s prediction that Trump WOULD face a pandemic.  Granted he was not specific that it would be a coronavirus, but it was the surety of the statement that struck me.

—–

—–

I have been a STEM worker my whole career and my first report, as a co-op, was full of statements that my proposed solution was a solution – me being full of cocky assurance in my skills.  I was fully confident I had solved it… and it came back from my boss’ review with massive red ink comments.  I learned overnight to use “should” and “will likely” and “probably” and other weasel words that could be hedged in court, rather than definitive statements.  And to avoid definitive statements, like WILL.

Had Fraudci, who has spent decades in the swamp as a bureaucrat where CYA is the watchword for every person in that swamp, said “It is likely that Trump will face…” or “The statistics point to a likely pandemic during Trump’s watch…” or some such, those would be statements I would expect from such a bureaucrat. 

HE. SAID. WILL BE FACED WITH.

He knew what was coming.  Pending revelation of Divine Truth, I’d bet everything I own on that.

To be continued.

May 14 2021

A Bee That Stings Like Muhammad Ali

     You really can’t do it any better than this, from the Babylon Bee:

    

Nation Wishes Someone Would Have Warned Them About Dangers Of Unchecked Government Power

     U.S.—Concerned citizens from all over the nation were really pitying their unfortunate lot in life that not a single individual in recent memory had risen up to warn them about the dangers of unchecked government power amid reports of gas shortages, rapidly rising prices on just about everything, and everyone in power lecturing them about pronouns and face coverings every day.

     “Oh! Woe is us,” exclaimed one man waiting in an hour-long queue at a gasoline station so he could fill up grocery bags with the scarce fuel. “How did it ever come to this without even one person warning us about what would happen?”

     “It’s like our government officials just did whatever they felt like doing with no regard to the Constitution and now we’re in a big mess and no one even bothered to warn us,” mourned another citizen.

     “If someone had run for office warning about all these things, I would have definitely voted for that guy,” declared one woman who had lost her business and was now waiting in line to fill up her plastic bags too. “Even if he wasn’t the most charismatic or smooth-talking of the bunch. We just needed an honest guy to come around, like a sweet grandpa, and I don’t know, maybe if this honest grandpa tried to explain basic economics, obscure monetary policy, and the Constitution, and we all voted for him, maybe we’d all be better off right now. How crazy that in a country as big as ours, no one like that ever ran for office?”

     There have been aspirants to high office who’ve talked a good game…for a while. Some have even behaved approximately as we’d hoped when we elected them. But Dr. Ron Paul, former Representative of Texas’s 14th and 22nd Congressional Districts and several times a candidate for the presidency, is the unchallenged champion of a free, Constitutional order. (Yes, Dr. Rand Paul, U.S. Senator from Kentucky, is one of his sons.)

     There are people who’ll tell you that the degree of freedom and constraint of government the Constitution prescribes is “unrealistic in this day and age.” They’ll prattle about “emergencies,” “necessities,” and “the greater good.” But they never, ever dare to grapple with why we have a Constitution in the first place. Ask one such person, “Why do we have a Supreme Law, and why did the Founding Fathers make it difficult to change?” and you’ll get nothing intelligible.

     Ron Paul understands why. He always has. At the age of eighty-five, he remains a better, more honest man than anyone now in federal office, with the possible exception of his son. And he’s never received the attention or the respect he deserves. More fools we.

May 14 2021

Supreme Laws

     You may have seen this snippet before:

     “The Constitution is the supreme law, the foundation for all other law. If it doesn’t mean exactly what its text says—the public meanings of the words as ordinary people understand them—then no one can possibly know what it means. But if no one can know what the Constitution means, then no one can know whether any other law conforms to it. At that point, all that matters is the will of whoever’s in power. And that’s an exact definition of tyranny.”

     [From Shadow of a Sword]

     But why do we need a “supreme law,” to which all other laws must conform? Indeed, what is it about the Constitution of the United States that fits it for that purpose?

     Once again, the historically literate Gentle Reader will already know: when it was first proposed, the Constitution did not fit the purpose. Had it not been amended a little while after its initial ratification in June, 1788 – i.e., by the Bill of Rights in December 1791 – then by agreement among the state governments, it would have lost its legitimacy.

     Americans who are literate about their nation’s history are aware that the Bill of Rights, which made the rights proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence explicit, was “the price of ratification” of the Constitution. That is: Without a solemn promise that the Constitution would be amended to acknowledge individuals’ rights explicitly in its text – the entire point of the Bill of Rights – the pact that created the federal government would not have been ratified. Back then, promises of that sort were taken seriously.

     Think about that for a moment. Americans believed in their rights to life, liberty, and honestly acquired property so strongly that they would have denied the legitimacy of a federal government that refused to acknowledge them. Indeed, they would have rebelled against it…as some, who held that even the Bill of Rights wasn’t an adequate protection of those rights, actually did.

     This is not “of course” / “everyone knows that” stuff. This goes to the heart of the American political ethic. Yet it’s been suppressed in the education of young Americans for a number of decades. By whose decision…and to what end? Even more to today’s point, why did the great majority of Americans deem the Bill of Rights a sufficient corrective to the original Constitution’s text?

     Give that a few CPU cycles while I pour myself some coffee.

