ALL THE FORECASTERS ARE IN AGREEMENT WORLD WAR III • Civil War in USA & Europe • GENERAL WAR on EARTH and in the Astral & Spiritual Territories
ALL THE PROGNOSTICATORS CONCUR Military Planners, World Leaders, Astrologers, Biblical Prophets, Numerologists, Psychics, Nuclear Scientists, The National Enquirer, Root Workers, and Diviners ALL are in concurrence: ‟War Is Imminent”
I occasionally check out SSG, The Security Studies Group, a Next Generation Think Tank, I have occasionally put their articles up on my blog. This one I thought was exceptionally poignant seeing the usurper's Presidential Speech a couple of nights ago brought me great concern.
UPDATE: Moves towards packing the Supreme Court must now be added to the list of reckless government actions under these dangerous circumstances.
Time Magazine recently published an article entitled “The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign that Saved 2020.” It detailed efforts by a self-described “conspiracy” or “cabal” that involved the corporate juggernauts of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, major law firms, activist groups, and both Republican and Democratic governors and other politicians. Their efforts as detailed in the article were numerous, and involved “changing laws and rules” in several states before the election. Their efforts, they say, “fortified” the election and ensured the defeat of Donald Trump.
The so-called “cabal” confessed to nothing criminal, but they did confess to maneuvers that were unconstitutional. In particular, the changing of “laws” was often done in a way that did not involve state legislatures. Under the Constitution of the United States, state legislatures alone determine the manner of elections. What happened instead was that activist groups would sue state executives – usually Democrat, but Republican in the case of Georgia – and those executives would agree to do what the activists wanted. A court would bless this arrangement, and voila!, election laws were changed unconstitutionally or illegally in ways designed to ensure the election of the Chamber of Commerce’s preferred candidate.
This is not the first time in American history that corporate power has managed to find ways to determine elections according to their preference. However, in this case the bypassing of the legislatures has severely eroded America’s democratic legitimacy. This is both because the legislatures are the democratic element of American government, and because the particular “reforms” they have unconstitutionally instituted make elections inherently untrustworthy. Power is shifted, perhaps permanently, away from individual American voters. Power is shifted towards those with the organizational wealth and power to create votes (and perhaps voters) using behind the scenes methods that are secured only, at best, by the honor system.
This essay is not an attempt to incite insurrection, but a warning about the dangers of the present course and a call for prudence by government officials especially. The loss of legitimacy can be repaired with election reforms, coupled by a commitment by the government to respecting the rights that the citizens themselves believe the Constitution protects. However, the newly “elected” government is moving rapidly against the legitimating principles found in the Declaration of Independence. Specifically, the Declaration states that governments are instituted to protect the natural rights of citizens. These rights are commonly understood to embrace at least those rights found in the later Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Governments that become destructive to the end of protecting the rights of the citizens are legitimately subject to being “altered or abolished” by the people, according to the Declaration of Independence. The people who get to decide if those fundamental rights are being violated are not lawyers nor judges, but the citizens themselves. It is citizens’ opinion of what their rights are that matters in this context, and it is that group of opinions that the government needs to be prudent about not violating. This is because the citizen is an officer of the state, the one in whom the Declaration of Independence describes as invested with the power to decide when governments have violated their obligation to protect the citizenry’s rights.
The new government, because of the loss of democratic legitimacy inherent in the unconstitutional election, is operating from a position of greatly diminished legitimacy versus any recent government of the United States. Yet far from being wary of the dangers of decreased legitimacy, it is moving rapidly and aggressively against rights secured by the Bill of Rights – for example, religious free exercise is endangered by the recent Equality Act, freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances by treating the opposition as a kind of ‘domestic terrorist insurgency,’ second amendment rights are endangered by forthcoming gun control bills, fourth amendment rights by proposed new domestic spying targeting ‘extremist groups,’ and eighth amendment rights by aggressive bail denial.
Under these circumstances, the United States government is in real danger not of confronting crazed extremist groups like the ridiculous Q-anon movement. The danger is that the government’s actions could provoke a real, deep, and philosophically legitimate revolution driven by tens of millions of Americans outraged both by the unconstitutional moves to sway elections, and the subsequent violation of the very natural rights the government was established to secure as tens of millions of citizens understand those rights.
THE POWER OF VOTING RIGHTS DEPENDS ON CONFIDENCE IN ELECTIONS
Ironically, many of the people behind this self-described “cabal” probably do really believe they are friends of democracy. They talk in terms of ensuring voting rights, and some of those involved might even actually believe that their partner organizations are devoted to making sure that the votes of real American citizens who otherwise would not vote get cast. Others, who support the effort but were not part of it, may also believe that these efforts are defensible as voting-rights, pro-democracy efforts.
Justification for that belief is understandable. Republicans do sometimes sound as if they intend actual voter suppression as a path to victory, and Democrats widely believe this to be the intention of Republicans. This can make even reasonable statements sound like a declaration of evil intent. Speaking before the Supreme Court on a voting rights case just this week, Marvin A. Carvin stated that overturning an Arizona law was important because the law puts Republicans at a “competitive disadvantage relative to Democrats. Politics is a zero-sum game[.]” That quote was widely reported, and on its face it would seem to be aimed at voter suppression. What was less widely reported was that Carvin went on to add that “every extra vote [Democrats] get through unlawful interpretations [of this law] hurts us.” [Emphasis added.] As journalists are almost universally Democrats, this was reported as a Republican confession rather than as an unexceptional claim that unlawful cheating produces a competitive advantage – that is, generally, the point of cheating.
The question of whether or not the particular practice he was describing amounts to an unlawful interpretation, let alone cheating, is a matter for the court. However, voter suppression has at points been a problem in American history, as has the outright disenfranchisement of whole classes by race or sex or by some proxy for these, and all these things ought to be rejected. All American citizens who are lawful voters should have access to the ballot, and there should be care taken to ensure also access to the necessary forms of identification and procedures to cast a secure ballot. Strategies that aim to disenfranchise voters suspected of holding different political views are obviously wrong.
Nevertheless, voters’ legitimate power is diluted by strategies that enable voting fraud. This happens in two distinct ways, one of which does not require actual fraud to occur but occurs even if there is only the perception that fraud would be easy to effect. In this case, even a legitimate election may cause a loss of democratic legitimacy for the resulting government, because the legitimacy of the government lies in the eyes of the citizenry. If there is sufficient appearance of dishonesty or fraud, even if in fact there was little fraud the people may reject the government. In that way, voters on the winning side will be denied the power of their votes because the government they voted for will be unable to govern effectively. Protecting the clear, unambiguous legitimacy of the election is a necessary condition for using the vote effectively as a path to governing.
The second, obvious, way that voting fraud dilutes the power of the legitimate ballot is that every actually fraudulent vote cast effectively disenfranchises one of the legitimate voters who cast their ballot for the opposing candidate or decision. Election security is important exactly because it protects the power of legitimate ballots.
To what degree were fraudulent ballots deployed in the last election? Time has told that they violated the constitutional role of the legislature, and time will tell about the ballots. Early lawsuits fared poorly, but none were criminal cases that were backed by a police investigation using police powers. Most of the lawsuits were dismissed on grounds of standing, meaning that the early cases were not actually heard in court.
Conspiracies can’t be hidden forever, and at this point new evidence appears every day that highlights voter concerns. A House of Representatives hearing in Wisconsin revealed that Democratic activists were given keys to the room in Green Bay where absentee ballots were stored in the days leading up to the election. What did they do in that room with those ballots? Time will tell. The Georgia Star’s open records law investigation so far suggests that perhaps 400,000 mail-in or drop-off ballots in Georgia alone lack legally required chain of custody documents. Also in Georgia, a state superior court judge is currently considering unsealing some absentee ballots for review, which could begin to uncover any fraud using such ballots. The Georgia Secretary of State has filed papers asking that ballots not be made available for review by independent authorities, suggesting anything but a desire for transparency by the government. In Arizona, an independent audit in the most populous county has been authorized and will be conducted.
Some thirty lawsuits have been filed in Georgia alone after footage from Atlanta appeared to show poll watchers being dismissed and, afterwards, suitcases full of ballots being produced from hiding under tables to be scanned in the absence of poll watchers. The Georgia Secretary of State’s office dismissed the matter. However, that same Georgia Secretary of State was found to have released a deceptively edited conversation with then-President Trump, failed to correct the record when it was used for an article of impeachment, and whose office appears to have attempted unsuccessfully to delete the recording. Observers have every reason to conclude that he was acting in accord with this self-described bipartisan Chamber-of-Commerce funded conspiracy to sway the election. Similarly, a court has already ruled that Michigan’s secretary of state violated the law in changing election rules.
