Month: May 2023

US Manufacturing is Shutting Down. But It’s Not a Recession!

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Biden says the economy is strong as hell and stagflation is a lie.  But the Empire State Manufacturing Survey is at a new low, -31.  This is at the level it was when the COVID shutdowns literally shut the business world down for a month.

And this is more than economic rumblings.  I know of manufacturing companies that are going to a four day work week and laying off the per diem employees to keep everyone else employed,.at least for now.  This should make for a really interesting presidential election year.  But I’ve stopped assuming that the American people will use logic when it comes to choosing leaders.

Well, prepare for a bumpy ride.  WE may all be counting the pennies in the days ahead and tightening our belts.  Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?

21MAY2023 – Quote of the Day

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JUNGLE BOOK

“Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”

…

“What is the matter?” asked Rikki-tikki.

“We are very miserable,” said Darzee. “One of our babies fell out of the nest yesterday and Nag ate him.”

“H’m!” said Rikki-tikki, “that is very sad—but I am a stranger here. Who is Nag?”

Darzee and his wife only cowered down in the nest without answering, for from the thick grass at the foot of the bush there came a low hiss—a horrid cold sound that made Rikki-tikki jump back two clear feet. Then inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of Nag, the big black cobra, and he was five feet long from tongue to tail. When he had lifted one-third of himself clear of the ground, he stayed balancing to and fro exactly as a dandelion tuft balances in the wind, and he looked at Rikki-tikki with the wicked snake’s eyes that never change their expression, whatever the snake may be thinking of.

“Who is Nag?” said he. “I am Nag. The great God Brahm put his mark upon all our people, when the first cobra spread his hood to keep the sun off Brahm as he slept. Look, and be afraid!”

He spread out his hood more than ever, and Rikki-tikki saw the spectacle-mark on the back of it that looks exactly like the eye part of a hook-and-eye fastening. He was afraid for the minute, but it is impossible for a mongoose to stay frightened for any length of time, and though Rikki-tikki had never met a live cobra before, his mother had fed him on dead ones, and he knew that all a grown mongoose’s business in life was to fight and eat snakes. Nag knew that too and, at the bottom of his cold heart, he was afraid.

“Well,” said Rikki-tikki, and his tail began to fluff up again, “marks or no marks, do you think it is right for you to eat fledglings out of a nest?”

Nag was thinking to himself, and watching the least little movement in the grass behind Rikki-tikki. He knew that mongooses in the garden meant death sooner or later for him and his family, but he wanted to get Rikki-tikki off his guard. So he dropped his head a little, and put it on one side.

“Let us talk,” he said. “You eat eggs. Why should not I eat birds?”

“Behind you! Look behind you!” sang Darzee.

…

Rudyard Kipling

Thrive

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The old saying is that the best revenge is to live well.  Now that’s not really true.  The best revenge is luring your enemy into a convenient catacomb, shackle him to the wall and brick him into an alcove where he’ll die of hunger and thirst.

But living well means enjoying the things that make life full and rich.  And the secret to overcoming the toxic effects of the death cult that attacks our lives from all directions is not to spend all our time fighting it.  Sure, we must expend a certain amount of our time in fighting it.  There are political battles and cultural battles and personal battles.  But if we let this fighting take up all our time then we lose.  Because we never have a chance to bring the good things into our lives that make us happy.  Our lives are robbed of beauty and joy.  We survive but we can’t thrive.

So, what we need to do is look at the things that give joy to us and make sure that we make time for them.  And we need to pass these things along to the young people.  Because the Left is attacking many of these things and trying to eliminate them from the world.  They have declared all of western civilization, racist.  Western music, western art, western literature, all of it is suspect.  So, Shakespeare is evil unless all the good characters are portrayed by transgender actors or something.  And Mozart is evil unless there is a female rapper twerking to it somehow.  And worst of all is Christianity.  The Bible is evil unless there is a lesbian minister declaring that Jesus was gay.

Now you can spend all your time battling the woke scolds who declare all these fatwahs against our culture.  But instead it is better to spend time enjoying these forbidden things.  Go to a Shakespeare play or any play.  Or if you can’t find a non-woke production then buy the DVDs of the old productions.  Go to a concert.  It doesn’t have to be classical music.  I also like country music.  Maybe you like jazz.  Find a concert and go listen to something that makes you feel alive.  Have a few beers (not Bud Light) and a burger and go with people who enjoy that music too.

Find a local theater that has revivals of old movies and find the movies that you like there.  And read the classics.  And by classics I don’t mean ancient.  Anything from more than seventy years ago is safe from the taint of our modern disease.  And even today there are authors who aren’t infected.  Look up reviews by people who aren’t woke, like me.

And if your tastes run to action-adventure movies or punk rock or metal then let these things be what you search out.  After all, these are just as forbidden as Shakespeare and Mozart.  They aren’t woke enough for our current rulers.  They still have too much freedom in their DNA.

And make sure you bring along the kids when you do these things.  They aren’t exposed to anything normal in their outside lives.  Everything in the social media world that they live in is steeped in the TikTok, YouTube orthodoxy that reinforces all the lies and prejudices against the good and beautiful things that existed in the past.  They are proselytized to think all the strange and weird things being pushed are normal and healthy.  So, make sure they are exposed to as many of the healthy and normal influences as you possibly can.

So that’s a simple message.  Make sure that you leave plenty of space in your life for the enjoyable and exciting things that the present culture is trying to eliminate.  Fighting the culture war will take care of itself.  And by enjoying your life and sharing it with the young you help to squeeze out the influence of the Left from your life.  And that is priceless.

Matt Walsh Asks, “Can We Give Target the Bud Light Treatment?”

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Walsh admits that it will take a little more effort to boycott Target but they deserve it even more and he makes the case that it could be done.  Something to think about.

20MAY2023 – It’s Official

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Possibly this will be a result that may hasten the end of this war.  But we’ll have to see.  The West is now talking about a stalemate because they don’t see a victory for Ukraine.  They predict a standoff like in Korea.  It’s not clear to me that the Russians feel the same way about their chances of winning.