***

     Recently, at the “Truth Over Fear” Online Summit, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, formerly the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, gave a remarkable address about the “COVID-19 pandemic,” its use by the political elite, and the devastating effects on our society. Have a snippet:

     If we make a comparison between how we lived in January 2020 and how we have been reduced to living today, we cannot fail to recognize the success of this infernal plan, accepted by the majority of people as unavoidable. There are those who, unable to accept the intrinsic irrationality of the provisions adopted by their rulers, suspend all judgment and hand themselves over to their executioners. Others, trying to find a supernatural meaning in collective madness, pray to God for the end of a non-existent plague or adapt to the new pagan liturgies of Covid. Still others, more combative, are unable to resign themselves to the monstrosity of what is happening and hope for a divine intervention.

     If only we had the good sense to think autonomously, to use the rationality with which we have been endowed by the Eternal Father, we would immediately understand that this horror is nothing but the “world turned upside down” that is desired by the eternal Enemy of the human race, the hell on earth longed for by the servants of Satan, the New Infernal Order that is the prelude to the advent of the Antichrist and the end times. Only in this way will we be able to understand the apostasy of the highest levels of the Church, all taken to give proof of obedience to the globalist ideology, to the point of denying Christ on the Cross and preferring the heavy chains of Lucifer to the gentle yoke of Christ.

     This resonated powerfully with me. It’s a restatement of a truth that was nearly universally accepted even as recently as 1950: not because it is explicitly Christian, but because when it looks for a Supreme Law, it looks to a Supreme Authority, whose will is infinitely superior to the preferences and decrees of men. When men deny the Supreme Authority, they immediately lose their way. Yes, even men in Holy Orders, should they disdain the Gospels for the preachments of the international political / commercial class. Such clerics are not few. One of them sits on the Throne of Saint Peter as you read this.

     It was not men who gave us the rights protected in the Bill of Rights, duly incorporated into the Constitution in December of 1791; it was God. The human design makes those rights an absolute precondition for human flourishing and peace. The Author of all things –where did you think Supreme Authority comes from, eh? – wrote those laws into our bodies, minds, and souls. They require no legislation, for they are self-enforcing. To transgress against them is to forsake flourishing and peace and opt for poverty and strife.

     And nothing that snot-nosed, half-conscious, reality-challenged pseudo-Catholic in the White House says, including that “no amendment is absolute” bilge, can change that.

***

     The Constitution, as amended by the Bill of Rights, was deemed acceptable by the colonials of the late 18th Century because the Supreme Law it affirmed was the one God the Creator had written into human nature. Catholic, Protestant, Unitarian, Jew, or Deist, those colonial Americans agreed on that much – heartily. They would not have had it any other way. Too many had experienced too much hardship and privation for too long. Too many others had died.

     Rights are not permissions. Governments cannot decree that a right need not be respected because of some sort of “emergency” or “crisis.” The hubrists of the Usurper Regime will try to word-mince without limit. They’ll defame, castigate, intimidate, and outrightly bludgeon as many of us as they can into compliance. Nevertheless, what powers God and the Constitution have forbidden them, they do not have. They may not exercise them without calling Nemesis down upon them.

     Nemesis is limbering up. Getting equipped and provisioned. Soon to be on the march. Sooner or later it will strike, whether by force of arms or by the inexorable withdrawal of Americans’ consent to be governed. The Usurpers’ continuing derogation and denial of the Supreme Law guarantees it.

May 13 2021

Church of the Covidian: Blank-eyed and Mindless

Revisiting my earlier post here, Church of the Covidian to post a stream-of-consciousness quick rant.

So I was at the local Whole Foods – I know, I know, but for reasons not to be gone into there are certain things I need supplement-wise that I cannot get elsewhere.  Anyway, I was wearing a mask “imperfectly” and the woman ahead of me in the checkout line, double-masked, said “Sir, please stand back”.  Then a few seconds later, she drew farther away as she realized my mask did not fully cover my nose.  “You’re not covered correctly”!

The cashier said “Sir, you need to put your mask on right”.

I called them cowards.  No reaction.  None.  Eyes blank. Not even a scintilla of ire at being insulted.

The cashier then said “It’s the law”.  (I wear a kippa; it was “the law” that people like me had to wear a yellow star, pack their bags as the locals screamed Jews get out! and so on.) Nor did the cashier react when I said “Oh, just following orders…” These are the same people that would turn in non-compliers in a cold second. The same people that would – and I fear will, mob-attack those not “of the body”.

If these people were told to pack their bags and go to the “Covid Safety Camp” they’d do it in a heartbeat.  They’re already injecting themselves with synthesized genetic materials – something that a person with even a scintilla of survival instinct would at least say WHOA! Let me investigate this first! but no.

Why no reaction?  They’re noble, moral, more educated and smarter and better people.  I’m the heretic putting their lives in danger! (Tack on as many exclamation points as you like.)

This is a religious war against people convinced they are doing RIGHT and GOOD in the world.  Remember, it was these same people who – convinced they were RIGHT and GOOD – have enacted every genocide to implement Socialism in the world.  They cannot be bargained with, they cannot be reasoned with… getting close to the moment when we all need to channel our inner Cloud William voice:

“We do not talk to Kohms; they are only for killing.”

Alas, my beloved country.