Some argue that fraud is a not major issue in American politics, and studies treating earlier elections have occasionally claimed that election fraud has been a negligible problem in American elections. That is clearly not always true historically, as we know from the case of Tammany Hall in New York; and it may well not have been true in 2020 even if it has often been true elsewhere. All such studies I have ever encountered have been funded by organizations that are politically aligned with movements to eliminate or weaken election security. This gives rise to the consideration that the studies are not properly disinterested in their results. Confirmation bias in the social sciences is a known issue, and the fact that scientists go into the studies already believing fraud to be a non-issue may very well affect their findings. That assumes that the social scientists were being wholly fair, just motivated by an ordinary human cognitive bias. The confessed intent of those ‘fortifying’ the 2020 elections via rule changes that eliminated ballot security provisions was to defeat a particular candidate. Insofar as similar groups are funding the studies purporting to show that vote fraud is a non-issue, those studies may be just another ‘fortification.’ Voters certainly have the right to conclude there is reason to doubt that these earlier findings apply to 2020, and to support robust investigations into just how far the self-confessed “conspirarcy” went.
From a policy perspective, loss of public confidence in elections arising from the appearance of fraud or the obvious ease of fraud can be just as devastating as proven fraud to the citizens’ acceptance of the legitimacy of the government. These security flaws can certainly lead to expanded fraud in the future, too, a weakness that threatens the system as a whole. A far better policy would be to protect the ballot by actively pursuing enfranchisement, secure registration, and also secure ballots. In that way the democratic power of the vote is maximized, and the legitimacy of the resulting government is strengthened.
A DEMOCRACY—AND A MONARCHY, AND AN ARISTOCRACY
The vote is not the only democratic institution in our government, nor the one most badly damaged by the self-proclaimed conspiracy. I am far from the first to point out that the Founders were careful students of the Classical political tradition. This includes Aristotle’s Politics, which explained the difference between three basic systems of government and how they become unstable. This happens in two ways. A government might become corrupt, as when “rule by one” turns from a virtuous monarchy into a vicious tyranny. Or it might be that the excesses of one mode will lead to it being overthrown to form another, as when a democracy’s tendency to vote the people wealth from the wealthy leads those wealthy to seize control of the government, forming an oligarchy.
The Founders’ response to this was to set up a government that included all three of Aristotle’s forms, in a way that each form checks the others. The executive branch is ‘rule by one,’ with the President or a Governor exercising sole authority over that branch. The courts are ‘rule by a few,’ with only individuals of special training and education being allowed to exercise real authority – judges and Supreme Court Justices. The legislatures are the democratic form, ‘rule by the many.’ The legislatures, both Congress and the state legislatures, are the true seat of democratic legitimacy in our system of government.
What the Time magazine “conspiracy” conspired to do was to disable the legislatures in their core constitutional function. In this, the self-described conspirators had the willing participation of both of the other forms of government: governors and courts. The method used by the conspiracy was to file lawsuits against willing governors, who would then propose to ‘settle’ the suit by acting as if the law was something other than the law that the legislature had passed. A court would then act to bless this arrangement, and the governor would proceed to act as if the law had been changed.
Our constitutional order only permits legislatures to change the laws. Further, the Constitution of the United States specifies that state legislatures will determine the manner of elections. Amending the Constitution requires a supermajority of consent by the legislatures. Not only does each house of Congress have to consent by a supermajority, but then the matter goes to the states for ratification. A supermajority of state legislatures also have to agree before such a change can constitutionally be effected.
The consequence of the 2020 conspiracy was that the ‘rule by one’ and the ‘rule by a few’ branches got together to steal the lawful power of the ‘rule by the many’ branch. They then used this power, in league with a conspiracy funded by major corporations, to undermine the ballot that allows ordinary Americans their chief democratic participation in our system. The result is that the current government of the United States has no democratic legitimacy. Both the legislatures and confidence in the security of our ballots were compromised. Both methods of ensuring democratic legitimacy were violated, and the United States Chamber of Commerce admitted to Time magazine that it paid for it all.
CORPORATIONS AS A DANGER TO FREE ELECTIONS
This is not the first time that corporate power has threatened American democracy. Keeping the corporations from capturing the government is a permanent difficulty facing us as a self-governing people. Consider how an early American election would have functioned, and why it would have felt so secure and legitimate to the voting community. Generally early elections were done in person, in a town-hall setting. Communities were small—even in cities, far fewer people lived in more well-established neighborhoods, whereas in rural areas and small towns ‘everyone knows everybody’ often even today. Thus, when they came together to vote, everyone would know that everyone else was a member of the community in good standing and capable of casting a legitimate vote. There was no danger of filing a vote in the name of a deceased citizen, because votes were in person and public. Strangers and those who weren’t really part of the community couldn’t show up and vote, because they would be recognized as not part of the community. Everyone would vote in public, the votes would be counted, and the result both known to all and indisputable.
A problem with this system was that the public nature of the vote allowed those with wealth and power to sway it to their ends. For example, a mine owner might employ half the town directly, and another part of the town might rely on his business to maintain their own businesses. Someone who voted for ‘the wrong guy’ could easily find himself fired, allegedly for another reason; or a shop owned by such a voter might suddenly be out of much of its business. As dramatized in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, gunmen or strike-breakers might be sent by the wealthy to threaten the voting public into voting their way.
Corporate power magnified this danger of the wealthy exploiting their inequality in wealth to buy themselves an inequality in governance. A general principle for healthy government is that corporate power and government power must never be allowed to align, in the same way that our “check and balance” system was supposed to maintain a separation of powers between the government branches. This is because states and corporations are the two most powerful organizations to exert power. If the powers align, the interests of ordinary people are trampled. The people would be badly served by a court system that blessed off on any executive use of police force against them, no matter how egregious. The people’s interest is in having the executive power controlled by the judicial power, not aligned with the executive power. Similarly, the people’s interest is always in having a government that is opposed to corporate power, not aligned with corporate power.
This is especially important in the United States, as corporations can exert forms of power against ordinary citizens that the government is forbidden to use—forms like censorship. If the powers align, the corporations will simply censor the people for the government, thus effectively bypassing the first amendment protection. Likewise, corporations can pass information they know about citizen communications via email or cell phone to the government just because the government asks them to do so. This effectively bypasses the fourth amendment protection requiring the government to obtain a warrant to invade citizen communications. Corporate power aligned with government power is always a danger to the people, and must be hotly opposed at all times.
Our ancestors succeeded in breaking the corporate control of the ballot. The result was the institution of the secret ballot, by which Americans were able to protect themselves from being pressured by corporate wealth. In this way, Americans could vote to unionize and to elect political officers who felt themselves to be the servants of the people instead of the company.
Unfortunately, the secret ballot also enabled a lot of cheating. Because votes were not publicly cast, now cheating shifted to the question of ‘who counts the votes,’ as exemplified by New York’s Tammany Hall. (It is worth noting that one of the “fortifications” described in the Time piece was the recruiting of “poll workers” who counted the votes.) You could also use the registrations of the dead or those who had moved away to cast votes, unless a recent purge of the rolls had cleared such names. You could also invent voters by filing false registrations, and then filling out false ballots under the fake names.
Such efforts would require a lot of organization and funding to be effective, as well as a lot of legal support to avoid challenges in the courts. Yet it is just such an alignment of funding and organization and legal support that the Time article describes, and exactly for the purpose of ensuring the desirable outcome in an election.
As above, time will tell if they overstepped criminal laws as they are already proven to have overstepped constitutional law. Even if they did not, though, the appearance of impropriety is enough to destroy public confidence that our system of government has not been captured by an oligarchy of corporate money and corrupt politicians. Further, the elimination of election security measures means that cheating in the future is suddenly easier than ever.
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE’S STANDARD FOR LEGITIMACY
As the example of the secret ballot shows, however, the fact that unconstitutional or corrupt acts have swayed an election does not always lead to a corrective revolution. Sometimes lawful reforms, such as the secret ballot, can come about that restore confidence in the democratic legitimacy of the system.
This is what the Founders said to expect. In the Declaration of Independence, they said that normally even abuses will tend to result in patient attempts to repair the system. “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes,” the Declaration says. “[A]ll experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
Yet the Declaration also warns in the very next sentence that “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce [the people] under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Currently the United States Congress is moving to ensure that the unconstitutional acts of the previous election, brought about by this so-called ‘cabal,’ shall become a long train of future abuses. House Bill 1 (HB1) is an attempt to seize control of elections from the states, which the U.S. Constitution invests with power over those elections. This bill would enshrine in law all of the election security violations that undermined public trust in the legitimacy of the government. Whether or not HR1 itself is constitutional is an interesting discussion with plausible positions on both sides, which the courts would have to address should it pass. The problem is that it would overturn the positions of all the remaining states, while codifying the changes forced on the already-avoided state legislatures. This would mean that voters in those states who are trying to use their state legislatures to fix the unconstitutional action would have the option taken away from them, and a Federal law imposed instead. That would change the unconstitutional acts of 2020 into “a long train of abuses” rather than a “transient” problem that could be fixed by their elected state representatives.
One could of course sue, but that sort of “lawfare” does not address the basic problem of having undermined the state legislatures. Republican groups did not attempt to overturn these changes prior to the 2020 election, and courts have repeatedly said that it is too late to do so after the election. The bigger point is that courts are not the right forum. The legislature had already spoken; courts participated in changing the law in spite of them, and are now asserting the power to decide when and whether the law will be changed again. That a court might ‘rule the right way’ from the perspective of an aggrieved voter is beside the point. The point is that the courts have stolen their right to self-determination and replaced it with an alternative that empowers courts, governors, activists, and lawyers to decide the laws governing elections – but not the people’s chosen representatives, in the peoples’ legislatures.
There is another concern brought forward by the Declaration of Independence. While reform remains a possibility for addressing the conspiracy’s harm to the democratic legitimacy of the United States, the government elected in this suspicious manner is acting as if its legitimacy were of no concern. The government is moving aggressively against the natural liberties that its own foundational documents point to as its reason to exist. The Declaration of Independence holds that the purpose for which any government is instituted is the preservation of the natural rights of its citizens. “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” it says. Also, “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it[.]”
The present Congress is heedlessly proceeding against the very rights whose protection the Declaration of Independence warns is their whole justification to exist. First Amendment religious liberty and free exercise is imperiled by the Equality Act, which expressly forbids raising religious liberty concerns as a defense in court. Various violations of the Second Amendment have been proposed and are under consideration. New ‘domestic terrorism’ laws under discussion would threaten the privacy protections of the Fourth Amendment, the protections for the accused provided by the Fifth Amendment, and the right to avoid excessive bail guaranteed by the Eighth.
Of course it is understood that different Americans have different views of exactly what is protected by these amendments. There are clarifying mechanisms in the Constitution’s Article V that offer intense democratic legitimacy to those who want to establish that a long-held or widely-held view of a constitutional right is not the correct view. For example, gun control advocates facing citizens with strong views of the Second Amendment could pursue a constitutional amendment that, if ratified, would show that the vast majority of Americans disagreed with the older view. That would be a “prudent,” to use the Founder’s term and Aristotle’s, way to proceed with intense differences on these basic questions on core constitutional rights.
Democratic officials may object that this prudence robs them of a rare opportunity to pass their biggest wish-list items, given that they have momentary control of the three elected parts of the Federal government. There are two relevant counterarguments. The first is that a lack of prudence that results in a widespread rejection of Federal authority will prevent the successful enactment of those parts of their agenda in any case. If the Federal government as a whole is widely rejected by the citizenry, ‘holding power’ in the elected Federal government will become a mere paper tiger. Maintaining the power of the Federal government requires navigating this crisis in such a way that the citizenry does not reject its authority.
Second, much even of the most ambitious aspects of the Democratic agenda does not violate any part of the citizenry’s understanding of its constitutional rights. Forgiving student loans, for example, will be met with Republican objections but not the objection that it violates inalienable constitutional rights. Establishing universal health care likewise will be met with intense objections, but not ones that raise these Declaration of Independence issues. Infrastructure repairs, green policies, really most of the big-ticket agenda items are not touched. Any congressional majority must focus its efforts to be successful, so focusing on these aspects makes it more likely that Democrats will have a successful tenure – without further endangering the stability of the nation.
Currently, however, the current government is pursuing laws violating deeply-held and long-held views of constitutional rights on very bare majorities – in the Senate, on tied votes broken by a Vice President whose election was one of those ‘fortified’ by a confessed conspiracy. By the government’s doing so, tens of millions of United States citizens could easily come to the conclusion that their rights are being illegitimately destroyed. This is exactly the kind of government conduct that the Founders agreed justified a revolution.
No wise – no “prudent” – government would proceed this way while under the cloud of having been elected by a vast corporate-backed and self-described conspiracy. Many tens of millions of Americans doubt the veracity of the last election, and the violations of state and Federal constitutional law are plain for all to see. The only reasonable way to proceed is to abandon aggressive legislation for the present, and instead move to reform the laws to ensure that Americans regain confidence in the system.
If this is not done, the logic of the Declaration of Independence is clear. The government of the United States is in grave danger of creating the philosophical justification for a legitimate revolution against it, and on the very terms of its own foundational documents. It cannot survive if it continues to proceed in this way; and if the Declaration is right, it should not survive. The people are said to have both a right and a duty to replace it under those circumstances.
CONCLUSION
The previous four years were a time of intense emotion politically, and decisions made in intense emotion are often poorly considered. Those involved in the self-described ‘cabal’ may well have believed they were acting for the good of the United States. Those who have profited from their work by receiving political power doubtless believe in the value of the agenda they are promoting. Many philosophical differences are permissible under our system; indeed, the value of the system lies in its ability to negotiate such differences, so that people of diverse beliefs and values might live in peace.
Yet the present course is not sustainable. It is important for those involved in the confessed conspiracy to alter election laws in an unconstitutional and reckless manner come to realize the harm they have done to the stability of the whole American order. It is important that those in power admit to themselves the volatility of the present moment, and began to act with prudence to restore confidence and stability. There has been much talk about ‘unity,’ but the actions of the present government do not match the words.
If the present course is not changed, tens of millions of Americans may begin to look anew at the founding documents of this country. What they will find there is a philosophical justification for the outright dissolution of the American government, not just a momentary ‘insurrection’ against a proceeding in Congress. If the powerful and the wealthy do not desire this, they need to take heed. The hour is very late, anger among the populace is growing, and the government is behaving recklessly.
The situation in the United States is far more serious than in France.In the United States the authorities have brainwashed themselves with their belief in “American exceptionalism.”Consequently, warnings are not even acknowledged.I have been pointing out the ongoing American collapse for years, and it has never produced a debate.
It is too late for France and the US.If you read The Camp of the Saints, you will be brought face to face wth your own fate.The Democrats, the media, the woke “intellectuals,” the universities, and the public schools are hard at work preparing our doom. The United States are now the Disunited States.The blue states believe in white guilt, critical race theory, systemic racism, identity politics, and that all products of Western civilization, even mathematics, are symbols and devices of white supremacy.
The red states do not have an understanding of the ideological assault that has been mounted against them.Their president was removed from office in a stolen election that was in every sense a coup, and the Red States accepted the removal of their president.The red states still believe in America even though America has ceased to exist. White people in general have been infused with a sense of guilt and are weakened in their own defense by self-doubt.Their monuments are removed, their history rewritten, their art and music denounced as racist, and their children turned against them in public schools and universities.
If you require more evidence of American collapse and the generalized collapse of Western civilization, read the last three chapters of Andrei Martyanov’s book, Disintegration: The Coming American Collapse(https://www.claritypress.com/product/disintegration-indicators-of-the-coming-american-collapse/ ).Actually, the collapse has already arrived.We just haven’t yet recognized it.
Martyanov and I have reached the same conclusion:“The American belief system as it exists today is incapable of accepting empirical evidence, because evidence destroys American exceptionalism’s extreme confirmation bias and most modern American intellectuals on both the nominal left and the nominal right cannot deal with it.”US policymakers base their actions in emotions, not in rational thought.No sophistication of any kind any longer can be found in Washington’s foreign policy which rests on barbaric immaturity.
Martyanov gives the example of Brookings Institution senior fellow Benjamin Wittes, who professes to be a martial artist like Putin and challenges Putin to a fight “in single combat in a location where he can’t have me arrested.”Wittes writes that former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, State Department policy planning chief Anne-Marie Slaughter, and big name US presstitutes agree that “Putin needs to man up” and meet Wittes in a fight.
This infantile challenge epitomizes the violent character of US “diplomacy.”
The Disunited States are a multicultural calamity.While white liberals create an anti-white system of caste privileges, Washington pursues conflict with Russia, China, and Iran.Are demonized white Americans going to fight for a country that is abusing them and turning them into second class citizens?As Judge Robert Bork warned 25 years ago, “American culture is Eurocentric, and it must remain Eurocentric or collapse into meaninglessness.
Standards of European and American origins are the only possible standards that can hold our society together and keep us a competent nation.If the legitimacy of Eurocentric standards is denied, there is nothing else.. . .We are, then, entering a period of tribal hostilities.Some of what we may expect includes a rise in interethnic violence, a slowing of economic productivity, a vulgarization of scholarship (which is already well under way.)”
American students are not enculturated into their civilization and neither are Europeans.In place of education there is anti-white indoctrination. University reading lists consist of compilations of rants by ideologues describing the horrors of slavery, which is said to be unique to Western civilization.National consciousness is being stamped out along with scholarly and artistic standards.As Bork warned, the destruction of Western legitimacy means only interethnic violence remains.In Raspail’s novel, the guilt-ridden French never reach this conclusion and experience genocide.It remains unclear whether insouciant white Americans will understand before it is too late for them.
It has now been one hundred days since the Investiture of the Puppet, and the political junkies have moved out of the “honeymoon” phase and into the early run-up to the 2022 midterms and the 2024 presidential contest. Republican stalwarts are plotting strategy for retaking the House and/or Senate. The intertubes are abuzz with speculation about whether Trump will run again, or whom he might pick as his running mate, or whom he might endorse if he decides not to run. Pundits and punditesses are tracking and analyzing Joe Biden’s every mumbled utterance and Kamala Harris’ every raucous guffaw. Cartoonists and meme artists are in a frenzy of mockery, given that they have so much ludicrosity and buffoonery at hand to work with.