—–

May 13 2021

The Dam Is Creaking

     Folly, the late Barbara Tuchman wrote in her book The March of Folly, is “knowing better but doing worse.” More lucidly if less lyrically, a fool is one who refuses to learn from his own mistakes. He persists in a course of action that has led him astray previously – perhaps on several occasions – for reasons he cannot or will not articulate. Those reasons usually reduce to stubbornness and pride. The “humble fool” is a creature modern science has never yet detected.

     But to be fair, we must admit that, as Victor Hugo wrote in Les Miserables, “We’re all fools, most of our lives. It’s unavoidable.” For most of us, folly tends to be situational, springing from specific contexts and challenges in which our pride dwarfs our realism about our limitations.

     There are a great many fools in the Republican Party. Some of those fools are at the pinnacle of the GOP. Here’s the demonstration:

  • Each time since World War II that Republicans and Democrats have agreed on some sort of tit-for-tat, the Republicans have kept their word and the Democrats have reneged. Yet Republicans continue to pursue compromises with Democrats.
  • Democrat officials and spokesmen routinely savage Republicans. Their targets often refuse to defend themselves, “reasoning” that “If I’m nice in return, I could win them over.”
  • The Democrat-aligned media have repeatedly seduced Republicans into traps whose bait was a few column-inches of mildly favorable coverage. Despite the media’s long record of such perfidy, Republican officials, luminaries, and voters continue to be seduced by media importunings.
  • Finally for this brief roundup, Democrats can commit the most heinous acts in full view of the public…without any Republican of stature being willing to denounce them for it. Indeed, often Republicans of stature will castigate more lowly persons for daring to take note of Democrat sins and crimes.

     To me, this is an indictment of the “Pollyanna mentality” of the GOP. Highly placed Republicans seem endlessly willing to betray the party’s supporters to gain something of little or no value from the Democrats. Some Republican legislators will vote against their party’s and nation’s obvious interests rather than risk having a Democrat, or some media figure, criticize them in public. This defeats any claim by such persons that they represent their constituents’ interests. Yet they continue to garner votes by the millions, which suggests that their constituents are even bigger fools, at least every two, four, or six years.

     Why yes: this is about the stolen 2020 election. However did you guess?

***

     Have a few links:

     If Joe Biden were a Republican, he’d already have taken up residence in a room with soft walls whose door locks from the outside. The media would be blasting him as an enemy of the press. His supposedly record-shattering election victory would have been invalidated on the grounds of blatant, coordinated fraud, which was visible on Election Night in at least six states. A caretaker Administration would be in place, emergency procedures activated for a rerun at the earliest possible time.

     The Constitution doesn’t contain any guidance applicable to our current situation. It’s possible that the Founding Fathers could not imagine a stolen election in these United States. Yet that is what we have had. It’s been followed by four months of openly anti-American governance designed to cement the Democrats into permanent federal power, reduce our economy to that of a Third World nation, and eliminate the notion that Americans possess any rights the government is required to respect.

     Where are our prominent Republicans? Why haven’t they been trumpeting all of this non-stop since last November 4? Are they too pusillanimous to speak out, or are they secretly in league with the Democrats, playing along for a seat on the gravy train?

     Though it may anger some to say so, Donald Trump’s supposedly crude style is a minor side issue. President Trump kept his campaign promises. He actively fought for the interests of the American people. His public style was rough-hewn, as we should expect from a fighter, but it was never unjust. Highly placed Republicans striving to move the party away from Trump are attempting to distract us from their true agenda.

     The consequences are mushrooming. An increasing number of conservatives have said that their support for the GOP and its candidates is over, never to resume. Their reasons are consistent: The Republican Party has betrayed its supporters. Are the party’s kingmakers aware that ever-larger waves of public disgust and distrust are battering their edifices of prestige and perquisites? Do they expect their “friends” among the Democrats to help them to retain their positions come election time, or do they comfort themselves with the notion that “They” – meaning us — “have to vote for us” – meaning them — because “After all, we’re all they’ve got.”

     Political parties are not immortal organisms. American history has seen the rise and fall of several. The strategists and kingmakers of the GOP had better look to their levees, for the water lashing them is being driven by a shrill and bitter wind.

May 13 2021

I say again . . . .

If you wanted to destroy America, what would you do differently from that which is already being done by the Deep State? Would you do something instead of:

  • Goose inflation?
  • Discourage value investing?
  • Create asset bubbles and punish savers?
  • Impoverish working people and permit the accumulation of unbelievable wealth for a tiny minority?
  • Send tens of thousands of our factories to the shores of a communist country?
  • Propagate fairy tales about the “Russian threat”?
  • Engage in massive, frivolous government spending?
  • Ramp up national debt?
  • Remain passive in addressing the pension crisis (the existing one)?
  • Spend the national pelf in reckless, pointless foreign wars?
  • Alienate the world by trying to impose our national pathologies?
  • Sanction all unworthy humanoids and nations on the planet?
  • Ecourate riot, arson, looting, assault, and murder in our streets?
  • Totally corrupt our elections while crowing about “our democracy”?
  • Turn over our entire political system to 50 billionaires and the banks?
  • Permit the teaching of diseased thinking in the schools, in particular, thinking that is but a direct attack on the founding people of the Nation and their intellectual, religious, legal, social, and political traditions? Thinking that is in fact a direct attack on decency and reason themselves?
  • Attack the bedrock right of free speech in underhanded, indirect way while crowing about “our values”?
  • Propagate lunatic ideas of globalism, multiculturalism, diversity, and the need for a Great Reset with undefined features?
  • Ceaselessly attack the decency, intelligence, good faith of the majority population?
  • Demand the worship of minorities, sexually confused people, foreigners, alien religions, and public indecency?
  • Deliberately flood the nation with millions and millions of foreigners with unknown backgrounds and unknown intentions and who have no intention to assimilate into the majority culture but who intend to steal American jobs and sponge off working Americans?
  • Propagate tendentious nonsense about “climate change” and attack key economic sectors regardless of the pain inflicted on productive citizens?
  • Double down on the bizarre incentives and gross pathologies of the welfare state?
  • Tolerate the wholesale evisceration of the Constitution and greasy lawfare then call it “the rule of law”?
  • Tolerate the yearly accretion of yet more laws and regulations?
  • Allow the intelligence agencies and the federal security forces to run wild and selectively crucify citizens?
  • Do nothing about rampant monopoly?
  • Celebrate a corrupt press?
  • Slobber over malevolent, moronic feminist hysterics?
  • Inundate the nation in ridiculous “narratives”?

Or what? If the current government is benign and rational, what destructive policies would you adopt and what overt and clandestine actions would you take to bring about the total collapse of the Nation that have not been adopted and that are not being taken?

Here’s Tucker’s take on some aspects of state-of-the-art American patriotic “governance”:

May 12 2021

A question.

From one of Linh Dinh’s entertaining pieces about out-of-the-way places and foreign ways. This from another piece of his on his time in Albania:

War, insane ideology and free transfer of capital have dislocated millions of people. Millions more must flee from societies they themselves have befouled, through collective stupidity, cowardice or depravity. It’s who they are, simply. Before you sneer or curse, though, remember that you too may end up just like them, perhaps even before dawn. How much have you contributed to your nation’s destruction?

“Love of Raki, High Jumping Goats and Edith Durham.” By Linh Dinh, The Unz Review, 5/10/21.

May 12 2021

Liz doubles down.

In response, Cheney said she vows to “do everything I can” to block Trump’s re-election.

“In the meantime, I will also continue to support every illegal foreign war where we senselessly murder millions of innocent civilians in the middle east, and North Africa, and where ever the MIC orders,” Liz continued.

Comment by CheapBastard.[1]

Notes
[1] “Liz Cheney Ousted From Leadership Post By House Republicans.” By Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge, 5/12/21.

May 11 2021

Israel on my mind

I was born in the US.  I live in the US.  I expect to die in the US.  My father’s side of the family has multiple Revolutionary War ancestors, including one that crossed the Delaware with Washington that famous night.  Going further back I have one confirmed Mayflower ancestor and expect, if I can ever find the luxury of time, to confirm more.

But my mother’s side came through Israel (and, further back, Lithuania, Poland, and Belarus).  And as a Zionist Jew I often state that my soul lives over there.  One of my most prized possessions is a one shekel coin that I found – found in a parking lot less than five miles from where I live a few days after I confirmed my resolve to take my family to visit.  Talk about A SIGN. I had not been in over two decades, my wife and children never.  And there, on the ground as I was walking to my car, was a coin which is now on a necklace along with my Magen David (Star of David):

—–

—–

I give to US charities, of course, but I also support Israeli ones.  Ones such as:

The Lone Soldier’s Center

Israel Trees

Connections Israel

And Israeli businesses like Lev Ha’olam , the Judaica Web Store, and My Tree in Israel.  From the first I get bi-monthly packages, I buy waaaaaay too much from the second (including most of my wine), and at the last I’ve adopted olive trees to honor notables like President Trump, Bill Whittle, and Thomas Sowell.  As a thought, which I use for my own business, I adopt trees and have my company’s name on the bottles, so they make a nice corporate “give away” while at the same time being a tax write-off as a business promotional expense.

—–

—–

But now Israel is under attack from people whose very “holy” book states that it is their duty to destroy Jews and Israel.  Jew-hate is hard-coded into the Koran itself.  Thank Hashem Israel has Iron Dome, an anti-missile system that is working overtime to stop these attacks:

—–

—–

Still, hundreds of missiles have been fired at Israel in the last few days, ever since Israel’s court permitted private land owners whose legally-purchased buildings and property were seized illegally by Jordan in the 1948 war to evict the Arab squatters and “renters” who have not paid rent for years.  Excellent write-up at Lidblog (my bolding added for emphasis):

If you believe the mainstream media, the land dispute in Sheikh Jarrah (north of Jerusalem) is a case of those nasty Israeli Jews trying to evict Palestinians from their homes. The Biden re-Bama administration agrees. WH Spox Jen Psaki said the administration is concerned about the Israeli government tossing Palestinians out of their homes.  Allow me to put this dispute in basic terms.  Palestinian tenants on land owned by Jews aren’t paying their rent. After a few years of legal action, Israeli judges said it was okay for the landowners to toss the freeloaders out.

So, dear reader, this is an appeal (which I hope our gracious host will tolerate).  Please consider a donation to one of the three charities I mentioned, above, or go get a package subscription from Lev Ha’olam, or a purchase from the Judaica store, or adopt a tree (best olive oil I’ve ever had, which has been echoed by everyone to whom I’ve given bottles). 