But, really, what’s the point?
To all appearances everything in the political world is business as usual. As if nothing out of the ordinary happened in the wee hours of November 4, 2020. As if millions of votes weren’t created out of thin air — call it “fiat voting” — by the party that runs the permanent government and operates in symbiosis with the media and Big Tech. As if the same scoundrels aren’t in control of how the votes will be counted next time. As if they aren’t plotting even greater control (see H.R. 1, the “For the People Act”).
Even Donald Trump seems to subscribe to the widespread illusion, and is looking forward to trying again in 2024. Doesn’t he realize why he lost to an unappealing apparatchik afflicted with senile dementia? Why does he think the result will be any different when he has to run against Kamala?
I enjoy reading the punditry of mainstream Republican partisans, who post witty and entertaining observations about all the bizarre political goings-on in Washington D.C., or on the Left Coast, or in the lofty empyrean of the ivory towers of Woke Academia. But I don’t confuse any of it with reality. The sound and fury of D.C. bears no more relation to real life than do The West Wing or The Simpsons. Paying attention to all that political theater is just a way of passing time until Ragnarøk finally arrives in full force.
I must admit, however, that I find it difficult to put aside my ingrained habits of thinking. Whenever some particularly grotesque Progressive policy is implemented by city, state, or federal lawmakers, my customary response is: “Well, those people got what they voted for.”
It’s hard to remember that they may not actually have voted for it. It’s quite possible, especially at the federal level, that key office-holders who shepherd the enactment of all this egregious wokeness were not the choice of a majority of voters in their particular constituencies. Democrats and RINOs have now perfected the process of controlling who gets elected. From now on there will be no legislative majorities that do not support the preferred policies of the Powers That Be.
When I stop being enthralled by the baroque theatrical production inside the Beltway, and think about what’s really happening, it’s quite depressing. That’s when I wish I could take the blue pill and re-enter the Matrix. Alas, I haven’t yet figured out how to do that.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Democrats now have better control over how the votes are counted than Stalin could ever have dreamed of. And, unlike Uncle Joe, they don’t have to order anybody shot to make sure of the outcome. Or not as many of them, anyway. Just a few unfortunate suicides and car accidents here and there.
There are three major factors that have enabled their iron grip on the election process:
1.
Democrat dominance in all major urban population centers, with the exception of Salt Lake City;
2.
Advances in digital electronic technology, coupled with the Internet; and
3.
Total lock-step control over 99.5% of the media.
These advances have allowed them to do something that Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili could never manage: they have kept the vast majority of the electorate completely oblivious about what has happened.
People who get all their information from the mainstream media or Facebook or Google News believe that Joe Biden really won last November’s election. They believe that Trump supporters really are vicious racists. They believe that being able to marry someone of the same sex is a fundamental right, and that only Christian “haters” think otherwise.
In contrast, when Joseph Stalin ran the U.S.S.R., almost nobody believed the party line. Most people were simply afraid to go against it.
Not that fear doesn’t play its part in the Country Formerly Known as the United States of America.
Anybody who has heard about the January 6 Capitol “insurrectionists” that were arrested, beaten, and kept in solitary confinement knows that it might be bad for their health to express their deplorable opinions in public.
Anybody who has seen teachers and public employees lose their jobs for un-PC statements knows that it’s not a good idea to say, “Girls can’t be boys and boys can’t be girls.”
Anybody who has followed the coverage of the BLM riots knows that if he stands on the sidewalk holding a sign that says “All Lives Matter”, he might find a screaming mob on his doorstep that night throwing rocks through his windows and setting his house on fire.
Yes, fear is definitely a useful tool for the Wokistas who now run the country. But my intuition says that more than half the populace — even some of those who voted Republican — think that Donald Trump really did lose the election because he said mean things on Twitter and alienated people of color.
The propaganda of the Powers That Be is effective. It actually works. Therefore much less fear is required to keep the public in line than was necessary in the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.
People really believe that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m pretty dysphoric about the future of the dystopia I’m living in. I don’t hold out much hope for any positive change before a general collapse occurs.
Yes, it’s true that elections still mean something at the local level. When I vote for a member of the Board of Supervisors in my county, I know the guy I’m voting for. He doesn’t have the means to steal the vote electronically. And the people in my district from both parties are diligent in ensuring that the votes are accurately counted. And when it becomes necessary to throw the rascals out, we can do it.
Unfortunately, the remit of the Board of Supervisors is limited. And even at the state level there is only so much that the legislature can do. The federal behemoth squats upon the statehouse like a giant toad, dropping fiat bucks from its warty haunches to induce the provincial rubes to get with the Progressive program. State legislatures are totally dependent on federal money to fund education — och, the puir wee bairns! — and highways, so when the Wokistas in Washington lay out their program for the curriculum or “infrastructure”, legislators and governors have almost no ability to resist. If they want to get re-elected, they take the money and do what they’re told.
There’s a slight chance, a very remote one, that the legislature in a key state like Arizona or Pennsylvania might vote to overturn the election “reforms” implemented by the Democrats and nullify any federal mandates about how they must conduct elections. They could require a manual count, not an electronic one, with official monitors from both parties to observe every step of the process.
Yes, that’s possible. I just don’t consider it very likely.
TINVOWOOT. There is no voting our way out of this.
We can’t throw the rascals out.
And, unfortunately, they’re going to get a lot more rascally before all this is over.
President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party may be in denial, but the truth is unavoidable. For all intents and purposes, the COVID-19 pandemic which has ravaged our country and our economy for fourteen months is over. As we prepare to close the book on the nightmare it has been, let’s pause for a moment with the Top Ten list for the Month of May to reflect on some of the most ridiculous aspects of the handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
#10 – One-way traffic rules in supermarket aisles –
At the beginning of the pandemic – when we were still making jokes about coronavirus and Corona beer – there was a lot of confusion. As the magnitude of COVID became clear, people were erring on the side of caution; fair enough. But over a year into this thing, we can still see signage in stores telling us which direction to push our carts. If anyone ever abided by these rules, it was only for a short while, and that was a long time ago. If you were one of those people who tried to scold me for going the wrong way down an aisle last June, to which I told you, “shut the hell up,” I’m still not sorry. Here’s a prediction: no one will bother to conduct a study on exactly how many lives were saved by one-way supermarket traffic. And if an accurate analysis does come along it will arrive at this conclusion: Zero.
It could’ve been sillier… they could’ve put in traffic lights
#9 – COVID is Trump’s fault –
Throughout the presidential campaign, the left and their media hammered away at this point. If Trump had acted properly, the pandemic never would have happened. Trump is responsible for every death. There are hundreds of thousands dead because of Trump. Somehow, a substantial portion of the electorate bought into the nonsense. It’s a virus, and a highly infectious one at that. Trump did what he could, and in fact initially received praise from just about every Democratic governor in the country. If anyone is to blame for COVID, it’s China and the World Health Organization<. But perhaps nothing better illustrates the ridiculousness of this claim than when Joe Biden, less than a week after taking office, explained, “There’s nothing we can do” about the virus. Well, I’ll be darned.
“Remember all those times I said I was going to kick COVID’s ass? Well, I’m going back to my basement to hang out with Corn Pop now.”
#8 – Teachers can’t go back to work, but everyone else can –
From virtually the very beginning of the pandemic, it was clear that school-aged children were far less susceptible to infection and severe symptoms, and probably not vectors of transmission. Statistically, kids are the least in danger. But while the rest of us were back working in stores or driving trucks, and subjecting ourselves to genuine risks, teachers’ unions across the country continued to push the narrative that it’s too dangerous for teachers and kids to return to school. Like every other industry, at-risk kids and teachers could have been allowed to stay at home while the rest went back to normal. Instead, we inexplicably kept schools closed, gave students a significantly inferior education, and took away opportunities for social interactions that will never come again.
#7 – It was xenophobic for Trump to halt travel from China –
The media would prefer that we all forget their accusations, but we mustn’t. They called President Trump “xenophobe in chief” for his actions, and Nancy Pelosi went to San Francisco’s Chinatown in February to tell everyone how safe things were. Trump had suspended travel from China at the end of January, and in retrospect the only legitimate criticism you could make of Trump is that he waited too long. But to categorize his actions as xenophobic was absurd from the beginning. The virus came from China, and that’s a fact; and it’s not racist or xenophobic to point it out or to act accordingly.
If your policies don’t work, just call the other guy (who happens to be married to an immigrant) a xenophobe
#6 – Fifteen days to slow the spread –
The idea itself isn’t absurd at all, and in fact it originated with the Trump White House. We didn’t know the trajectory of the disease in mid-March 2020 when the initiative began; we didn’t want to overwhelm hospitals, and we needed to “flatten the curve.” It took closer to 30 days to reach the goal, but we succeeded, and we achieved those objectives. There wasn’t a location in the country where COVID patients couldn’t access care, and we indeed flattened the curve. What’s absurd is that the approach has continued for almost 400 days now in some places. Many states such as Texas, Florida and Mississippi have been essentially back to normal for months, but other states (mostly of the Blue variety) can’t bear to let go of that power, as lockdowns and mask-mandates continue.
Did we say 15 days? We meant to say 30… no, make that 90… no, no, we meant 400 days
#5 – President Joe Biden: “Help is on the way” –
The claim came in December before he took office, and much of the rhetoric was focused on the economic impact on COVID, but Biden repeatedly made assertions that he would “fix” the federal government’s handling of COVID. By the time Biden was inaugurated, there were already one million vaccinations occurring each day, and one of his first promises was to achieve 100 million vaccinations in the first 100 days, which would have meant actually decreasing the trend graph for vaccines. Way to set the bar low, Joe. Essentially the only issue in which the Biden Administration has approached COVID differently from Trump is with their authoritarian fixation on masks. That’s it.
Rest easy America, Joe Biden is coming to save us
#4 – The response by The World Health Organization –
Prior to COVID, most Americans were only vaguely aware of the WHO and their efforts. If we heard, “The WHO,” we would immediately think of Roger Daltrey swinging his microphone and Pete Townsend smashing his guitar. Once we learned how they screwed the pooch with the early days of the pandemic, and of their coziness with China, everyone started paying attention. The virus likely originated at the lab in Wuhan – though probably unintentionally – and China thoroughly mishandled the initial infections. Once the virus began spreading, the WHO provided cover for the Chinese by downplaying the extent of the spread and China’s role in it. The organization which gets much of its funding from our tax dollars was in bed with China and covering up their incompetence. President Trump was absolutely correct in pulling our funding, and if Biden had an ounce of integrity he’d do the same thing.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (left) showed New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo the proper way of handling the COVID crisis
#3 – Blue states did it better –
The media spent the first six months of the pandemic essentially engaging in journalistic copulation with Democratic governors like New York’s Andrew Cuomo, while simultaneously vilifying and openly rooting against Republican governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis. DeSantis would “have blood on his hands” they told us, while concurrently paving the way for issuing an Emmy Award for Cuomo. In reality, the performances were the exact opposite of their narrative. Cuomo was dreadful in his handling of nursing homes in New York, and it was clear from the beginning he was covering up the results; a scandal which may eventually result in his removal from office. Meanwhile DeSantis was stellar in managing the virus in a state with the second oldest population in the country. The worst four states in the country for deaths-per-million are all blue states (#1 New Jersey, #2 New York, #3 Massachusetts, and #4 Rhode Island), and Florida is in the bottom half of that list and going lower. Democrats, unsurprisingly, were absolutely horrible in their handling of COVID, whereas Republicans did pretty well overall.
Democratic Party propaganda, brought to you by their sycophants in the media
#2 – Get the vaccine, but keep doing all of the other stuff –
This is some of the most bizarre messaging we’ve ever seen. We were blessed with three miracles: the vaccines by Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J. All three are not only highly effective at stopping infections, with efficacies of between 75% and 94%, they’re almost 100% effective at preventing hospitalization and death in the unlikely scenario you are infected. So what did Biden and the Democrats do? They told everyone that even if you’re vaccinated you need to keep social distancing and keep wearing masks. Those communications begged the question: if I have to keep doing all that stuff, then why should I get the shots? None of it made any sense. If you get vaccinated: 1) it’s highly unlikely you’ll get infected, 2) you’re almost definitely not going to be hospitalized or die from it if you do, and 3) you will not be able to transmit the disease. In other words, if you get the vaccine you can go back to normal.
#1 – Wear two masks –
The beginning of the pandemic was chaotic, and it would have been understandable if Dr. Anthony Fauci had simply made a mistake when he told us we didn’t need masks. But it wasn’t a mistake. He lied to us and admitted doing so. Fauci justified his deceit by claiming concern that masks might not be available for health care professionals. Then Fauci decided to stop lying to us and told us to wear masks, but wouldn’t even follow his own directive. Fauci threw out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals opening game last year, and forget that he threw the ball like a little girl; which, if anything, is insulting to little girls. He was wearing a mask despite the nearest person being sixty feet away. He then proceeded to sit in the stands directly next to a friend, at which point he removed his mask. Then late last year Fauci decided that it would be best if we wore two masks, without any evidence to support his notion. Like lockdowns, there’s still no evidence that mask-wearing had a significant impact on the pandemic. Dr. Fauci has zero credibility at this point, and if you’re following this recommendation by wearing two masks, then you are a moron.
The Biden administration's unwritten plan to overwhelm American voters with a surge of illegal aliens (who will reliably - and, if necessary, illegally - vote Democrat) is in full swing. It's far worse than you'll read in the mainstream media, most of which support the Democratic Party and regard the invasion as a good thing, and therefore won't report the facts.
“Jose Antonio” ... said he was a long-distance foot guide, a guia, for the ultra-violent La Linea cartel controlling this area. He leads groups of immigrants on eight- to 12-day treks through the remote desert terrain in West Texas with a singular goal: get them to U.S. Interstate 10, where associates pick them up at landmarks and drive them into the nation’s interior.
. . .
Over the course of an hour or so, Antonio explained the business, attributing his windfall to what he termed la invitación, the invitation. This is the local cartel reference to presidential candidate Joe Biden’s promises to the world’s poor that if they crossed the border illegally when he became president they would be welcome to stay, never fear deportation, and maybe get citizenship. Antonio said that when Biden actually won, business in Mexico’s Chihuahua State instantly boomed ¡como nunca! Like never before.
“They come in from all over Central America, Haiti, Africa, Indonesia, and from all over South America,” Antonio explained between snorts from a flattened 16-penny nail, smiling at his new good fortune. “They just keep coming and keep coming and keep coming.”
For the first time in local memories, rising streams of large groups — 50-to-100 illegal immigrants each — are constantly flowing through the normally quiet Big Bend Sector, one of the biggest, most remote, and perhaps out-of-mind of the eight designated CBP operating areas along the southern border. With 165,154 square miles and 571 miles of Rio Grande border in West Texas, Big Bend also is historically the least trammeled by illegal immigrants, perhaps because of its deterring harshness.
Not anymore, though.
Eighteen-wheeler tractor-trailer rigs and trucks of all sizes now pull right up to the river in unending succession to unload people and drug cargo in broad daylight along the long empty stretches of riverside territory. Police chases of immigrant transport vehicles are now commonplace in towns further inland for the first time. And Border Patrol agents, largely unreinforced despite new circumstances, are chasing groups through the desert day and night, losing most and strained beyond capacity to impact what’s happening, they say.
“It’s never been this busy,” one agent who has worked in the Van Horn Station Area for more than a decade told CIS. “I’ve never seen 18-wheelers out on the levy on the Mexican side like this, filled with God-only-knows what. It was predicted before the new administration came in, and it happened. Now the cartels are having a field day.”
In one recent notable incident, five vehicles blasted in from the Mexican side not far south of Sierra Blanca, filled with marijuana, meth — and 87 immigrants. Border Patrol caught that convoy.
But much more often, Border Patrol only ever learns about these events from tracks that churn the dirt, video recordings from hidden cameras, and distant dust plumes. Inland, sheriff’s deputies and Texas DPS Highway Patrol routinely engage in high-speed vehicle chases of smuggler vehicles that pick up migrants off the interstate and state roads leading to it.
More often than not, the passengers and drivers bail out and run into the desert, never to be seen again.
There's more at the link. The well-organized cartel human smuggling operation is described in a subsequent report, which I highly recommend reading as well.
Folks, let's be clear. This is nothing more or less than an invasion. These people are coming here to mooch off the American welfare system, to take jobs that Americans need, and to send American dollars - which we need in our own economy - out of the country to their families and relatives in other countries.
This is a catastrophe in the making, a disaster for our economy and our society - yet the Biden administration is actively encouraging it by its inaction and refusal to secure our border.
I don't agree with them, of course, but I can understand the fury and frustration of some Americans who threaten to go down to the border and start shooting illegal aliens on sight, as they cross over the Rio Grande. What other recourse do they have? The authorities are under direct orders to let the invasion continue. In the absence of law enforcement, there's nothing and no-one to stop the invaders.
The Biden administration is working as hard and as fast as it can to turn our country into just another Third World hellhole.
Peter
Strange Daze: “I have tried… in my way… to be free.”
20And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. 21Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. — Luke 21
Okay, the trick isn't that amazing considering that Joe Biden's number is always "two trillion," no matter what the question is. Or at least, that's how it appears based on his speech to mostly empty chairs in Congress, which was an oratorical masterpiece that will ring through the ages according to professional journalists who turned in their reviews long before the teleprompter started rolling.
Two trillion for Covid Relief, two trillion for Infrastructure, and two trillion for Biden's Family Act which will take kids away from their parents to be warehoused under government supervision. Because that's worked so well at our southern border.