And one last thought.  Imagine if this were Russia, and Ukraine was now launching missiles a to-scale hundreds of miles into Russian territory – something they’ve done with varying intensity for years if not decades.  Except… would Putin have let it continue for years if not decades?  It is to laugh, of course. Ukraine would be a smoldering ruin within a few days after the first such attack, let alone after years.

—–

Update / added: I showed this video, below, to my kids. “Oooh, fireworks”! “No, these are missiles being fired by the hundreds by the Arabs at Israel”! (I have to be careful; although my nominally Muslim wife is very supportive of Israel, I can’t just come out and say IT’S THE F*CKING MUSLIMS!

—–

Or, under any other President except the current FICUS, were Cuba to start launching missiles into the US that made it several states deep into the US? More broadly, would any world leader, of any nation, tolerate such?

So why is Israel expected to tolerate this? And more broadly, if we are to have any hope of some semblance of peace in the world, such aggression cannot be tolerated – especially not against an ally.

My thanks in advance for your reading this, and your consideration.

May 11 2021

Unpleasant But Important Advice

     This emission at Gab struck me powerfully:

     @BigCountryExpat A quick followup to your recent article that mentioned packing heat even in your own house your SOP. I typically have a long gun within reach inside, but even when I’m just running outside to the shop to bring something in that will require two hands, I toss a hand gun in a pocket or tuck it into my pants.

     I would once again recommend that everyone makes this a habit before it becomes a necessity. Well, I guess it is a necessity depending on which hell-hole is closest to your abode. My current living situation sees more 4 legged predators, but I did have to run off a lone wanderer who decided to pitch a tarp on my property last year which reinforced that you never can anticipate when you’re actually going to need either to start blasting or at least threaten to.

     Most Americans don’t go about the day armed, or even within relatively convenient reach of a weapon. Yet consider the nation’s current state:

  • Predators have taken over the streets of our cities;
  • Reports of violence outside the cities have been increasing;
  • The agitation for “reparations” to American blacks is peaking;
  • Major corporations are deferring to the BLM agenda, one after another;
  • Major figures, both in politics and the media, have defended all the above.

     Carrying a weapon suggests that the need for one might arise at any moment. The above says that such a time is upon us. Indeed, in this era, not to have a weapon to hand is the sheerest lunacy. The predators are openly emboldened — and not just the ones swarming in our cities. Though few Americans ever thought they’d see the day when answering the doorbell is an act of courage, nevertheless that day is here.

     Don’t expect the police to protect you. The police have been neutered in too many places, by orders from “higher authority.” In a shocking number of other places, the police have demonstrated by their behavior that they’re on the predators’ side.

     The Left is at the root of it all. In their quest for total control over every aspect of American life, Leftists throughout these United States have suspended all the rules of our society. There is no longer a presumption of public civility, much less of public order. At a time when peaceable bystanders are being physically assaulted for their race, or for being maskless in a public place, or for daring to attend a free-speech rally, the presumption should be that we are not safe. Not even within our own homes.

     I can find no indications that a return to the status quo ante is in prospect any time soon. We must expect to be latently in danger at all times. Be armed – be vigilant – and beware.

May 11 2021

Rebels At MIT Provide a Hint of the Pressure They Endure

Begin reading at the section heading “your sciencing is wrong.”

Pixy Misa at Ace’s place presents the excerpts as revealing mind-boggled wokeness — as if the writers can’t see the flaws in their presentation. But I see it as similar to morse coded blinks of a POW at a “news” conference.

Surely this is indicative of what our best minds at almost all institutions must suffer under today. It’s a good guess that they await the rebellion like so many others. Any one situation may become so tense that a lightning strike could set it off, triggering a chain reaction. Nobody knows the day or time.

May 11 2021

Better Than I Could Have Said It Dept.

     Every now and then, the penetration and eloquence of another Web commentator simply blows me off my seat. I’m reduced to clapping and wishing I could have said what he did, as piercingly as he did.

     Here is one such case. A small taste:

     The Mask is a visible sign of “who belongs” in a world separating into two, distinct camps — the Sheep and the Individualist.

     The Sheep is a product and client of government. Alternately, The Sheep is a fucktarded moron who does things simply because everyone else is, or because someone else told them to do so. The Sheep is the predominant sub-species. You find them everywhere.

     Usually on a line, standing six feet apart.

     The Individualist is a disappearing breed. You can find them being assaulted while driving to work through a herd of sheep engaged in “protest”. Of what, they do not know.

     There’s some strong language ahead. Nevertheless, please, please read it all!

May 11 2021

Just an Incredible Coincidence

Isn’t it?

May 10 2021

Good Intentions, Bad Methods

     I can’t say of my own knowledge that most Americans are annoyed by religious solicitors, but I know many people who are – including myself. Just this morning I received the attention of one such in a fashion that was new to me: a cold telephone call.

     The phone’s display said “Private caller,” but I answered anyway. The woman on the other end identified herself as Sandy, “a neighbor from Rocky Point” – something I couldn’t confirm – and immediately asked “how you and your family have been doing during the pandemic.”

     Harmless so far, I thought, and said “We’re all fine here.”

     Sandy then asked, “Did the pandemic ever get you thinking about God’s plan and what He might have in mind for us?”

     My hackles went up at once. I’m usually very busy during the day, which makes nearly every phone call an interruption of something I have in progress. It made me brusque.

     “I’m a practicing Catholic, and I have no inclination to discuss religion with a stranger. Thank you.” I hung up at once.

     It didn’t take me long to regret my behavior. The evil little dwarf who runs, fetches, carries, and delivers for my conscience immediately reminded me of the video below, which features magician and comedian Penn Jillette:

     Unless she’s practicing a scam of some sort, Sandy is trying to do something for the people she calls. She’s probably part of a community of faith that seeks to provide spiritual comfort to those who answer. At least, I find it plausible, given the burdens of isolation and anomie the pandemic has imposed upon so many of us.

     Religious solicitors, whether they appear at your doorstep, leave unsolicited pamphlets in your mailbox, call you on the phone, or write their messages in the sky above your house, are nearly always well-intentioned. Yet they get an awful lot of the sort of brusque dismissal I awarded to Sandy.

     I think that, in the future, I’m going to try to be gentler with such persons. They’re doing what they regard as a public service, even if they cap their pitch with a request for a donation. Mormons, Christian Scientists, Jehovah’s Witnesses – it doesn’t matter. They think they have something to say that I need to hear for the sake of my immortal soul. I’ll still turn them away – I have a religion, it suits me well, and I have no desire to “trade up” – but I’m going to try to be courteous about it from now on, instead of shooing them away as if they were politicians.

     Though I don’t think I’ll be changing my habit of answering the doorbell with a 12-gauge shotgun at port arms. A man has to be ready for anything these days, no?

May 10 2021

Two lunatic objectives.

The language of a human rights ideology defined in a multitude of gender and diversity iterations has seized the Brussels discourse. Some might welcome this development in principle, viewing it as righting ancient injustices. However, it should be understood that it is rooted not so much in human compassion, but is firmly seated in power dynamics, and, what’s more, a particularly dangerous set of power dynamics.

One the one hand, the ‘Biden agenda’ is primarily about ousting a deeply-rooted constituency of Americans (Red America) permanently from power.

He says it explicitly.

And on the other, as Blinken repeats and endlessly insists, the U.S.-shaped rules-based order must prevail in the world.[1]

To which agenda normal people and countries can only respond, “Keep it up, mothertruckers. Tickle them ivories like you’re some kind of gift to humanity. Sure. We’ll buy that.”

When

  1. the highest court in the land is corrupt in its ludicrous manipulation of language (not a tax, penumbral emanations, female includes tranny), upending of the obvious constitutional scheme (interstate everything), and groveling cowardice in the face of a leftist coup d’etat (no standing) and
  2. we refuse to (a) keep our streets safe by enforcing our laws against riot, arson, looting, theft, vandalism, assault, mayhem, murder and (b) cave like the pussies we are in the face of plaintive cries of “asylum” and refuse to enforce our borders,

just who are we to lecture the world on the supposed rules-based international order? (Did I mention our arrogant, arbitrary, regime-change and sanctions-happy criminality here and there?)

As for disappearing the white, Christian founders, builders and owners of this country, well, let’s just say it’s a first in world history. I am a firm believer in the notion that there’s nothing new under the sun. I read that somewhere. But I honestly do believe that institutionalized self-loathing is absolutely new in this vale of tears. Thank you, addle-brained progressives.

Notes
[1] “The Butterfly Effect Re-Setting The Global Paradigm.” By Alastair Crooke, ZeroHedge, 5/10/21 (bolding removed).

May 09 2021

Communications Breakdown

     This is likely to be one of my more discursive pieces – I’m warning myself as well as you, Gentle Readers – so please bear with me as I strive to organize it.

     In keeping with the old dictum that the presentation of an important idea should have a tripartite structure:

  1. Tell them what you will tell them;
  2. Tell them;
  3. Tell them what you have told them.

     …I’ll “lead with the lede:” You are helpless before any phenomenon whose causal genesis you do not understand and address. An excellent illustration of this critical bit of wisdom goes as follows:

     You’re standing at the bank of a river when you see someone in the water, flailing helplessly, unable to get out. You jump in, rescue him, and return to your previous position…when another flailing about-to-drown victim floats by. So you jump in again, rescue him, and return to your previous position… when still another flailing about-to-drown victim floats by. You jump in a third time – you’re getting pretty tired by now – rescue him, and climb out…when yet another victim floats by…

     Got the idea? Clearly, someone upstream is throwing people into the river. Your energies are finite; should the progression continue, you won’t be able to save any further victims of that fellow’s viciousness. Rather than jumping into the river over and over, what ought you to be doing instead?

     I shan’t insult my Gentle Readers’ intelligence by telling you.

***

     Back when I was freshly involved with the Libertarian Party, there was an energetic and highly insightful man named Marshall Fritz, who had just founded a remarkable new organization: the Advocates for Self-Government. Marshall was a former salesman for IBM, who understood more about promoting an idea than the rest of the liberty movement put together. He once summed it up this way: “Anything worth buying has to be sold.” Liberty – political freedom – is not an exception.

     In early 1987, I attended one of Marshall’s lecture presentations, in which he used a simplified version of the Keirsey/Bates personality inventory to make some significant points about persuasion styles. Marshall’s inventory emphasized four major categories:

  • Green: Idea-oriented: Concerns himself with ideology and analysis.
  • Brown: Organization-oriented: Prefers defined hierarchies and rules.
  • Red: Action-oriented: Never mind all that theory and planning; let’s get to work!
  • Blue: Emotion-oriented: Feelings uber alles.