Considering that two trillion dollars seems to be the magic number for solving any big problem, we're a bit surprised that old Joe didn't just drop that amount on curing cancer, which was the "moonshot" assignment given to him as veep under Barack Obama (you'll have to remind us—is cancer gone now?).
Biden's speech outlined a comprehensive cradle-to-grave strategy for the government to meet everyone's needs for their entire lifetime: food, housing, education, child-rearing, medical care, free walking around money and, when the time comes, quite likely a quick and painless euthanasia. And all this largesse will cost is your vote, your soul, and your freedom. What a deal!
Of course, anyone who understands basic math can see that this Brobdingnagian spending spree (using imaginary money plus whatever you think you have in assets and savings) can only lead to the kind of economic collapse currently being experienced in Venezuela.
Of all the ludicrous and offensive things Joe Biden said in his speech, none infuriated us more than his claim that the demonstration in Washington DC on January 6th represented "the worst attack on democracy since the Civil War."
Pardon our asking, Mr. Biden, but what in the living Hell do you think Ashli Babbitt, a petite and unarmed woman, planned to do to topple the entire government if she hadn't been shot at point blank range without warning? Had she made it through the door (after police officers stepped aside to allow her to do so), how exactly was she going to take or hold power?
This is the kind of "big lie" that Joseph Goebbels (no stranger to actually threatening our democracy) would be proud of, and it's no less hateful and destructive than those which originated with that particular Nazi. Moreover, this lie was told with the same sadly familiar goal: to divide people, inspire citizen-against-citizen violence, and secure absolute government power.
You should be ashamed of yourself, Joe, but you clearly lack both the self-awareness and decency.
Sky News host Andrew Bolt says there is "something sinister in the air" with China being now "so threatening".
Mr Bolt's comments come after Australia’s home affairs secretary recently warned the “drums of war” are beating.
In an Anzac Day message to staff Michael Pezzullo said the nation must strive to reduce the likelihood of war and warned Australia must prepare to send off troops to fight.
His warning comes as Australian tensions with China continue to deepen.
Mr Bolt spoke with former foreign minister Alexander Downer about the issue.
Way back when the Covid panic began, smart people pointed out that shutting down an economy was going to have unforeseen consequences. A modern economy is an incomprehensibly complex organism. Even turning off some parts of it for a short time will change the organism, resulting in downstream changes. It is why people who work with complex things are very careful about the changes they make. They accept that there is much about the system that they cannot known in advance.
Of course, the people in charge are sure they have it all figured out, so they just blundered ahead with their lock downs and new rules. Shutting down most of the restaurant industry and closing the schools. for example, radically altered the demand side of the food market. Suddenly, goods for the restaurant business had no demand, while demand for home products shot through the roof. This should have given them pause, but they kept blundering ahead with their schemes.
Anyone who has been in a grocery store of late knows that food prices are jumping like it is the 1970’s again. There are also weird shortages. Something like mayonnaise will disappear from the shelves for a week and then come back, but then plastic bags become scarce. The same phenomenon is happening with other things like building supplies and petroleum products. The official statistics are complete nonsense, so we have no idea how much food has jumped. It is enough that people are talking about inflation in private conversations for the first time in decades.
The usual suspects, of course, are spilling into the streets to chant about fiat currency, hyperinflation, and the rest of their stuff. It is as if the Great Pumpkin has finally risen out of the pumpkin patch. They have been waiting their whole lives for the Weimar moment foretold in the prophesies. Because these people are always wrong it is good to remember they are wrong now. The problem now is actually much worse than too much money chasing too few goods. It is systemic.
For starters, governments around the world have been taking sledgehammers to the global supply chain. These supply chains evolved over a long period of time to solve the problems of getting goods to the market. In response to Covid, government willy-nilly started turning things on and off without much thought. The system can respond to short term emergencies like natural disasters, but it was never equipped to respond to random outages imposed by people who have never had a job.
Then you have the stimulus plans. Having idled large swaths of the economy for periods, the same people frantically turning things on and off started pumping money into the retail side. At first this new money was absorbed in the system. Personal debt fell in 2020 as people got conservative in the face of the crisis. They also began to change their lives in response to the lockdowns. Going to the movies and out to eat is a habit, not a necessity. Lots of habits changed in 2020.
Labor markets have been radically changed by Covid and the efforts from the rulers to make a big show of dealing with it. Entry level jobs are now hard to fill, because unemployment still pays very well. If you are a restaurant opening for the first time in a year, finding help is difficult. It is not a shortage of labor as much as a shortage of people ready to go back to work. Labor shortages, however, they are created, result in a spike in labor costs, which appear at the cash register.
Finally, we have monetary policy. Central bank policy has evolved over the last thirty years based on certain assumptions. Government policy, for example, has been predictable going back to the 1990’s. While there have been the usual problems, the global economy has settled into some predictable patterns. All of a sudden, none of this is true, so monetary policy has to adjust. Adjusting to erratic government behavior and unpredictable consequences in the economy is practically impossible.
The upshot to all of this is we are seeing real inflation for the first time in generations, but we have a variety of causes this time. In the 1970’s, it was too much money chasing too few goods. Pulling money out of the economy was painful, but it worked. This time, we have too much money in some areas, but we have broken supply chains and labor markets contributing to the problem. The Fed cannot do anything about shortages of aluminum cans or chicken farm with too few chickens.
To make matters worse, pulling money out of the system is probably not possible, given decades of ultra-low borrowing rates. The world has become so accustomed to low interest rates, it has become an axiom, like the changing of the seasons or the laws of thermodynamics. Any significant change in the money supply to combat retail inflation would send the financial markets into a tailspin. Housing would collapse if mortgage rates returned to anything resembling normal.
None of this means there is no answer. Often, the right answer is to do nothing and let things run their course. That was the right answer with Covid. As with Covid, the rulers cannot accept that answer, so they will thrash around some more. The people animating the corpse of Joe Biden are promising to smash things up some more for the greater good. After all, what matters to them is that we know the people in the mansions and castles really care about us, while they live like royalty.
The result of all this is we are heading into a cruel summer. The bill for the Covid response is coming due. How a society responds to crisis is the result of the social trust in that society. America is a low trust society now. Further, the people who will be counted on to dig out of the mess created by the rulers are now treated like second class citizens by those rulers. The fix to the 60’s and 70’s was to first repair the loss of faith in the system. It is hard to imagine that happening this time.
Yesterday I came across an opinion by Michael Yon that violence has already started, this month. I don’t know what he’s referring to specifically, because I’d either put it at a year ago, or perhaps further back. But then I’m not plugged into his networks.
He does see civil war coming, inescapably, and like me he puts the conflagration very close.
Okay, it’s …. right. Like this: I perhaps don’t see it as close as it sounds. Yes, there’s been a ramping up of violence, largely on purpose, because the idiot left thinks they can scare us and cow us into letting them rule “forever.” Those are…. what I’d call the phase of “causes leading up to” I expect that in June (July at the latest) if you’ve read Pratchett’s Night Watch, we’ll get our Morphic Street Conspiracy and our Dolly sisters’ riot. No, the January 6th event wasn’t either of those, though the media and the left (But I repeat myself) has tried to paint it as such. But there will be at least two eruptions, real ones, that will be put down very rapidly.
And if I’m right, what is going to shock, surprise and send the MSM and the Marxists (BIRM) scrambling and foaming at the mouth is that they’re not going to get the buy in from the right that occurred right after they demonized the January 6th demonstrations. And I want to point out right here, that as bad as they painted those, if you’re on the right and you fell for the “must condemn” you might want to revise that tout de suite. You might also want to learn not to be a patsy in the future.
This dance, of the right has something bad attributed to them (mostly lies, or actions definitely not of the “right” in any sense of the word) and all the prominent figures on the right rush to condemn it is how we got to where we are. It is one of the things that is now pushing us to open civil war. Actually, multiple civil wars, worldwide.
Anyway, given how fast the Jan 6th narrative has fallen apart — and no, don’t assume your neighbor, or the guy at your work buys what the MSM is selling. Again, I say onto you, if people were actually buying it, instead of just mouthing the words because it’s safe, they wouldn’t have needed to fraud in pain view on election night—my guess is the next two people will not even mouth the words. People don’t like being patsies.
This, incidentally, is why the criminal media is trying to dox people who donated as much as $10 to the Kyle Rittenshouse defense fund, why they are keeping demonstrators from Jan 6th in solitary confinement, and why they are generally acting like crazed tyrants on steroids.
It won’t work. Sure, they will inflict a lot of pain and damage, but it won’t work long term.
Part of the reason this post is late is that I woke up early, to a snow storm, and I lay in bed thinking through something.
Last night, before going to bed, and I can’t remember where, anymore, I came across a post saying that France is on the verge of a civil war, as well.
Look, France has been unstable since the French revolution, and is several, weird kinds of political colors, so it doesn’t translate directly to us, okay? But we’ve seen the burning, the looking, the throwing of Smart cars at the Arc du Triomphe with catapults, and I’m told that while a lot of these have been put down, it has done nothing to cure the fundamental unrest.