     In Marshall’s talk “Liberty, Strategy, and Victory,” he made three major points:

  1. Political persuasion is partly a skill, but also partly an aptitude;
  2. Aptitude for communication and persuasion is strongest among the emotion-oriented;
  3. Therefore, for the liberty movement to make real progress, it must first “capture the Blues.”

     It sounded good at the time. (To a lot of liberty-minded folks, it sounded wonderful, a genuine breakthrough. Hope was that hard to come by.) But as the years have passed, it’s become clear that Marshall’s strategy hasn’t yielded the results for which he hoped…and I think I know why.

***

     While Marshall Fritz was correct, as far as I can tell, in his assessment that the Blue / emotion-oriented group contains the most effective communicators and persuaders, there were more questions to be asked:

  • What do the Blues believe?
  • Why do they believe it?
  • Whom are they most effective at persuading?

     At the time, no one thought to ask them. Yet the answers will tell us why Marshall’s strategy has failed.

     The Blue / emotion-dominant orientation is the shallowest of the four orientations. It doesn’t just prioritize feelings over any other consideration; it refuses to address any other consideration. The reasons for this are not far to seek.

     Strong emotions, of the sort that can energize a Cause Person, are very nearly all-consuming. They take up so much bandwidth and personal energy that little remains with which to analyze, organize, or act. Moreover, the state of personal commitment they evoke bears a great similarity to a religious faith: it becomes central to the holder’s identity, such that any departure from it feels personally threatening. Thus, its grip on the Blue it seizes is extremely difficult to relieve…in some cases, impossible.

     Blues are massively overrepresented on the political Left, which emphasizes emotional appeals and claims of “unfairness” and “injustice.” As reporters and other media-engaged types (e.g., writers, actors, musicians, and other entertainers) are almost always Blues, their near-unanimous Left-alignment ceases to be a puzzle. Equally so, the extreme difficulty of winning a successful, Left-affiliated reporter or commentator away from the Left should not puzzle us. Examples of such disaffiliations are rare.

     Could we reasonably expect a Blue, given his emotion-dominant psyche and his consequent attachment to the emotionally-founded politics of the Left, to give serious attention to the far more analytical and evidence-based claims of the Right? Could we expect him to take a sincere interest in the political and economic causes of human misery while “People are suffering! We have to act now!” — ? And if not, how could we expect him to treat them fairly in his communications with others?

***

     The deep cleavage in Americans’ attention to various media outlets tells us a great deal as well. Who listens to whom, and why?

     As a rule, Blues listen to Blues. Persons most susceptible to emotion-oriented appeals will find their greatest satisfaction in those sources that offer exactly that. Browns and Reds will find little in the offerings of the Blues to satisfy them, while Greens will reject their pitch as at variance with both evidence and reason. But Blues are also inclined toward evangelism and activism. That gives them a natural advantage in persuasion, even of persons whose emotions aren’t as strong as a true Blue’s. Most of us hate to see a relative or friend upset or disappointed by us. We’re likely to sympathize with them for reasons other than the magnetism of their chosen Causes, at least to the extent of offering lip service.

     Thus, media dominated by Blues and Leftist opinions will have an overrepresentation of Blues among their devotees…indeed, usually a majority. Note that those cohorts tend to be younger than the general American population. This is also to be expected, as youth correlates with the strength of empathetic and sympathetic inclinations. While it may sound cynical, it is also undeniable that it gets easier to shrug off someone else’s troubles after you’ve accumulated a few of your own.

     Blues will regard communicators oriented toward analysis and the study of traditional methods of dealing with socioeconomic problems as “unfeeling,” perhaps even “heartless.” “People are suffering! How can you just sit there?” If you’ve never heard a Blue say something along those lines, you’re a member of a tiny minority.

     In this latter connection, remember the sad case of USA for Africa. That campaign to aid the starving peoples of Ethiopia and Sudan raised millions of dollars and resulted in thousands of shipments of food and other relief items to those countries…nearly all of which disappeared into some dictator’s or warlord’s hoard. The actual effect of the shipments was to further empower the very brutes whose depredations had reduced millions to the edge of starvation or beyond. Those who donated to the campaign were emotionally gratified by it. How many of them reflected thereafter on what their donations had actually wrought?

***

     The above summarizes my thoughts on why Marshall Fritz’s “Capture the Blues” approach to libertarian outreach failed to achieve its objectives. You cannot get people whose pleasure and pain centers are activated exclusively by emotional matters to pay attention to reason and evidence – and therefore, you cannot make them into apostles for it. Moreover, those who already attend to them do so because their need for emotional stimuli is satisfied by what they see and hear, and would not be satisfied by an alternative emphasis.

     All is not lost. Effectiveness in persuasion can be learned, even by those with only a minimal aptitude for communication. The challenge there is to cultivate not only the skills required for persuasion, but also the inclination to use them. Many Greens, Browns, and Reds are uninterested in or impatient with the task. We prefer to spend our time on other things. It takes a lot of convincing to sway a man out of his priorities, especially if they mesh with his natural inclinations.

     Let’s close with some soothing music from the “Easy Listening” genre’s golden year of 1969:

     Appropriate, isn’t it?

May 09 2021

Deaf, dumb, and blind.

These morons never think about the implications of what they say or do. Here Chelsey Clinton wants to put the screws to social media posters who voice doubts about the experimental COVID-19 “vaccination”:

Clinton, 41, responded to a question about so-called “vaccine hesitancy” regarding Covid vaccines by saying that there must be a global effort to crack down on vaccine-critical social media posts.

“I personally very strongly believe there has to be more intensive and intentional and coordinated global regulation of the content on social media platforms,” she said.

“We know that the most popular video across all of Latin America for the last few weeks that now has tens of millions of views is just an anti-vax, anti-science screed that YouTube has just refused to take down.”

Clinton added that anti-vaccine content “flourishes” across the world by way of social media platforms. Her attempts to convince the managers of these sites to remove the material has not worked, she said.

“We know that — because I have tried — that appealing to the leadership of these companies to do the right thing has just not worked, and so we need regulation.”[1]

Because if there’s anyone who understands “the science” of The Vid and the genetics of the vaccine it’s this expert in epidemiology, viral manipulation, dangerously stimulated immune responses, and reckless human experimentation.

This choice comment by Northwoodacres on this short post captures the hypocrisy of this luminous being:

Excuse me Dr. Clinton. What happened to my body my choice[?]

That’s supposed to be the gold standard of how to approach any issue of “health” policy but if the putative owner of the body in question is not with the progressive program then by Jupiter it’s a knee to the shoulder neck and up the wazoo for the likes of you.

The Silver goes to commenter Skiiindatrees:

Because God Forbid we should have an honest debate on what we are calling “Vaccines” that don’t prevent anyone from getting the virus!!

Indeed.

Notes
[1] “Chelsea Clinton calls for global crackdown on anti-Vaccine social media posts….” By Kane, Citizen Free Press, 5/8/21.

May 09 2021

Stupidity that beggars the imagination.

With Brainard, Jerome Powell, and Treasury secretary Janet Yellen focusing on the climate, the M1 money supply has gone parabolic, from just over $4 trillion in February to $18.6 trillion in March.[1]

M1 measures “currency and assets that either are or can be quickly converted to cash.” So, in some 30-60 days, the money out in the hands of the Deplorables increased by something like 400%. And this was like yesterday.

So there’s four (4) times the amount of money sloshing around competing for the same supply of goods and services and in River City that is a portent of serious impending inflation.

And while this has been going on the Fed has now added “climate change” to its “mandate” and if there’s anyone whose grasp of “the science” of “climate change” I trust it’s Jerome Powell’s. Maybe it’s just me but if you conclusively demonstrate that you don’t understand how to manage the nation’s currency maybe now is not the time to shoulder new responsibilities involving lawn maintenance let alone “doing something” about “climate change.”

Some of this money sloshing around will bleed off into the stock market and real estate thereby exacerbating the existing massive bubble in both areas. But some of it will head straight to the consumer economy and drive up the price of food, clothing, and rent. The casino aspects of our economy — speculation, indifference to risk, desperate search for a hedge against inflation not basic value — cannot continue. Bubbles burst and people panic when helicopter money stops and they can’t buy necessities.

And I’ve not mentioned the stupidity of Congress and the Executive Branch’s lunatic hostility toward Russia and Syria.

What I get out of this is what I always get out of everything in America, namely, that there is nothing remotely resembling “stewardship” at work anywhere. Men and women of vision are nowhere to be found except in the office of Marjorie Taylor Green (oh yes) and wherever Tulsi Gabbard, Laura Loomer, Tucker Carlson, Lauren Boebert, and Ron Paul hang their hats these days.

EVERY political and economic decision is exactly the wrong one and political and economic actors will not face, let alone identify, the fundamental problems of the country. Powell and all the rest are just leaves borne along on a rushing stream. Helpless actors masquerading as men and women of affairs, all with contempt for Donald Trump and his ridiculous idea that America should be great again not least by identifying and safeguarding honest-to-God national interests.

Notes
[1] “The Fed Embraces Its Inner Zimbabwean.” By Doug French, ZeroHedge, 5/9/21.

May 08 2021

Update on the 2020 Elections

You might think this is over. You would be wrong.

The battle continues.

I’m pretty exhausted. In addition to the normal craziness of life, I’ve been battling some health/mobility issues. I’ve been working on my long-neglected house and finances, my hobbies, and my family.

I’m remembering that scene from The Patriot. Gibson is exhausted. He is in the swamp by himself. All of his men have taken a break to deal with their families, rest up, and heal.

He is by himself. He has no idea of when, or if, his men will return. Nevertheless, he is preparing to continue the fight.

At first, just one man returns. They see no others. But they focus on the job at hand.

Eventually, the full crew – or near enough – is assembled. But, the thing is, they didn’t wait for the others to come.

They handled what needed to be done, on their own. No matter that no others would join them.

For many of us, the Election Theft of 2020 was a defeat. The real question is, was that the final battle, or just one more fight in a long slog?

You may be out of energy – for now. You may need to pull back, re-group, visit your families, tend to your business, and heal any wounds.

That’s fine – we all do need some R & R, at times.

But, don’t tarry too long in the fleshpots. You are needed at the front.

Where is the front? Well, we COULD do as we have, and be reactive to the attacks of the Left.

Or, we could be PRO-active, and decide on the battleground for ourselves.

What’s your preferred battleground?

Where will you be when the fight starts?

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