In fact, the only thing that worked to some extent to stop the riots is the covidiocy lockdowns. And if you’re saying “things that make you go um….” you won’t be wrong precisely.
Anyway, the reason I lay in bed trying to work it out is this: I assumed I knew the reason for our turmoil and ferment, and why we’re in fact on the verge of …. well, the Morphic Street Conspiracy, with the rest of it to come shortly thereafter.
I thought it was the passing of the “mass everything.” In a way the “Mass media/mass communication/mass production/mass entertainment” was the culmination of an era, in which it it was just so much cheaper to produce things in quantities. So people did. And the world changed to accommodate it.
This was made easier by the European long war. To what extent the transition itself caused the long wars, I leave to people with more time and more caffeine in their veins to figure out. I will say, though, that mass media helped the rise of the Hitler regime, and a monopoly over communications helped them sell the big lie.
I presumed the reason everything is upside down, sideways and sometimes tiltawhirl is that in the US this has transitioned to the “indie” era. Economies realized by the ability to communicate from private person to mass audience, or to manufacture highly personalized merchandise fast and cheap (this is yet at its beginning, but then so was mass everything when the long war started) is upending a picture of the world and a system of ideas that to most of us who grew up with it is “just the way things are.” (Seriously. We think in clothing sizes. Having been born and raised in a village where those were an innovation in the 70s, I see perhaps more clearly how bizarre this is. (Though I still do it.) And we miss stuff like “It introduced the idea of normal sizes” (Something I’m very conscious of since in Portugal, for my generation, I was “too big and too fat” at 5’6″ and wearing a size 7. They just didn’t make my size. It was abnormal.))
The cognitive dissonance of changing society wide systems usually results in revolution and violence. So, I assumed that’s what it was.
And maybe it is, except for one thing: I have a feeling in my water this isn’t going to be just our civil war. Or the French civil war. This is going to be worldwide, all at once, and — well, if you’re not setting aside food, fabric (a few patterns wouldn’t hurt. Even a monkey can sew clothes with a pattern. Though you can use an old piece that fits you well) and other possible necessities for five years or so, do it, now — very very disruptive, very very bad.
But Europe is far behind us in the Indie revolution. Notably, they’re far, far behind us in blogs and new media. For reasons (and I could speculate but I won’t) those things are mostly in the anglosphere.
So, what gives?
I think I know, but to understand it fully, you have to see it from the other side. It’s not that the conditions have changed for the people on the street — or rather they have, but by fiat — it’s that the structural elites, those with power in government, communication, etc can’t STOP PUSHING. And that the more they push, the more it becomes obvious they’ve become divorced from reality.
Take the covidiocy. A world wide lockdown because “it seemed to have worked in China” (not a reliable reporter) really? I said then, if people don’t see bodies piled in the streets by the end of this, authorities are going to be in real trouble.
From the beginning, my generation was the first to wake up. (Though for a while there, I felt like the writer crying in the forest, who just wasn’t heard.) And follow along why: because we have been through so many doomsday. Though never one that called for this kind of destruction and infringement as an attempt at mitigation.
I mean, I’ve listed them once, and I can’t list them all without forgetting half a dozen, just in my life time: ice age, nuclear destruction, alar, loss of all potable water, global warmng…. it just goes on and on and on.
In the early days of the “pandemic” and before widespread mask mandates, I would see people my age barefaced, and the young kids masked up and looking terrified.
This is not their fault. The left took over the education and those who haven’t gotten very far from it, don’t know how many times their predictions have failed. So of course they were terrified.
However…. There are no corpses on the streets. And even in locked-up Colorado, people are starting to be mostly just really angry at the deception perpetrated on them.
Now, I have this theory the reason the lockdown was embraced with such alacrity, other than of course that a lot of Western leaders are in China’s pay, is that the left saw it as a way to stop the revolution against them. Only approve riots! Everyone else locked up!
They never think things through, you know?
Not only did they mostly scare their own followers out of their minds (what minds they have) but they provided a really big demonstration, even for the kids, of the fact that they’re head-up-ass crazy. That the things they confidently predict not only never work, but make things way worse.
And right now they’re hitting that point again, where they can’t understand why “it” for any given definition of “it” isn’t working.
In the States, they’re becoming alarmed people don’t want to take the vaccine. I actually have a theory why this alarms them, and it’s part of my reason not to get the shot: you see, this was their plan for dismount. Get everyone vaccinated, and after a few months declare they “won” with no questions asked about how bad it would be otherwise.
Except…. it’s not working. And they’re running around like chickens with their heads cut off, acting increasingly more like lunatics in public.
I don’t know what’s — really — happening in other countries, because their media is still controlled by the global left. But the rumblings I get? Whatever is happening, the global Marxist monster is scared. Really scared. And letting its inner bully out to stomp in an attempt to “get power forever.”
But it won’t happen. What we’re seeing is a philosophy that went up its own ass so far that it’s forgotten where reality is.
Marxism in a way was custom made for the “mass everything era.” If you only had a few major sources of information and they sang in the choir, of course you were going to believe them. A lot of what we think we know about the history of the 20th century is therefore Bushwah. Though in the states that is breaking with things like The Forgotten Man.
I often say that if Obama had got power in the eighties, we’d consider him one of our great presidents. Because that’s all you’d ever hear. From everywhere.
As is…. Even their attempt to portray Reagan as really bad for history never “took” and their demonization attempts since just keep falling apart.
But more importantly…. It’s the philosophy.
The left very rapidly captured all the centers of power and mass everything, and started pushing their theories will all their might.
The problem is Marxism isn’t functional to any degree — that’s number one. You can’t run a society on Marxism, unless someone else if feeding you, or you have a world you can plunder — and also that, like its ancestor, the French Revolution, it requires a permanent state of “struggle” against “injustice” by the “oppressed.” So you must find things to topple, and step further and further out on the limb of your theory.
Which is why, as all predictions fail, Marxists find themselves defending things like “you can print money forever, it doesn’t affect anything” or “You can change reality if you believe it’s different.”
And the problem is because they have captured the centers of information that they, themselves listen to and believe, they are completely unaware that the rest of us are looking at reality and going “you’re out of your minds.”
Things like the failure of appeal of their mass entertainment should sound an alarm, and it does, they just can’t figure out why. Because the “class in power” is truly insular and incestuous. They went to the same schools, studied the same (false) information, follow the same fashions, listen to the same “information” and “entertainment” and vacation in the same spots—worldwide. To them, they ARE the world. And they don’t get that from the interior of America to Europe besieged by foreign cultures that don’t even pretend to adapt, and unable to afford to live where their ancestors did, people are looking at their predictions and their actions and going “Well, it doesn’t work that way.”
Reality has a way of breaking through. The elite, however, have insulated themselves from reality so well they’re the court dancing while outside the sullen peasants gather, pitchforks in hand. They know something is wrong. They know they’re not working the way they should. But they can’t understand WHY, and they’re sure just a little more of that good ol’ repression and stomping will fix things forever.
And part of this is that since the USSR (itself not a western power) fell they have had China as their beau ideal. Which means they’re now convinced what works in China — or what China SAYS works. Yes, they believe China. They’re dumb that way—will work here in the same way. So, you know, lockdowns and orders to unperson those who oppose you.
They have no idea.
We’re almost at Morphic Street Conspiracy O’Clock.…everywhere.
There’s going to be a brief and horrific convulsion. How brief? How horrific? I don’t know. I keep getting “brief” but seriously, in revolution/war terms two years are brief. So are five years. For the record I don’t think it will be as long as five years. Maybe less than two years. I don’t know. Once the ball starts rolling so many things will break, it’s hard to tell.
And keep in mind the “brief” is for the US. In the rest of the world this might be playing out for a generation.
As for horrific? VERY.
Yes, I think the US will unfuck itself faster. Followed by Europe for values of “unfuck.” This is not chauvinism, but the fact we are much younger, in population than the US. And yes, I do realize that at least allegedly we’re not as young as Africa or the Middle East. But beyond the fact that we can’t trust statistics, there is the inevitable theorem that it’s harder to unfuck yourself when you’ve never been in an unfucked state.
I do expect we’ll return to functioning (for values of functioning) society within two or three years. I mean, by that, to the place where you can find most of your necessities reliably, at least at a local level.
Europe…. Well, it’s going to be interesting. And I won’t exclude the idea that they’ll just get right back to where they were when we intervened in their long war.
The third world…. oh, boy. There the horrific is going to result in millions of dead.
And frankly, just about everywhere will be worse than the US outside major cities. I can feel it.
If you’re in a major city and I like you, I beg you, with tears in my eyes to get out as soon as you can (and yes, we’re working on it.) Some neighborhoods and places will be safe-ish, but in the US the brunt of the horrific will be in big cities, because that’s what the left thinks MATTERS and where they’ll concentrate their effort.
Forgive me for corporate speak from the nineties, but in this case it applies: their paradigm is broken and they can’t see it because they’ve done everything possible to insulate themselves from input coming from outside the paradigm.
When this happens and the people of the dead paradigm still have some power, the result is kind of like when you fill a container with gasoline, then drop a match in. It’s best to be in the places they think don’t matter.
Other than that: well, you don’t know how interconnected the world supply chains are, until they break. These last two years have been a lesson and no mistake. When I say we’ll unfuck ourselves relatively fast, it doesn’t mean we’ll reverse disastrous globalization in an eye blink. We won’t.
Try to have the things you think you’ll need for five-ten years. That includes newish computers (the silicon crisis is real) perhaps more expensive than you’re used to buying, and raw materials for what you’ll need, from fabric to…. I don’t know. Probably not clay. But now might be a bad time to downsize and get rid of that “for company” dish set, depending on your rate of breakage of the everyday one. Lay by paper, too. If we start getting electricity brownouts and blackouts, having stuff you want to keep printed might help.
Food. I don’t need to say it. I think I have maybe enough for a year and a half, though at the end our diet would be mighty strange. But we’re already hearing screams of food supply failure. (I want to get us moved, and start laying in more food. The delays and set backs are driving me nuts.)
And what about the stupid laws proscribing wrong thinkers? For now? Nothing. If you’re hidden and submerged stay that way. Look at it this way: if the people who hid Jews in their attics had come out early to defend them, they too would be in the camps and unable to help. We’re already past the point where “a brave stand” will help. The left knows they’re losing. They can’t understand why, but they know they’re losing, and they’re angry and murderous because of it. And they won’t let go, until it all explodes in their faces. So if you are hidden, stay thus, and get ready to hide people in your metaphorical attic. Because those like me who are exposed, if they have a good bit of luck, just might manage to make it there.
Just prepare, prepare as hard as you can.
You’ll be blindsided. We all will be. Seriously. Books that go through this lie. It’s always more complex and more difficult than you can imagine, and you will be caught off guard.
If you’re lucky, the things you’re caught in won’t kill you.
If we’re all lucky we’ll come out the other side alive and well, most of us. Which is good, because we’ll be needed if we want future generations to grow up under a constitutional republic.
The rest of the world? Foggedaboutit. Not a chance. They’re going to try to crawl back to pre-English enlightenment. Some areas will manage it, too.
For us? I don’t know. There is a chance. Honestly. A chance is all we can ask for.
So, let’s survive and be ready to push the odds. Because the destruction will be everywhere. But the re-building must begin in America.
A woman asked God, "Where were you when my son died?" God said, "My son died too! Do you think I don't know loss?"
The Top 10 Books of All Time
I have read thousands of books over the course of my life and I want to share with you what I consider to be the top 10 books of all time....
Contending with Newsom, Cuomo, Walz, Evers, and others, Michigan Governor Whitmer will not be denied in her quest for the title! She revels in every anti-freedom, business-crushing dictate she makes. And now 70 percent vax rate is the standard? Polls show 20-25 percent say they’ll never get a Covid vaccine, with another 20 percent undecided. Add in people who’ve already had Covid and therefore have the antibodies and no reason to get a vaccine. Do the math and you see 70 percent is a near-impossible number. And what if the 70 percent number is somehow reached, but case counts are still high, or enough time has passed that calls for booster shots start coming from Deep Staters like Dr. Fauci? Think the goal posts won’t get moved again? For all the liberals using their condescending “follow the science” bullshit, why do all the most restrictive states like Michigan all seem to have the highest case rates? Shouldn’t these science-worshiping fascists have eradicated Covid in their states? Just a reminder, Whitmer was a leading candidate for VP on the Biden ticket. Removal of freedom now defines the Democratic Party.
The First Amendment protects against the infringement of religion and in so doing, it protects religion itself from blasphemers, heretics, iconoclasts, and apostates.
Satanism is NOT a legitimate religion and does not deserve any protections under the First Amendment.
Satanism exists solely as a repudiation of another religion, Christianity. Satan is NOT a god. He's a flunky. Any worship of Satan is merely a rude gesture AGAINST the God of Christianity. The entire act of worship in Satanism IS flinging an insult at the God of Christianity. As such, it is not the practice of a religion, but rather the practice of an insult.
"Discover The Untold Forex Secrets Used By The World's Top Millionaires To Generate Massive Amounts Of Passive Incomes To Feed Their Families For Decades!"
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You may already know that NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. The name is derived from three components that most affect our human experience: our neurology, our language, and our programming, or the way in which we have learned to model the world around us. The development of NLP began in the 1970s in California, by Richard Bandler and John Grinder as an innovative approach to psychotherapy, communication, and personal development.
NLP studies the methods, validity and scope involved in what it means to be human on many different levels and dimensions. It focuses on fostering competence and flexibility of behavior, and involves analytical and strategic thought to understand what mental processes are behind human behavior.
A time of farming and war, broken hearts and rusted gears, innovation and valor
It is a time of unrest in 1920s Europa. The ashes from the first great war still darken the snow. The capitalistic city-state known simply as 'The Factory,' which fueled the war with heavily armored mechs, has closed its doors, drawing the attention of several nearby countries.
Other than each player’s individual hidden objective cards, the only elements of luck are encounter cards that players will draw as they interact with the citizens of newly explored lands and combat cards that give you a temporary boost in combat. Combat is also driven by choices, not luck or randomness.
About this item
It is a time of unrest in 1920s Europa. The ashes from the first great war still darken the snow. The capitalistic city-state known simply as “The Factory”, which fueled the war with heavily armored mechs, has closed its doors, drawing the attention of several nearby countries
Lead your faction to victory, building mechs, working the land, and exploring the mysterious factory, all while protecting your territory from the mechs of other encroaching factions
Explore the alternate-history of 1920+ Europe through Jakub Różalski's stunning artwork
In great western trail, you are rival cattlemen in 19th century America, herding cattle from Texas to Kansas city in a circular trail. Your cattle are then shipped by train, earning you money and victory points. Hire capable staff, such as cowboys to improve your herd, craftsmen to build your cattle posts, or engineers for the railroad line. Upon each arrival at the destination station, have your most valuable cattle in tow. The winner is the player who manages their herd best and exhibits good timing in mastering opportunities and pitfalls on the great western trail. Designer Alexander Pfister has created an extraordinary gamers game, full of exciting decisions and with enough strategies to merit countless plays.
2 to 4 players ages 12+
Plays in 75 to 150 minutes
Designed by Alexander Pfister
This is a brand new product in the manufacturer's original packaging.
$69.99
Dungeons & Dragons Castle Ravenloft
The master of Ravenloft is having guests for dinner—and you are invited.Evil lurks in the towers and dungeons of Castle Ravenloft, and only heroes of exceptional bravery can survive the horrors within. Designed for 1–5 players, this board game features multiple scenarios, challenging quests, and cooperative game play.
Castle Ravenloft includes the following components:
40 plastic heroes and monsters
13 sheets of interlocking cardstock dungeon tiles
200 encounter and treasure cards * Rulebook * Scenario book
20-sided die.
About this item
1 to 5 player game
60 minutes to play
Dungeon crawling action and terrifyingly fun quests
This is a stand-alone game. No other Dungeons & Dragons product is required to play.
This is a brand new product in manufacturer's original packaging.
$52.69
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Dungeons & Dragons Extensive Line of Products
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Lords of Waterdeep is a strategy board game for 2-5 players. You take on the role of one of the masked Lords of Waterdeep, secret rulers of the city. Through your agents, you recruit adventurers to go on quests on your behalf, earning rewards and increasing your influence over the city. Expand the city by purchasing new buildings that open up new actions on the board, and hinder—or help—the other lords by playing Intrigue cards to enact your carefully laid plans.
A cooperative game of adventure for 1–5 players set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. A heavy shadow falls across the land, cast by a dark spire that belches smoke and oozes fiery lava. A cave mouth leads to a maze of tunnels and chambers, and deep within this monster-infested labyrinth lurks the most terrifying creature of all: a red dragon! Designed for 1–5 players, this board game features multiple scenarios, challenging quests, and cooperative game play.
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LATICE HAWAII combines simple rules with evolving complexity for a unique game that’s easy to learn, quick to play, with strategic potential to last a lifetime. Be the first to play all of your tiles. Play faster by matching tiles on two or more sides, landing on sun squares or using wind tiles to shift tiles on the board. Advanced players will play both offensively and defensively based on their knowledge of remaining tiles. 3 minutes to learn, 20 minutes to play, a lifetime to master.
Yet the present course is not sustainable. It is important for those involved in the confessed conspiracy to alter election laws in an unconstitutional and reckless manner come to realize the harm they have done to the stability of the whole American order. It is important that those in power admit to themselves the volatility of the present moment, and began to act with prudence to restore confidence and stability. There has been much talk about ‘unity,’ but the actions of the present government do not match the words.
Top 10 Absurdities of the COVID Pandemic
#8 – Teachers can’t go back to work, but everyone else can –
#4 – The response by The World Health Organization –
#1 – Wear two masks –
20 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
Cruel Summer
Everywhere
